Stan Lee, legendary comic writer and creator of Spider-Man, X-Men and many more, would be 100 years old today

Today, December 28, 2022, marks 100 years from the birth of Stan Lee, probably the most important figure in the history of comics. Although he passed away in November 12, 2018, Lee remains an important name for fans: he was a writer and editor for Marvel, created some of the most popular characters in the medium, and helped raise the artform from a simple hobby to something to be consumed by everyone.

An absolute legend in comics

Alongside Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, two of the other giants in Marvel, Lee created characters that are still relevant and important in our times: Spider-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic 4, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and more are amongst some of his creations. He also broke ground by defying the status quo at the time, and helped push Black Panther and Daredevil, who were both the first superhero of color and the first disabled superhero, respectively.

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However, his debut happened with Captain America, in a short story of barely two pages where he worked as a writer. After his short stint in the writers room, his career (and legacy) kept growing and getting stronger. He always looked to humanize his characters, as a response to the omnipotence of Superman and other heroes who were basically (and sometimes figuratively) gods amongst men. But Lee believed the reader would only identify with his pages if the characters were able to show weakness.

Lee made use of humor at every moment he could, and filled his works with it. One strange fact is that he always wanted his characters to have alliteration in their names as he found it funny: Peter Parker, Matt Murdock, Bruce Banner, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange… In the past 20 years, after retiring from making comics, the Marvel movies wanted to pay him tribute with frequent cameos in almost all of them. His last appearance on the big screen would be Avengers: Endgame, although it was a posthumous appearance, since the movie was released in 2019 after he had already passed away.