Running Head: Stan Lee

The Marvel Way: Stan Lee and the Birth of the American Superhero Aiden Daniel Walker H. English III, Erica Powell, D.C. Beech High School

Stan Lee was born in New York, growing up in an American Jewish family. Lee worked hard in school, spending his time writing and drawing. With the help of his uncle, Lee started working at Timely Comics as an intern, filling up inkwells and bringing artists their lunches. He eventually got a job writing Captain America stories, then with Jack Kirby, he created his first superhero team, The Fantastic Four. Its popularity boomed and Lee started creating and writing more for Marvel. His most popular super hero, Spider-Man being one of the top super heroes ever created.

The Marvel Way

With great power there must also come great responsibility. Stan Lee wrote as Spidermans guardian, Uncle Bens last words in the last panel of the 15th issue of Amazing Fantasy (August 1962) the first Spider-Man Story. The comic book industry started with the publication of Action Comics! #1 in June 1938 (Petty, J. (2006)). This comic was the first appearance of Superman. Superman was an overnight sensation created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (Petty, J. (2006)). Supermans popularity boomed in the late nineteen-thirties because the nation was a nation of immigrants. People were coming from all over the world in search of The American Dream. Superman, the last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, was the ultimate immigrant and easy to relate to. With the success of Superman, many other super-characters were quickly released to the world. These characters included Batman, Wonder Woman, the Human Torch, Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate, the Spectre, the Sub-Mariner, and captain America. This craze was complimented in the next decade with World War II, and the Nazi menace, and the patriotism that this time inspired. At this time superhero comics were selling up to a million copies per monthly issue. And then the war ended, and the same heros who had kept the world safe for democracy lost their direction. The superheros kept on, catching bank robbers until about 1949, but their popularity was obviously dropping (Petty, J. (2006)). In the late nineteen forties and early fifties, the superhero trend was falling. Crime and gangsters were hot. Horror movies rocked the cinemas. The comics industry wasnt slow to notice this trend and started to leave the superhero trend, publishing comics like Crime Does Not Pay, and True Crime Comics, Crimes by Women, and The Killers. In 1958

Julius Schwartz, Editor-In-Chief of National Periodical Publications (soon to become DC Comics), decided it was time to bring back the superhero comics of yesteryear, revamping and updating them for the modern age. The superhero comic stayed steady in popularity until 1980 with the unlikely success of garage-projects like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Watchmen, have left the comic but industry baffled, shifting focus to the smaller projects and leaving the big superhero projects to Hollywood. Stan Lee began his career at Timely Comics (Later to become Marvel Comics) in the early nineteen forties as an assistant to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). He later became editor and head writer of Marvel Comics, following in the footsteps of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, the XMen, Daredevil, and many others (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). He created characters that would transform the pop culture world for over fifty years and counting. Born Stanely Martien Lieber, Stan Lee was born on December 28, 1922 to his parents, Celia and Jack Lieber (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). When Lee was in his teens, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx (Lee, S. (2007)). In his youth, Lee enjoyed writing and wanted to one day write The Great American Novel (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). Lee worked part-time jobs like writing obituaries, press releases, and delivering sandwiches for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center. He graduated from high school at 16 and a half in 1936, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project, a project to fund theatre and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression (Witham, B. (2003)). With the help of his uncle, Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at Timely Comics, which would evolve into Marvel Comics in 1960 (Lee, S. (2007)). Lee didnt write at first. He filled up the inkwells for the artists, got the artists their lunch, and he proofread their pages. Lee

made his comic-book debut in Captain America Comics #3, in May 1941 (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). Using the pseudonym Stan Lee we wrote text filler in the book, and would later adopt Stan Lee as his legal name (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). Lee later explained in his autobiography that he had intended to save his given name for more literary work. He then went on from writing filler to actually comics with the backup feature, Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent. Lees first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6, in August of 1941. Other heroes he created in the Golden Age of comics included Jack Frost first appearing in USA Comics #1, and Father Time, first appearing in Captain America Comics #6, also in August in 1941 (Lee, S. (2007)) . When his creative partner Jack Kirby left in late 1941,(Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)) the 30-year old-publisher made 19 year old Stan Lee as intern editor. He showed a knack for business that allowed him to remain as the comic-book divisions editor-in-chief, until 1972. Lee entered the United States Army in 1942 and served in the Signal Corps, writing manuals, training films, and slogans, writing occasional cartoons. His military classification was, playwright Lee says, adding that only nine men in the U.S. Army were given that title. Vincent Fago would put out humor and funny animal comics until Lee returned from the war in 1945. In the late fifties, DC, Comics and Editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype with the Flash, and later the super-team the Justice League of America (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to create a new superhero team. The first superhero group Lee and artist Jack Kirby created was the Fantastic Four. The teams immediate popularity led Lee and Marvels illustrators to produce more titles. With Kirby, Lee created the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvels most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe. Throughout the nineteen sixties, Lee scripted,

