THE STAN LEE LEGACY
He gave us heroes that were flawed, and human. Lee, who died this week, was flawed himself. A look at the life and work of the American comic book writer, editor, publisher and creative force behind Marvel
Growing up in the 1980s, reading and re-reading his comics, Mumbai illustrator Abhijeet Kini realised that one name stood out: Stan Lee. “I wondered who this Chinese guy was,” says Kini. “In my head, he was some kind of superhero, churning out story after story.”
Stan Lee, he eventually learned, was Stanley Martin Lieber, the son of Romanian immigrants to America. As writer, publisher, creator and eventually president of Marvel, he created or co-created Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Black Panther and other characters. In the process, he’d masterminded the most imaginative fantasy universe.
Lee died on November 12, aged 95. Kini sees it as a life well spent, with “bonus years” as Lee’s superheroes became wildly successful films in the last two decades.
For others the loss is acute. “I expected him to live past 100,” says Steny Klinson, 18. Like countless comics artists worldwide, he has been posting tribute sketches of Lee on Instagram. “I grew up with the Spider-Man films. I learned about the value of friendship and how to cope with life’s challenges from the stories,” he says. “For me it’s like losing a family member.”
As flags fly at half-mast across the billion-dollar Marvel universe (films, TV shows, books, comics, games, digital media and merchandise), one thing is clear. Lee didn’t need radioactive spiders, meteorites or genetic mutations to activate his superpowers. He just needed a pen.
WEB OF MEMORIES
For a certain generation, Lee is a legend largely because they watched the animated Spider-Man on Doordarshan on Sundays in the 1980s. Younger Indians took to the character through seven movies between 2002 and 2018. Of the 20 highest-grossing Hollywood films in India, three are Spider-Man films.
Director Satyajit Ray even met Lee in New York to discuss an Indian version of Peter Parker, but plans only materialised after Ray’s death. In 2004, Marvel released an Indian retelling of the Spider-Man story, with four issues covering the life of Pavitr Prabhakar, fresh-off-the-boat in Mumbai, with spider-like abilities bestowed on him by a yogi.
Sharad Devarajan, CEO of the American digital entertainment company Liquid Comics, collaborated with Lee too, to produce an Indian superhero in 2013. Raju Rai aka Chakra, also a Mumbai boy, turns into a superhero with the help of a suit that activates his body’s chakras.
“To create superheroes with Stan was like being able to paint with Picasso or write poetry with Shakespeare,” Devarajan says. “One bit of wisdom he gave us was the powers mean nothing if you don’t care about the person.”
Alok Sharma, who worked on later issues of Chakra and collaborated with Lee on the TV series Cosmic Crusaders, says “being able to receive an email from him directly, his enthusiasm and panache, were thrills,” he says. “He focused on the idea of powers as a gift and also a burden, of the hero’s story being more important than the hero’s journey.”
Both Chakra and Spider-Man India failed to find a large fan base. Kini says this is probably because both versions were cosmetic – a souvenir-shop idea of India. “Chakra needs a reboot,” Sharma admits. “But Indian superhero comics owe their existence to Stan Lee. If there were no Spider-Man there would likely be no Nagraj.”
UPS AND DOWNS
Relatable, fallible heroes were a Stan Lee signature. “As Stan would say, ‘Achilles, without his heel, you wouldn’t even know his name today,’” Devarajan says.
Other signatures Lee leaves behind: Superheroes who came from actual spots on the map. The notion that characters could cross over and team up. And heroes and villains who have often been reflective of larger societal narratives.
Cold-War era heroes were largely created though mutation and radiation (SpiderMan, X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Daredevil), amid fears of radioactivity. The civil rights-era X-Men carry strong ideas of inclusion and fighting bigotry.
Stan Lee’s struggled with creating strong women heroes. Critics point out that he often denied collaborators royalties. Several nurses who cared for him have accused him of sexual misconduct. He was not the benign old gent that fans of the blockbuster cameos remember.
Perhaps his artistic legacy might offer more inspiration than his personal life. “Marvel made us nerds belong,” says Sharma. Devarajan recalls being on a panel with Lee at New York Comic Con in 2008, with thousands of fans lining up. “Stan told me he was going to try to shake everyone’s hand,” he says. “And I think he did.”