Stan Lee Lives On In Our Memories

It is tough to write this, just a few hours after I saw the news that Stan Lee, the legendary and complicated comic book creative icon, died at 95. In between tears, I asked the members of our Nerd Caliber team to tell me their favorite Stan Lee moments, of whatever type strikes them. But first, before we get into that, let’s get what details we know at this point on the record.

Stanley Lieber, born and raised in the Manhattan that is the home to so many of his comic book creations, died of unspecified reasons (at this point) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. This has been confirmed by a family representative according to the Hollywood Reporter. You can read the full obituary at The Hollywood Reporter, but one pertinent fact is that he first started working with Jack Kirby as early as 1941, which is when he started using the pen name Stan Lee.

To say that Stan Lee was an icon, is an unqualified understatement. He was responsible, solely or in collaboration, for characters and stories that have made — in just the Marvel Cinematic Universe films alone — north of $16 billion as of this past July. That doesn’t count TV shows, cartoons, other films outside the MCU (like the X-Men franchise used to be) and, of course, comic books. But his obvious enormous impact on popular entertainment isn’t why I am so affected by his passing. I’ll get to my remembrance after these from some of our team members. 

And at the very end, check out the one time we got in on a roundtable interview with Stan Lee, the amazing writer Peter David and Adrianne Curry at New York Comic Con in 2012.

From Babs Who Takes Pictures:
“The first attempt to make marvel movies a thing in the 2000s. He tried to go to the Fantastic Four wedding [in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer] and said ‘I’m Stan Lee!’ and still wasn’t let it. It was great.”

From Christopher of CW Photography:
“My favorite moment was the scene in Mallrats of him trying to coach Brodie into trying to fix things with his girlfriend.”

From Byron D. Zero:
“Spider-Man has always been a driving force in my life, he taught me to do what’s right even if no one appreciates you for doing so. And since Stan Lee was so instrumental in his creation, I owe him for having that role model when so many in the real world didn’t and continued to let me down.”

From Adam of gamesNgirls:
“I like old-timey references, so one of my favorite memories pertaining to Stan Lee is Marvel’s ‘No-Prize,’ which he ‘invented.’ For anyone that doesn’t know what it was, or the history behind it, there’s actually a wikipedia article on it. To this day I still occasionally make a reference to it, and generally no one has any idea what I’m talking about.
I wouldn’t have it any other way”

From Dave Brewer:
“I learned to read on comics he wrote. I loved all his cameos but think I may have laughed the hardest on the Ant-Man and the Wasp one: “The ’60s were great but I’m paying for it now” after his car got shrunk.”

From Tori Queeno:
“My fondest Stan Lee memories are probably catching glimpses of him at conventions and seeing fans of all ages following him around with so much respect and adoration.”

From Benn of Robbins Studios Photography and Fine Art:
“I was able to meet Mr. Lee at my second SDCC while setting up the booth for New England Comics. He was roaming the dealers room and walked by the booth and yelled ‘Spoon!’ [Benn and Liz of Robbins Studio worked on The Tick for a number of issues.] And I yelled back ‘Excelsior!’ He came over to say hello and I asked my boss to take our photo and he was super awesome. As he left he told me to ‘keep reading true believer!’ My SDCC was made.”

My own remembrance is of the first time I read the origin of the Black Panther. Now to be clear, it wasn’t when he first appeared in Fantastic Four #52-53 in 1966 — I am told I was a reader very young, but I didn’t discover comics until I was 8 in 1968. No it was a few years later in a reprint, for an annual issue I think. I was amazed that this one person could handily defeat the FF (and the Avengers later on) and I admit my rural Maine brain was shocked to find he was black. Not only black, but a king of his own African nation, one with technology that put Reed Richards to shame.

This surprise went far in helping me overcome a 1960s and 1970s rural Maine tendency toward racism. It was only a few months later that I talked with my first black person in real life (yes, rural Maine was that white). And it was over comics. I was crouching at the wooden comic and magazine rack at the local drug store flipping through the latest issue of Conan The Barbarian when someone crouched next to me and started thumbing through comics. It was a black high school student from the local school, which was also a boarding school, Fryeburg Academy. Without hesitation, he asked, “You like Conan too?” And that was it, we were two comic fans eagerly chatting about our favorite titles, and nothing else. As I recall his name was Michael, and I only saw him a couple of other times, always at the comics rack. I assume he graduated long before I ever got into high school.

Stan Lee isn’t solely responsible for my retreat from a racist background, but he was a very large part of it. I can type this now without tearing up, but my heart is still heavy with the sense of loss for all of us who are fans of popular culture. Godspeed, true believer. 

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