How will future generations view Stan Lee?

What will they think of the lauded icon? What will they think of the debates we’ve had within our industry?

How much was Stan Lee and how much was Jack Kirby? How much was Stan and how much was Steve Ditko? How will we ever measure how many people Stan Lee attracted to comics?

After all the tributes that came in when he passed, after all the hype surrounding his many cameo appearances in the Marvel movies, and after those of us who actually met him have passed, there may still be arguments about who did what in the foundation of Marvel Comics, but Stan Lee will remain the center of the conversation.

As we mark the 100th anniversary of his birth – we’ve been counting down to it for two months here on Scoop – there are three things we can say without fear of serious contradiction:

First among these was the Stan humanized superheroes. He gave them real-world problems in an effort to make them more relatable.
“Stan grounded his characters in the real world. In his comics, there was a Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and an Empire State Building in New York. He created characters that overcame flaws in their personality. He taught us what was right, what was wrong, and opened up conversation between characters that had life lessons that forever stick with me. He understood that each of us had something special about us and made us all believe in a greater purpose. These themes are universal and in every single page he wrote. His characters were all of us,” said writer-artist Jimmy Palmiotti.

“Stan had things to say and he said them well. Things about the nature of heroism. He wrote about men and women who were not heroic ciphers – people who didn’t idle at brave, as though they’d snuck a peek at the script and already knew they’d win. People who figured they might not make it. People – okay, androids, gods, aliens, what have you – who had lives and did not want them to end fighting Ultron, but did it anyway because, whattaya gonna do, let the whole world down?” former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter wrote in a tribute.

“Stan wrote about people. Never cardboard cut-out characters, rather, he wrote about ordinary people at their core, common people like us, facing uncommon challenges. Screwing their courage to the sticking place and facing down danger. Trying when their arms were too weary. Risking everything. And occasionally, suffering the tragedy of missing a party and a chance to see the girl you’re all moony over because Doctor Octopus was on a rampage,” he wrote.

Second, he was an incredible showman and promoter of Marvel in specific and the medium in general.
“I don’t think anyone’s done more to promote comics to a wider audience than Stan did in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and in a way, even through making himself a Hitchcock-like icon in the Marvel movies – reminding viewers that people actually made the comics,” said former DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz. “And as a writer, I (and so many of my peers writing at DC as well as Marvel) learned a lot of our styles and tricks from Stan’s work, both as a writer and editor.”

Third, he frequently encouraged fellow creators, even those not working for Marvel. He was, though, a phenomenal cheerleader for Marvel creators.
“It was a both an honor and a heavy responsibility to succeed Stan Lee as editor-in-chief at Marvel (though actually his title was merely “editor” – the three-word term was my idea in ‘72). However, through the latter 1970s, Stan was still very much an editorial presence at Marvel, no matter who the editor-in-chief. He had wanted the publisher title mostly so that he could more greatly influence the comics we decided to turn out, the fields and genres in which we competed,” Roy Thomas, who was the first to follow Stan as Marvel’s Editor, said.

“He always backed me to the hilt, as he did all his editors... never intentionally undercut any of us. He didn’t make any big speech to me the day in 1972 when he announced my promotion (technically at first just to “story editor”)... I think he figured that if I hadn’t learned what to do in the past seven years, I wasn’t going to learn from a few cadenced sentences. He was, all in all, a great and often inspiring guy to work for... and to say I learned a lot from him would be a supreme understatement,” he said.

“Much of the junior staff would never have a chance to meet him, so I asked him to swing by the offices and say hi to them before Christmas. In front of the staff I asked him about the ‘Flesh Of Our Flesh’ story in Meance #7 from 1953, which featured a future detective hunting androids that can pass as human, only to discover... he’s an android himself!” BOOM! Studios founder Ross Richie said.

“Stan gasped out loud: ‘That sounds like Bladerunner!’ “That’s exactly what I thought, but you did it 14 years before Philip K. Dick published ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,’” he said.

“By that time, I had won Publisher of the Year from the Diamond Gem Awards, but working with Stan was a P.h.D. in storytelling: ‘Don’t send Thor to Asgard, Ross. Everyone’s like Thor in Asgard. He’s not special.’ And, ‘Who loves this guy? Whoever loves him tells me he’s worthy of love, which then means the reader will love him.’ I still use the principles I gleaned from him today. Stan tore into the work with zeal and energy, on short turnaround times, and spared no criticisms. He was unafraid to substantially tear up the floorboards to chase the better idea – he was fully engaged and witnessing his command of the fundamentals of storytelling that powered the Marvel characters was incredible,” Richie said.

“By the way, Isa Dick Hackett, the daughter of Philip K. Dick (who wrote “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” which was adapted into Bladerunner) confirmed to me that her father did read comics... So, who knows? Did Stan inspire Bladerunner?”

Editor’s note: BOOM! adapted “Do Androids Dream” into a 24-part comic book series in 2009