The End of an Era, The Beginning of a Legacy
Stan Lee passed on November 12, 2018 and with his passing, he was sealed into history as the biggest superhero of them all. Any true Marvel fan knows the story of how Stan grew dissatisfied with his work and made the big leap to create what later became the arsenal of characters that shaped the name Marvel Comics into the conglomerate that it is known by today.
Not many people who know about the overall story go into the fact it was Joan, Stan Lee's wife that encouraged him to create those characters that half the human population have come to recognize. Their love, which during that period begun under unconventional circumstance, gave him the confidence to follow his heart. Please read the history of their relationship which lasted 50 years. R.I.P to Joan as well, who died just last year at the same age Stan was when he died, 95.
When Stan decided to follow his instincts and by-pass his fears, he sealed into history a pseudo form of therapy to millions of young individuals suffering from ever changing super scary times. A nation of individuals who weren't from Krypton, Mars, Themyscira or Gotham had an outlet for some of the most volatile periods in human history. Although Marvel characters were fictional they came from a non-fictional city, New York, and that was comforting and easy to identify with.
Captain America help many deal with the fact that their fathers, sons and brothers were being shipped off to war. Years later, X-Men help many deal with or least try to understand some of the underlining reasons for America's internal war. They way the comics were written anyone of us could have fallen into those circumstances that change ordinary humans into super beings. Despite being fictional, Stan's comic book characters became tools to help children and teens understand why people were being hung, beat, bullied, bombed and shot in the streets.
Besides the political issues Marvel Comics tackled, they brought to the forefront things such as medical experimentation, and how chemical intake effects emotional output through the Incredible Hulk. Tony Spark inspired a conversation about corporate responsibility and technology's possibility. I mean he turned himself into Iron Man. The Fantastic Four showed the good and bad about space travel. I could go on and on.
In my own life, Marvel Comics have been responsible for everything from over coming being bullied, to understanding that people with problems project their problems. Now that I am an adult, Stan Lee's Marvel characters have inspired date nights with the family and matching Captain America T-shirts with my spouse. Stan Lee is such an intricate part of my upbringing, I call him Father Marvel.
In his own words, Stan Lee was embarrassed that he was just a comic book writer. He did not think what he was doing was important compared to men that were building bridges. He came to realize that if people did not have entertainment they might go off the deep end. He knew the truth all along. To quote Albert Einstein, Imagination is better than Knowledge. So for anyone that questions Stan Lee's importance and Legacy, he raised men through imagination and reshaped a nation. “Excelsior!