directed, and edited most of Marvels series (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). In the back of comics, Lee had a page call Stans Soapbox in which he provided social commentary about the real world, condemning racism and bigotry, discrimination, intolerance, and prejudice. Later, Lee became the main face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions, lecturing at colleges, and participating in panel discussions. In 1981, Lee moved to California to develop Marvels Television and movie projects. Stan Lee Media was created by Peter Paul and Lee in nineteen 1998 (Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002)). The aim of Stan Lee media was to create an internet-based superhero production and marketing studio, unfortunately early 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordan. Stan Lee Media filed for bankruptcy in February 2001 (Lisa, T. (2004, 22 March)). In the 2000s, Lee did his first work for DC Comics launching the Just Imagine series (Lisa, T. (2004, 22 March)). In the series Lee reimagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Green Lantern. In 2010, the Stan Lee foundation was founded to focus on literacy, education, and the arts. Stan Lee still resides happily at his home in California at the ripe age of 88. The Fantastic Four! #1 was the first issue of the first superhero team Lee created, launching his career. The story starred Susan Storm the Invisible Woman, Ben Grimm the Thing, Johnny Storm the Human Torch, and Reed Richards as Mr. Fantastic. To beat the Communists into space, scientist Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, and pilot Ben Grimm sneak off into space in a rocket. In space, the four are bombarded by cosmic rays. The auto-pilot lands the ship back on Earth where the quartet finds themselves physically transformed and possessing remarkable new abilities. Later, a super villain named Mole Man, having been ridiculed by humanity, went off alone in search of Monster Island at the center of the Earth. He eventually

washed up on Monster Islands shore and got caught in an avalanche, rendering him almost blind. However, due to his other heightened senses taking over, he mastered the subterranean creatures and built himself and underground empire. He returns to the New York sewers to take it over and master the city that tortured him so. This issue is the start of Lees many themes of equality and anti-bullying. The Amazing Spider-Man issue #1, the first full adventure of Marvels most popular superhero, is the tale of Peter Parker, and his struggles between being Spider-Man, and the responsibility that come with his new found powers, and his social life as Peter Parker, girlfriends, peers, and family. With the Parker household desperate for money because the only source of income, Ben Parker, has died from a stray robber Spider-Man refused to catch because he felt he was too good to catch the robber, Peter Parker decides to continue in show business as Spider-Man. However, not only does he find it impossible to cash his paycheck as it is made out to Spider-Man, but the irrational editorials by J. Jonah Jameson in the Daily Bugle effectively bash his career. Besides making Spider-Man sound like a publicity-seeking phony, J Jonah Jameson also publishes articles making his son, John Jameson, out to be a courageous astronaut, calling him a real hero. At the day of John Jamesons launch, Peter Parker at the launch site as an observer. The rocket takes off successfully, but a guidance system error causes it to go wildly off course and re-enter the atmosphere. Spider-Man appears at the laucn shite and offers to replace the defective guidance unit in the plunging capsule. Because there is no way for the military to get to the capsule in time, they allow Spider-Man to try. Spider-Man successfully commandeers an aircraft and pilot, and together they fly toward the space capsules re-entry point. Spider-Man manages to get hold of it with his webbing and climbs aboard. He quickly replaces the faulty guidance unit. As a result, John Jameson regains control of the capsule, gets it

properly oriented, and opens its parachute, the astronaut is saved. The last panel ending with Uncle Bens last words, With great power, comes great responsibility. Stan Lee, the great reinvented of comics is still one of the figures of American and Jewish culture. His characters, stories, and themes of equality have inspired and entertained youth for fifty years, and will for many years to come. His characters are classic and are constantly being written for, from comics, to games, to movies. "I learned one of lifes greatest lessons. I dont know the reason for this, but people who like superhero stories want their heroes to wear costumes. And if any psychologist or sociologist out there can ever tell me the reason, I would like to know."

References

1) Lee, S., & Mair, G. (2002). Excelsior!, the amazing life of Stan Lee. New York: Fireside. 2) Lee, S. (2007). Stan lee: Conversations with comic artists. (1st ed., Vol. 1). Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. 3) Lisa, T. (2004, 22 March). Emmy TV Legends. Retrieved from http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/stan-lee 4) Montagne, R. (2006, December 07). Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6684820 5) Petty, J. (2006). A brief history of comic books. Retrieved from http://comics.ha.com/images/HoC.pdf 6) Witham, B. (2003). The federal theatre project: A case study. (1 ed., Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.