On December 28, 1922, Stanley Martin Lieber, the pioneer of Marvel Comics, was born to Romanian immigrants in Manhattan, New York. As a child, Stan always had a fascination with people being portrayed as heroes, like actor Errol Flynn, a golden age Hollywood actor. During Lee’s high school years, he aspired to write the “Great American Novel.” A fan of writing stories, Lee entered the New York Herald Tribune “The Biggest News of the Week Contest.” Much to his surprise, Stan won the contest for three straight weeks. The New York Herald Tribune recommended Stan Lee to write professionally, and that became the catalyst that helped Lee to pursue his famous career.

     Early in his career, Stan Lee became an assistant at Timely Comics, the predecessor of Marvel Comics. He had odd jobs during his early years at Timely Comics such as making sure the inkwells were filled, getting the writers lunches, proofreading, and erasing the pencil marks of completed comics. Stan Lee made his comic debut in 1941 writing his first comic, Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge. In this comic, Stan Lee introduced Captain America’s iconic ricocheting shield-toss. During the Golden Age of Comic Books, Lee continued to create more characters such as the Destroyer (Mystic Comics), Jack Frost (U.S.A. Comics), and Father Time (Captain America Comics #6). While writing for Timely Comics, Stan Lee entered the United States Army, where he worked for the Signal Corps, repairing communication equipment. In the mid-1950’s, Lee became dissatisfied at his job at Atlas Comics, which was previously Timely Comics, and considered quitting his dream of becoming a comic book writer.

     Thankfully, he did not make this change, because in the late 1950’s he was just on the verge of the great Marvel revolution. Lee would create an iconic superhero team that still continues to influence us to this day. The Fantastic Four is one of the superhero teams created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This superhero team was very unique because it gave heros something very important that superheroes didn’t  usually have, human flaws. This new change helped create a bond with readers because they now had something to relate to. In 1960 Lee began to collaborate in the Amazing Spiderman comics and he began to introduce more social issues, such as the Vietnam War, political elections, and student activism. This is just one of the many instances where Lee attempted to combated racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Lee’s last comics were The Amazing Spider-Man  #110 (July 1972) and Fantastic Four  #125 (August 1972) due to him switching from the role of writer to publisher. After Lee made the switch, he moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel television shows and movies. This started, what we now know as, his iconic and well loved cameo appearances. He continued to do this until his death on November 12, 2018, with the last known cameo being Avengers Infinity War part 2. However, Stan’s spirit will continue to be with us through the many easter eggs that will pop up in his future Marvel movies.

     Stan Lee will always be loved for giving comic book fans the heroes they deserved and giving movie fans the action that they adore. His cameos will forever live on and they show just how much love he had for his work. Lee made a few dramatic changes by giving these heroes flaws and he contributed to diversity in the comic book world. It’s a huge honor to have lived during the time of Marvel’s golden age of movies and comics and getting to see the master at work. It breaks our hearts to see him go. Goodbye Stan, you will be dearly missed. EXCELSIOR!