The comic writer Stan Lee, co-creator of iconic superheroes including Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor and the Fantastic Four, has died aged 95.
Comic book legend was working on a new superhero, Dirt Man, with his daughter JC Lee before his death, she has revealed.
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She told the entertainment site TMZ: “I said, ‘Daddy, please – no clatter, no steel, no any of that. Let’s get down and dirty.’ It is very interesting.”
Jewish-American comic-book creator and publisher, Stanley Martin Lieber is famous for
reinventing the way we look at comic-books heroes.
Born in 1922 in New York City, as the eldest son to Romanian- born Jewish immigrants, Stan had a rough start in life. His father was trained as a dress cutter who was often unemployed after the Great Depression, thus the young son had to find work from an early age.
As writing was one of his passions, Stan had a couple of part- time jobs which involved writing press releases. Mr. Lee’s life changed after landing an assistant position at Timely Comics. There he began collaborating with Joe Simon who was the co- creator of Captain America.
Following his comic- book debut, Mr. Lee decided to take another name and Stanley Lieber became Stan Lee. This change was not attributed to antisemitism but originated from his initial views on comic- books. At that time, Mr. Lee still dreamed of writing the Great American Novel and comic- books were not too aspirational for him.
After decades in the industry in the 1960’s Mr. Lee had the chance to reshape the industry and reinvent comic- book characters. He started creating superheroes which were morally flawed and very human in their behavior, moving his characters further away from the aspirational model of inhuman perfection. By revising the personality and role of his superheroes, and making those
characters more complex, Mr. Lee gave new life to his characters and saved the whole comicbook industry. Thanks to his visionary ideas comic- books were no longer mass- marketed to children and teenagers, being popular with older readers.
In 2012 he told The Post: “All of our characters were freaks in their own way. The greatest example was with X-Men — they were hated because they were different. The idea I had, the underlying theme, was that just because somebody is different doesn’t make them better. . . . That seems to be the worst thing in human nature.”
Today, Mr. Lee is often referred as the father of comic books. He reshaped the way we look at superheroes.
His death represents the end of the comic-book age and we have to agree with Chris Evans “there will never be another Stan Lee”.
