Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' Real-Life Superhero, Dies at 95

[Trene4000]

The feisty writer, editor and publisher was responsible for such iconic characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four — 'nuff said.

 

Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics whose fantabulous but flawed creations made him a real-life superhero to comic book lovers everywhere, has died. He was 95. 

Lee, who began in the business in 1939 and created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Ant-Man, among countless other characters, died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family representative told The Hollywood Reporter.

 

Kirk Schenck, an attorney for Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, also confirmed his death to the Associated Press.

 

Lee's final few years were tumultuous. After Joan, his wife of 69 years, died in July 2017, he sued executives at POW! Entertainment — a company he founded in 2001 to develop film, TV and video game properties — for $1 billion alleging fraud, then abruptly dropped the suit weeks later. He also sued his ex-business manager and filed for a restraining order against a man who had been handling his affairs. (Lee's estate is estimated to be worth as much as $70 million.) And in June 2018, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Police Department had been investigating reports of elder abuse against him.

 

On his own and through his work with frequent artist-writer collaborators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee catapulted Marvel from a tiny venture into the world's No. 1 publisher of comic books and, later, a multimedia giant.

 

In 2009, The Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, and most of the top-grossing superhero films of all time — led by Avengers: Infinity War's $2.05 billion worldwide take earlier this year — have featured Marvel characters.

 

"I used to think what I did was not very important," he told the Chicago Tribune in April 2014. "People are building bridges and engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed."

 

Lee's fame and influence as the face and figurehead of Marvel, even in his nonagenarian years, remained considerable.

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created," Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. "A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart."

 

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also paid tribute. “No one has had more of an impact on my career and everything we do at Marvel Studios than Stan Lee," Feige said. "Stan leaves an extraordinary legacy that will outlive us all. Our thoughts are with his daughter, his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan’s genius, charisma and heart. Excelsior!”

 

Beginning in the 1960s, the irrepressible and feisty Lee punched up his Marvel superheroes with personality, not just power. Until then, comic book headliners like those of DC Comics were square and well-adjusted, but his heroes had human foibles and hang-ups; Peter Parker/Spider-Man, for example, fretted about his dandruff and was confused about dating. The evildoers were a mess of psychological complexity.

 

"His stories taught me that even superheroes like Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk have ego deficiencies and girl problems and do not live in their macho fantasies 24 hours a day," Gene Simmons of Kiss said in a 1979 interview. "Through the honesty of guys like Spider-Man, I learned about the shades of gray in human nature." 

 

(Kiss made it to the Marvel pages, and Lee had Simmons bleed into a vat of ink so the publisher could say the issues were printed with his blood.)

 

The Manhattan-born Lee wrote, art-directed and edited most of Marvel's series and newspaper strips. He also penned a monthly comics column, “Stan's Soapbox,” signing off with his signature phrase, “Excelsior!” 

 

His way of doing things at Marvel was to brainstorm a story with an artist, then write a synopsis. After the artist drew the story panels, Lee filled in the word balloons and captions. The process became known as “The Marvel Method.”

 

Lee collaborated with artist-writer Kirby on the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Silver Surfer and X-Men. With artist-writer Ditko he created Spider-Man and the surgeon Doctor Strange, and with artist Bill Everett came up with the blind superhero Daredevil.

 

Such collaborations sometimes led to credit disputes: Lee and Ditko reportedly engaged in bitter fights, and both receive writing credit on the Spider-Man movies and TV shows. "I don't want anyone to think I treated Kirby or Ditko unfairly," he told Playboy magazine in April 2014. "I think we had a wonderful relationship. Their talent was incredible. But the things they wanted weren't in my power to give them."

 

Like any Marvel employee, Lee had no rights to the characters he helped create and received no royalties.

In the 1970s, Lee importantly helped push the boundaries on censorship in comics, delving into serious and topical subject matter in a medium that had become mindless, kid-friendly entertainment.

 

In 1954, the publication of psychologist Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent had spurred calls for the government to regulate violence, sex, drug use, questioning of public authority figures, etc., in the comics as a way to curtail "juvenile delinquency." Wary publishers headed that off by forming the Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body that while avoiding the heavy hand of Washington still wound up neutering adult interest in comics and stereotyping the medium as one only kids would enjoy.

