As I’m writing this Stan Lee has passed away at the age of 95. He has left a great legacy behind. He has inspired so many people including myself to create universes beyond our own imagination. I should feel sad or empathic about this loss and yet I’m not. Maybe I saw this death coming. Or maybe I didn’t.
i’ve been trying to separate the art from the artist but i don’t know if its working.
Most of my memories go back to high school when I did a research paper on independent comics. It was the early aughts and comics were in a different state. I was hungry to learn about what was the cause of the revolution of it. The revolution had a face, the face belonged to Stan Lee. Stan Lee created most notable characters like Thor (along side Jack Kirby) and Spider-man (along side Steve Ditko.) This man changed the way comics were in the 1960’s and throughout.
Trying to separate the artis from the art is hard, at least for Stan Lee it is. Some how other people like Dr. Seuss or Kayne West it is easy to serperate. I’ll explain Kayne West as he is easier to explain (at least for me it is.) Any time anyone says Kayne is a self centered ego manic i kinda of just show them a song. the song is off of Nasa’s 2009 album The Spirited of Apollo. the song is called Gifted. The song starts off with Kayne saying “ I’m known for running my mouth, i will not be accountable for what comes out.” That made me think of this guy is a total asshole maybe I shouldn’t look up to him. He still makes great music and he is still an ass. he is not a genius.
Dr. Seuss, we all grew up on him. we all love his work. During world war II, he did some political cartoons that weren’t the most PC. One of his cartoons depicted all the Japanese-Americans as traitors. He was also a bit of racist against jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. of course he corrected those actions with Horton hears a who which was an allegory for the American post-war occupation of Japan. This seems all with the time. This is probably one of his biggest sour spots on the author. One of the biggest shocks I heard earlier this month was that Dr. Seuss cheated on his dying wife. Thinking it was one of the internet rumors, I went up to research and try to debunk it. I got into his wikipedia and there was. His wife Helen had a long struggle with illnesses including cancer and emotional pain over his affair with Audrey Stone Dimond. On October 23 1967, she committed suicide and a year later he remarries. Dr. Seuss is known as one of great children’s authors. He helped us learn how to read and how to grow to love things. (he also has a movie out now!)
Stan Lee is a performer. He was always on even when he didn’t need to be. He was on Nerdist a long time ago, Chris Hardwick had Stan Lee talking about some old radio show. Stan Lee asks him if is he recording. Hardwick says yes and just like that Stan Lee becomes Stan “the man” Lee. You can hear the disappointment in Hardwick’s voice. I felt disappointed and maybe a bit robbed of a good story that didn’t involve how everybody hates spiders and that’s how he thought of spider-man. Every story he told and every appearance it made everything bitter-sweet because it was just him being fake. At least to me he was being fake.
Another thing that really bothers me about Stan Lee is how he handled working with some of his biggest contributors. Between Kirby and Lee they pretty much created the Marvel Universe which includes the first family (the fantastic four) the Avengers, the X-Men and their counterparts the Inhumans, and Black Panther. Jack Kirby has been stated that he was becoming dissatisfied with Marvel. It’s been suggested it included over Lee’s media prominence , lack of full creative control and failure to credit him specifically for his story plotting and for his character creations and co-creations. It seemed Stan Lee had a vice grip over at the Marvel offices.
I don’t know why i can separate the art and the artist with Kayne and Dr. Seuss and not with Stan Lee. I can see what impressive legacy he leaves but was he ever true to himself? You can love the man. i’m not saying you should change your mind based on what I said. I’m torn that i’m not sadder about his death. Hell I cried with Prince’s and Bowie’s death. Stan Lee lived a good life, I’m sure. He got to see some of his co-creations to be up on the silver screen. That was one of his biggest dreams. You can admire that.
this is an end of an era.
This is how i can end this:
And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness aware that in this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility.
And so a legend is born and a new name is added to the roster of those who make the world of fantasy the most exciting realm of all.
R.I.P. Stan Lee thanks for the stories
