I am a Marvel girl at heart. Which is weird because I grew up watching Batman on TV and Superman at the movies. But I never fell in love with any of those characters the way I love the Marvel superheroes. And you can’t think about Marvel comic books without thinking about the immortal Stan Lee.
With collaborating friends Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and his brother, Larry Lieber, Stan Lee was responsible for giving us uber-popular superheroes like Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, X-Men (like Storm and Rogue!), Iron Man, and Thor – the god of Thunder. If you’ve been to the movies in the last decade, chances are pretty good that you’ve seen one of these guys in action. Chances are also good that you’ve seen Stan Lee himself. He loved to do cameos in the Marvel movies. You’ll see him as a delivery man, a security guard, or maybe a DJ at a strip club (thanks Deadpool!).
Stan Lee spent his entire life working with comics and cartoons – including during World War II where he worked in the Training Film Division writing manuals, training films, slogans, and occasionally cartooning. He was proud of the fact that only nine men in the US Army were given the title of “playwright” and he was one of them. In 1994 he was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame and he received a National Medal of Arts in 2008.
Thank you, Stan Lee, for creating such fascinating and entertaining characters – even Ant-Man and Wolverine*. Thank you for not pressing charges when Sheldon Cooper invited himself into your home. Thank you for serving your country.
Basically, thank you for being awesome. You will be missed.
Excelsior!
Amanda
*It’s a joke. Relax. I like Wolverine. Who else is Deadpool gonna fight with?
In observance of the Christmas holiday, all library locations close at 1 PM Monday, December 23, and reopen Thursday, December 26.