 

Lee scripted banal scenarios with characters like Nellie the Nurse and Tessie the Typist, but in 1971, he inserted an anti-drug storyline into "The Amazing Spider-Man” in which Peter Parker's best friend Harry Osborn popped pills. Those issues, which did not carry the CCA "seal of approval" on the covers, became extremely popular, and later, the organization relaxed some of its guidelines.

 

Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, he grew up poor in Washington Heights, where his father, a Romanian immigrant, was a dress-cutter. A lover of adventure books and Errol Flynn movies, Lee graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project, where he appeared in a few stage shows, and wrote obituaries.

 

In 1939, Lee got a job as a gofer for $8 a week at Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. Two years later, for Kirby and Joe Simon's Captain America No. 3, he wrote a two-page story titled "The Traitor's Revenge!" that was used as text filler to qualify the company for the inexpensive magazine mailing rate. He used the pen name Stan Lee.

 

He was named interim editor at 19 by publisher Martin Goodman when the previous editor quit. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Signal Corps, where he wrote manuals and training films with a group that included Oscar-winner Frank Capra, Pulitzer-winner William Saroyan and Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). After the war, he returned to the publisher and served as the editor for decades. 

 

Following DC Comics' lead with the Justice League, Lee and Kirby in November 1961 launched their own superhero team, the Fantastic Four, for the newly renamed Marvel Comics, and Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil and X-Men soon followed. The Avengers launched as its own title in September 1963. 

 

Perhaps not surprisingly, Manhattan's high-literary culture vultures did not bestow its approval on how Lee was making a living. People would “avoid me like I had the plague. … Today, it's so different,” he once told The Washington Post. 

 

Not everyone felt the same way, though. Lee recalled once being visiting in his New York office by Federico Fellini, who wanted to talk about nothing but Spider-Man.

 

In 1972, Lee was named publisher and relinquished the Marvel editorial reins to spend all his time promoting the company. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980 to set up an animation studio and to build relationships in Hollywood. Lee purchased a home overlooking the Sunset Strip that was once owned by Jack Benny's announcer, Don Wilson.

 

Long before his Marvel characters made it to the movies, they appeared on television. An animated Spider-Man show (with a memorable theme song composed by Oscar winner Paul Francis Webster, of "The Shadow of Your Smile" fame, and Bob Harris) ran on ABC from 1967 to 1970. Bill Bixby played Dr. David Banner, who turns into a green monster (Lou Ferrigno) when he gets agitated, in the 1977-82 CBS drama The Incredible Hulk. And Pamela Anderson provided the voice of Stripperella, a risque animated Spike TV series that Lee wrote for in 2003-04.

 

Lee launched the internet-based Stan Lee Media in 1998, and the superhero creation, production and marketing studio went public a year later. However, when investigators uncovered illegal stock manipulation by his partners, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. (Lee was never charged.)

 

In 2002, Lee published an autobiography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee.

 

Survivors include his daughter and younger brother Larry Lieber, a writer and artist for Marvel. Another daughter, Jan, died in infancy. His wife, Joan, was a hat model whom he married in 1947.

 

Like Alfred Hitchcock before him, the never-bashful Lee appeared in cameos in the Marvel movies, shown avoiding falling concrete, watering his lawn, delivering the mail, crashing a wedding, playing a security guard, etc.

 

In Spider-Man 3 (2007), he chats with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker as they stop on a Times Square street to read news that the web-slinger will soon receive the key to the city. “You know," he says, "I guess one person can make a difference … 'nuff said.”

 

"Stan Lee, thank you for giving us a dream and a new way to see the world.  You will be greatly missed."

 

 

 

 

 

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Just heard about this on the news.   😞 

 

Too bad they spent way too much time talking about movies on every news thing I saw.  Dang movies. 

 

About a year ago I read an interview with him.  He said his favorite comic book was ... and this is a big deal since we are talking about a guy that has been around comics forever and invented many of them...  his favorite comic book was a miniseries called >>"Marvels".  << ??

I looked it up and read the whole thing.  Its only 4 (longish) issues long.  Very different from normal comics.  First its painted, not drawn with solid lines and then colored in.  The artwork is impressive (i looked the artist up he is really good takes a long time to 'paint' comics). More of a big deal is its told from the perspective of a regular person (a reporter) and covers his life from a young to an old man and how the actions of the Marvel characters had impacted his life over the years with various (very short) appearances from a ton of different characters and how real people would or might respond if superheroes were actually real.  It's pretty impressive. 

