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Stan Lee passed away at the age of 95, leaving behind a treasure of pulp-fiction superheroes that will dominate the pop culture for decades to come. When the kids didn’t have the phone, they had comics of Stan Lee. This alone underlines the kind of journey and impact Stan Lee had over the years on an entire generation.
A name that defined and established comic books into a mammoth-like phenomenon which captured not just the kids and teens but also the grown-ups, there would certainly never be a creative genius like Stan Lee who championed storytelling to the next level.
The legendary creator of Marvel comics has passed away. BUT here are some Stan Lee facts that the world will talk for years and years:
i. Stan Lee isn’t his real name. His real name was Stanley Martin Lieber. But in 1941, he tasted his first commercial success with two-page comics at Timely Comics titled “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge”. He wrote that under the pen name Stan Lee, which eventually went to become his legal name.
ii. Stan Lee was in the military. Following attacks on Pearl Harbour, he got enlisted in the army. He was in Signal Corps, designing posters and doing technical writing for soldiers.
iii. Earlier in his career, Stan Lee used to write obituaries of celebrities and top personalities. However, he didn’t stay there for long. He quit soon because he found the work too depressing.
iv. Although the audience always finds Stan Lee making an appearance in Marvel movies in one way or another, there are many times when he didn’t appear. Notables are every part in the X-men series, Electra, Captain America (1990), and Punisher: War Zone.
v. According to Stan Lee, the best superpower a superhero can have is to make love. In one of his interviews, he said, “if somebody could make love instead of hate through the world then I would he would be the greatest superhero of all.”
vi. Hulk was supposed to be grey in color. However, there was an issue in the printer. So, Hulk turned green. (Can you imagine a grey Hulk battling Thanos?!! Yikes… :P)
vii. Stan Lee originally thought that people would dislike Iron Man, because Tony Stark was a weapon manufacturer and people, at that time, hated war and all the reasons behind it. “He (Tony Stark) was a weapons manufacturer, he was providing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist. I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him … And he became very popular,” Stan Lee said in one of his interviews. Little did he knew, Ironman would go on to become one of the most loved characters in pop-culture. (Yes, even more than Captain America.)
viii. Mr. Fantastic in the Fantastic Four movies was shaped around the real-life personality of Stan Lee.
(Of course, with all the goods, there were some bad as well. The life of Stan Lee was surrounded by many controversies. Here are some Stan Lee facts in that context…)
ix. In the peak of #MeToo movement, Stan Lee was accused of sexual harassment by few women.
x. There are reports that suggest Stan Lee was abusive and harsh to his employees.
xi. Stan Lee ripped his early partners – in particular, Jack Kirby – who helped him create the superheroes.
These are 11 less-know Stan Lee facts.
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At a time when superheroes were defined by Superman-esque perfect identities, Stan Lee added a humane touch to these characters. What if they have to live like normal human beings, what if they have to go to the barber, what if they have to work, what if they struggled—these are few of many questions he pondered. And came the superheroes that we love so much today, right from Spiderman and Ironman to Hulk and Wolverine.
What makes things a bit more saddening is that Avengers 4 release is just a few months away now. And the movie could possibly be the BIGGEST
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Talk about his legacy—even after his death, the world will come together on 26th April 2019 to see his creation on a big screen. Isn’t that the kind of legacy we all want? To be remembered for the work left behind even after death? May he rest in Peace.
#RipStanLee
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