Stan Lee: The comic-book icon who created the superhero as we know it

Written by Kshitij Rawat | New Delhi | Published: November 13, 2018 12:53:06 am

Stan Lee may not be among us, his work will remind us of him.

There is a cliche fed to people whenever a great personality dies. It says that the person may be dead, but their work or contribution or cult will live on and remind us of them. Cliche it may be, it rings true to me as I grieve for the man who defined comic-books for multiple generations. His cult of personality also spilled over into the movies based on the heroes he created or helped create thanks to his blink-and-you-miss-it cameos because of which he became the globally known icon.

Stan Lee is a man whose popularity transcends the company Marvel Comics, who he wrote for and later headed before stepping down. He is not a Marvel icon, he is a comic-book icon. I am a hardcore DC fan and I practically worship him. At the time when DC was the disputed ruler of comic-books with their godlike characters, Stan Lee infused humanity in his creations. Even the God of Thunder, Thor, who in the hands of a lesser writer would not display any human traits like arrogance, sadness and so on, became a vulnerable superhero who was full of doubt and one could root for him.

DCs approach was different, and although I personally think superheroes should stay larger-than-life, Stan Lee, the force for good, forced DC writers to make iconic characters like Superman and Batman relatable. Without Stan Lee, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers and indeed the highly profitable Marvel Cinematic Universe would not exist. Stan Lee had a great part to play in shaping up most of the modern superheroes.

So yes, Stan Lee may not be among us, his work will remind us of him. Rest in peace, Stan Lee.