 

Also, I was impressed by the fact that he didn't pick any of his own creations has his favorites nor something from ye olden days that had a nostalgic feel for him personally which is what I thought he would do. He'll be missed. 

[sekhmet2002]

He will truly be missed. I was so sad to found out this. I know he will live on in the minds and hearts of people for many years to come.

[TronRP]

All I wanted to do was share the video in this story, but apparently I have to share the story to share the video.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/stan-lees-cause-of-death-released/ar-BBQ9V6X

 

Stan Lee's Cause of Death Released

 

Jessica Vacco-Bolanos

 

1 day ago

 

 

© Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images stan-lee-causer-of-death-revealed

Stan Lee died at age 95 from heart and respiratory failure, according to TMZ on Tuesday, November 27.

The outlet reports that the death certificate for the Marvel Comics writer also revealed he suffered aspiration pneumonia, which is caused by inhaling food, stomach acid or saliva into your lungs.

The certificate states that Lee’s body was cremated and the ashes were given to his daughter, Joan Celia “J.C.” Lee, who confirmed the news of his death on Monday, November 12. Lee was rushed by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from his Hollywood Hills home and died shortly after.

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman released a statement to Us Weekly following Lee’s death.

 

 

“Original and genius are two very overused words in the world today, but Stan was both. Add irrepressible and irreplaceable, and you begin to describe the man,” Rothman said at the time. “We have all lost a true superhero. We will greatly miss our friendly neighborhood Stan Lee.”

Celebrities were quick to mourn the loss of Lee on social media, including Robert Downey Jr., whose acting career was revived by his starring role in 2008’s Iron Man. “I owe it all to you … ” he wrote alongside an Instagram picture with the comic book writer. “Rest In Peace Stan… #MCU #Excelsior #legend #rip#stanlee #TeamStark ( @jimmy_rich )

Captain America’sChris Evans also shared a heartfelt message: “There will never be another Stan Lee. For decades he provided both young and old with adventure, escape, comfort, confidence, inspiration, strength, friendship and joy. He exuded love and kindness and will leave an indelible mark on so, so, so many lives. Excelsior!!”

 

[Troy Spiral (13)]

He was not a saint. 

 

Stan Lee wrote and created the outline that would become Marvel.  That is not disputable and is a big deal.  But, that is not the whole story. Not the granddaddy of all that exists in the comicverse status he had even before he died.  (Although it is more embarrassing calling Huge Jackman 'Wolverine'  sorry they are actors, Hollywood can go jump)

Steve Ditko, Jack Kerby, and Joe Simon did far more of the creative work than Lee ever did and never got the far more substantial credit than we will ever really know.  Something Lee is on the wrong side of history for.  He often either took credit or would not give credit where it was not or was due.  As an example, people that know Kirby's work know that he and not Stan created the Fantastic Four despite Stan's assertions. Lee long talked about his bad memory so maybe we can give him the politician defence of "I just can't recall".  Long after Stan had stopped doing much work the other (then) icons of the early marvel age kept working and kept creating and kept letting stan put his stamp on things for which he did little if any actual work on. 

 

Lee was also a company man when Ditko,  Simon, Kirby and many others were all getting screwed by Marvel, Lee stuck with it.  Many were forced out of self respect to leave and move to DC or other places.

 

To this day Stan Lee has made orders of magnitude more money than the people that did the bulk of the work of creating what became Marvel.   Lee got insane amounts of free positive press for backing the draconian practices of Marvel all the way up to the  90s. 

 

Lee created (or rather developed with many of the aforementioned pioneers that we don't even know) this bizarre "Marvel Way" of writing comics which is, the artist does most of the drawing then the writer fills in blanks and dialog on a comic that is largely already done.  That worked fine when you had Jack Kirby doing it who was as good of a writer as he was artist and then lee would add a few ideas and change some dialog, all of the sudden he seems to be writing tons of books when really he was not nearly as prolific as the credits on the books would make it seem.  (Makes no sense to actual humans) 

This same system was still in place when Chris Clairmont, who wrote what most people my age that were fans of X Men think of as "the X men" after spending half his life writing the X titles was told that artists like Jim Lee (no relation to stan)  were more in charge of the comic he had been building for over a decade than he was.   Lee would turn in almost totally completed (drawn) comics and expect Chris to come up with a storyline that fit the pictures.  Soon after Image Comics was formed basically in protest to marvels dick-ness.  Stan Lee was largely silent raking in his not-fully-earned credit and cash.  

