Comic Talk #3: Stan Lee, The Godfather of Comics

It’s tough to nail down a good analogy for what Stan Lee means to comics.

Is he the Michael Jordan of comics? No, because he definitely didn’t perfect them. Is he the George Washington of comics? Well, he certainly wasn’t the first to write them. What about Henry Ford? Truthfully, he didn’t innovate the industry that much in his most active years.

Despite all that, Lee is undoubtedly the most important single figure in comic book history, and it’s not hard to see why. He created many of Marvel Comics’ most recognizable characters – Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men – and he did in the 1940s when comic books had the same literary reputation as pornography.

He had his shortcomings as a writer, but it’s difficult to judge his skills objectively since the target audience for comic books at the time was primarily composed of children. In spite of occasionally paper-thin plots, his stories stick with us to this day.

He had his squabbles with his co-creator and former right-hand man artist Jack Kirby over the rights to some of his characters, but controversy rolls off of him like water off of the back of a duck. No one wants to dislike Stan Lee. He is nothing if not venerable.

He gave us “excelsior.” He gave us “true believers.” He gave us “’nuff said.” He opened a dialogue between the producer and the consumer that didn’t exist before, and that current Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada has maintained.

He changed the comics industry from a dead end of underperforming titles and cheap merchandise to the most viable movie production machine on the planet. Marvel Studios is the first and only film production company to give the comics people control of their own movie adaptations. In a savvy but still eyebrow-raising move, Lee sold Marvel to Disney last year. Profits have continued to rise.

No singular figure at D.C. Comics stands out as much as Stan Lee does at Marvel. It’s difficult to pinpoint why, but there seems to be little doubt that he is the most important person in the history of comic books.

This might read a bit like a premature eulogy, and in a way, it is. The truth is, Stan Lee won’t be with us much longer. He’s healthy, but he’s also 87. Lest we forget how much his contributions mean to the entire graphic fiction genre, we remember him here.
Amen.

Relevant links:
A list of Stan Lee’s creations
The Economist’s erudite analysis of Mr. Lee as a businessman. (Free membership required.)
Part 1 of an interview Kevin Smith did with Mr. Lee (Successive parts in Related Videos)

Selected titles out this week
Dark X-Men #4
New Mutants #10
Action Comics #886
Batman and Robin #8
DMZ #50
The Unwritten #10
B.P.R.D.: Kingdom of Fear #2
Solomon Kane: Death’s Black Riders #2