Born in 1922 to poor working-class Jewish immigrants from Romania, Stan Lieberman (His name actually is Stanley Lieber. No -man. Already off to a bad start.) , got a job in Timely Publications, a company owned by a relative.
He was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to a fertile imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18.
For more than 20 years, he was "the ultimate hack" - knocking out crime stories, horrors, westerns, anything to sate the appetite of his juvenile readership.
Words of more than two syllables were discouraged. (True, but that didn't stop Stan from use multi-syllable words.) Characters were either all good or bad, with no shades of grey. (One Hypenated word=Sub-Mariner. Both a bad guy and a good guy in the Golden Ages. And Superman and Batman were mean s.o.b.'s back then too.)
So embarrassed was Lieberman (Lieber) by much of what he was writing that he refused to put his real name on the byline. He assumed the "dumb name", Stan Lee, now legally adopted. (I never heard that he was "so embarrassed" by comics that he used a fake name. I hear he was reserving his real name for more literary properties, which I guess to the author meant the same thing. But I read where Stan did it because of all of the prejudice against comic creators at the time. He want the reserve his own name so it would be free if he wanted to do other writing.)
Human heroes
By the time he was 40 (Actually, 39), Lee had decided he was too old for the comic game. His British-born wife, Joan, suggested he had nothing to lose and, for his swansong, should write the kind of characters he really wanted to create.
After a rival comic had come up with a superteam consisting of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Timely needed to respond. (I think this actually came before the peptalk fro Stan's wife.)
They were to change Lee's life, and the comics industry, forever. Lee gave each character individual, everyday teenage problems such as dandruff, ingrown toenails and acne (Name me one Silver Age Marvel story where anyone had an ingrown toenail? Acne? Dandruff? This is usually how Stan describes in interviews the problems he gave the characters. It is hyperbole to prove a point, The writer of this article took it as fact.). They would frequently fall out with their parents and each other. (Other than Thor, no one "fell out" with their parents regularly. Reed Richards might have once in a while. Other than that, parents were either deceased or not mentioned.)
The fan letters poured in. Without immediately knowing it, Stan Lee had ushered in the golden age of comics (Personally I, and I am not alone here,consider the 30's and 40's to be the golden age of comics. Which is one of the reasons that era is called the Golden Age) , and his imagination was rekindled. His Marvel universe spawned the new title of Marvel Comics. (The company's name shifted from Atlas to Marvel prior to the publication of FF#1. If this is what the writer was getting at. Stan Lee's universe helped define Marvel Comics, but it was named that before the Thing got rocky. )
Soon after, nerdy Peter Parker was transformed - after a bite from an irradiated spider - into someone who could crawl up the sides of New York's skyscrapers. Spider-Man was born.
He was to become an icon of modern popular culture. Spidey, as he is affectionately known, had quite extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work, at home and with his girlfriends.
At last, the teenager was no longer just the sidekick, but the main hero. And the hero was no longer just brawn, he had brains too.
The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the rest all grappled with problems like drug abuse, bigotry and social inequality.(Oh, I remember that classic story when the Hulk got hooked on peyote buttons. Or when Thor marched on Selma Alabama with MLK. Or when Iron Man gave up his fortune to the poor so they all could be equal. Seriously, this writer has never read a comic magazine in their life and is apparentl;y unable to do even a modicum of research. Spidey tackled Drug Abuse, the X-Men tackled bigotry. I guess social inequality was handled by all of them, but mostly Spidey, Captain America and Daredevil.)
Radically, Lee gave the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, John Romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right. (As far as I know, Frank Miller never worked with Stan Lee. He came to Marvel in the mid-1970s after Stan gave up everyday involvement at Marvel. And what are "comic designs"? You mean the comic artwork and storytelling?)
Other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. Daredevil was blind, Black Panther was black and Silver Surfer pondered the state of humanity. Lee's influence remains. Some years ago the Marvel hero, Northstar, came out of the closet. (Actually, a quick perusal of wikipedia shows that Lee created Gabriel Jones for Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos in 1963, three years prior to the first appearance of Black Panther. And he was part of an integrated military unit as well. Sgt. Fury is also the place, if you believe Stan, where he created the first gay character in the form of Pinky Pinkerton.)
In its heyday, Marvel was selling 50 million copies a year (50 million a year sounds a little excessive. Especially considering during most of Stan's run, Marvel was limited to about 8 titles per month. Is it possible? Sure. But it'd be a stretch.). Until he retired from editing in 1971, Stan Lee wrote all the copy for Marvel's covers.
In 2001 though, he started a new company entitled POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, which is currently developing films and television programmes.
His latest project is a superhero based on a real person - Jay J Armes, who has metal claws after losing both hands aged 12 and fights crime with a tiger.
But his 40-year-old creations are still as enduring as ever - with X-Men, The Hulk and Daredevil have all been turned into Hollywood action movies in the last five years. (Technically, the X-Men were first "turned into a Hollywood action movie" in 2000-7 years ago.)
But Spider-Man has been the biggest box office hit, with the 2002 original and its 2004 sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) in ticket sales around the world - before DVD and merchandise sales are counted.
It seems Stan Lee is as indestructible as his heroes.
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