 

The above is a bit harsher than is necessary but so much "Stan Lee is God" stuff has been written (especially since he almost totally stopped working and just rakes in movie cash and marvel trots him out as The Icon that created all) some reality needs to be overly stated as it won't be stated often. 

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

You do realize Stan Lee mentioned most of what you said during multiple interviews before he started the reality show to find the next Real Life Superhero and as an animated character as himself in "Stan Lee's Mighty 7".  People definitely hear what they want to and he understood that.  In one episode to find the next superhero, he mentioned that even he has flaws and was no saint.

People need someone to idolized regardless of some truths.  And sure, the next generation may not know (or even care about) his non-saintly nature, but it will pale in comparison to the height of the pedestal he has been placed on.  But I do understand you are just "keeping it real".

 

I just thought the interview with Larry King was kind of cool.

 

 

 

P.S. In years to come, you do realize that people will also be praising the likes of Bill Gates (for creating WINDOWS), Mark Zuckerberg (for creating FACEBOOK) and Michael Bay (for creating X-Men, Transformers and TMNT).

[Troy Spiral (13)]

On 11/28/2018 at 11:39 PM, TronRP said:

@Troy Spiral

You do realize Stan Lee mentioned most of what you said during multiple interviews before he started the reality show to find the next Real Life Superhero and as an animated character as himself in "Stan Lee's Mighty 7".  People definitely hear what they want to and he understood that.  In one episode to find the next superhero, he mentioned that even he has flaws and was no saint.

People need someone to idolized regardless of some truths.  And sure, the next generation may not know (or even care about) his non-saintly nature, but it will pale in comparison to the height of the pedestal he has been placed on.  But I do understand you are just "keeping it real".

 

I just thought the interview with Larry King was kind of cool.

 

 

 

P.S. In years to come, you do realize that people will also be praising the likes of Bill Gates (for creating WINDOWS), Mark Zuckerberg (for creating FACEBOOK) and Michael Bay (for creating X-Men, Transformers and TMNT).

Not that you were thinking along these lines but for me, this is just more of a thought experiment:

 

 "You can't derive an ought from an is."   Meaning,  an ought (a.k.a "Should be") is a normative claim.   "Is"  as in  'this is a reality' being an empirical claim.   It's apples to oranges.  A Factual statement buttressing a value judgment is incongruent. Because something is a certain way gives no credibility to the idea that it should be that way.  Everyone is doing it!  Animals murder each other in a way that all humans would be punished for as examples.  It is that way, but it doesn't follow that it ought to be that way. Maybe it should be that way, but that right there is not legitimate evidence.  

 

Just go ahead and disagree or in this case just sort of putting a different spin on things without a shortcut to pretend respect.  'Just saying' is dismissive, not supportive of our beliefs.    I'm cool with all reasonable dissent and most people should be grateful for the opportunity to grow or honestly re-evaluate their current beliefs via reasonable criticism.   If they aren't, it's on them (or in this case me) to grow a thicker skin.   We need to be able to disagree or even just offer caveats without it feeling like a personal affront or a need to go into defense mode.  Not that you were doing that, I'm just stating things that often go unsaid and then eventually become problems, when there was an easy way to avoid them in the first place.

 

It's really hard to learn anything that way.  Not that you were doing that exactly.  It's just a pet peeve of mine when people say things like "with all due respect"  (meaning "hey asshole I'm about to say something totally not respectful" lol.   Or the one I love is "If I'm being honest" or "can we be honest"  .... what? They mean "normally I bullshit you 24/7 but for this one moment I'm going, to tell the truth".  🤣 hah.  Ok, that second part was way off topic.  I can't seem to help myself. 

