Image c/o American Libraries.

One of my childhood heroes in the Comic Book industry, Stanley Martin Lieber AKA Stan “The Man” Lee, has passed away at 95 years young. The last of the original comic book innovators. This man has created, or co-created iconic characters such as Captain America, Prince Namor The Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, The Black Panther, Falcon (Marvel’s first African American character), Luke Cage (Marvel’s first African American to star in his own comic book), Power Man and Iron Fist. And who can forget the iconic villains who constantly gave our heroes a run for their money having us literally in suspense?!? Villains such as The Kingpin, Hardcore, Dr. Doom, Magneto, The Red Skull, The Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Dr. Octopus, Sabretooth, Toad, Shades and Comanche, Loki, The Lizard, and many others that escape me right now. Other factions in Marvel like S.H.I.E.L.D., The Defenders, Heroes for Hire, Avengers West Coast, and so on and so forth!

I remember growing up in the 80s when Marvel began making movies, and despite some moderate success a handful of them had, they all SUCKED! Yeah, I said it. But it was the 80s, and we didn’t have the tech that we have today where most Marvel Characters (both the hero and the villain) looked at least 80-90% like their comic book counterparts whereas 30 years ago, it was anything but! There were one or two exceptions when Lou Ferrigno played The Hulk, and when Dolph Lundgren played The Punisher (a character that quickly escaped me until now). Costumes were completely outta whack, the production was just terrible. Be being a kid back then, we was just happy to see these characters come to life.

Fast forward years later;

The roll of the dice for Marvel as well as Stan the Man, was because Marvel had so many misfortunes in the move industry, X-Men was a make or break for Marvel. With an all-star cast, X-Men was a SMASH HIT and everything had snowballed to our current day.

Lest I forget to mention that two years after the first X-Men movie had debuted, Spider-Man hit the Silver screen cementing the franchise’s future in the industry. The biggest treat for a lot of us was that Stan Lee has made cameos in most-if not all-of his creations that hit the silver screen.

I could go on all night about this gentleman who walked this earth for nearly a century. We lost a pioneer in the comic industry. I remain a “true believer” to this very day, and will remain as such until my last breath.

Excelsior!

Stanley Martin Lieber,

12/28/1922-11/12/2018

Forever “The Man”!