 

I say one thing, this sort of conversation NEVER happens on facebook.  Fucking Facebook.  GRRR.  /chuckle

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Having said all that this here is perfect logic:

 

[TronRP]

1 hour ago, Troy Spiral said:

Not that you were thinking along these lines but for me, this is just more of a thought experiment:

 

 "You can't derive an ought from an is."   Meaning,  an ought (a.k.a "Should be") is a normative claim.   "Is"  as in  'this is a reality' being an empirical claim.   It's apples to oranges.  A Factual statement buttressing a value judgment is incongruent. Because something is a certain way gives no credibility to the idea that it should be that way.  Everyone is doing it!  Animals murder each other in a way that all humans would be punished for as examples.  It is that way, but it doesn't follow that it ought to be that way. Maybe it should be that way, but that right there is not legitimate evidence.  

 

Just go ahead and disagree or in this case just sort of putting a different spin on things without a shortcut to pretend respect.  'Just saying' is dismissive, not supportive of our beliefs.    I'm cool with all reasonable dissent and most people should be grateful for the opportunity to grow or honestly re-evaluate their current beliefs via reasonable criticism.   If they aren't, it's on them (or in this case me) to grow a thicker skin.   We need to be able to disagree or even just offer caveats without it feeling like a personal affront or a need to go into defense mode.  Not that you were doing that, I'm just stating things that often go unsaid and then eventually become problems, when there was an easy way to avoid them in the first place.

 

It's really hard to learn anything that way.  Not that you were doing that exactly.  It's just a pet peeve of mine when people say things like "with all due respect"  (meaning "hey asshole I'm about to say something totally not respectful" lol.   Or the one I love is "If I'm being honest" or "can we be honest"  .... what? They mean "normally I bullshit you 24/7 but for this one moment I'm going, to tell the truth".  🤣 hah.  Ok, that second part was way off topic.  I can't seem to help myself. 

 

I say one thing, this sort of conversation NEVER happens on facebook.  Fucking Facebook.  GRRR.  /chuckle

 

1 hour ago, Troy Spiral said:

Having said all that this here is perfect logic:

 

 

Hello...did I miss something?

 

I read this and I still don't understand what was being discussed, all I know is it appeared to have been sparked by my posting of the story with the link to the Larry King video that I was trying to share.  I just liked the interview with Larry King when Stan Lee mentioned how he was 18 when he got the position he did because there was no "adult" to fill the position, then they eventually forgot they were trying to find someone for the position and thus, Stan Lee kept it.

 

I didn't write the story so I wasn't aware that it hailed him as a "saint".  That was not my intent.

 

I mentioned the Just Sayin' thing because when people are looking to idolize someone or something, they can miraculously overlook every inconvenience that clouds their judgment...thus my mentioning of the individuals in my P.S. statement.

 

I really wish I could understand what the "argument" is so I can determine if it is truly "INVALID" because at current I'm in the realm of "Your mind is stupid"...because I'm just lost. 

[TronRP]

 

7 minutes ago, TronRP said:

 

 

Hello...did I miss something?

 

I read this and I still don't understand what was being discussed, all I know is it appeared to have been sparked by my posting of the story with the link to the Larry King video that I was trying to share.  I just liked the interview with Larry King when Stan Lee mentioned how he was 18 when he got the position he did because there was no "adult" to fill the position, then they eventually forgot they were trying to find someone for the position and thus, Stan Lee kept it.

 

I didn't write the story so I wasn't aware that it hailed him as a "saint".  That was not my intent.

 

I mentioned the Just Sayin' thing because when people are looking to idolize someone or something, they can miraculously overlook every inconvenience that clouds their judgment...thus my mentioning of the individuals in my P.S. statement.

 

I really wish I could understand what the "argument" is so I can determine if it is truly "INVALID" because at current I'm in the realm of "Your mind is stupid"...because I'm just lost. 

 

@Trene4000 is my conscience.  I might be overthinking or under thinking things so I can have her help me out with this sort of discussion...confusion...misunderstanding...brain fart...

 

Apparently I need to research colloquialisms as it appears I've been using them incorrectly to convey the impact of a statement.

[Trene4000]

I posted this to honor the man who created my favorite comic book world and inspired me to create my own characters and books.  I've followed him from the day I received my first Spiderman comic book.  I love his work and enjoyed his vision.  If you have a problem with him, do not post your grievance here, please, nor bash others because you have a beef.  That can be posted under "What are you Thinking".

 

Thank you and 

 

🌹