Stan Lee and me: NI comic fans mourn their hero
Niamh Lennon (25), from Bangor, works as a hotel receptionist. She studied special and visual effects at the University of Bolton
Niamh has been a Marvel fan since childhood and is a regular cosplayer at Belfast’s sci-fi conventions, dressing up as many comic book characters.
“Every year I would go dressed up — sometimes it’s as anime or gaming characters and sometimes it’s Marvel characters,” she says. “You’re walking around the place running into all sorts of people dressed up as Captain America or Iron Man, and it’s really fun.”
A self-confessed member of the Harry Potter generation, it was a quick leap in fandom to the X-Men with its school for young mutants.
“I’ve been watching them from no age — and then the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies came out with Captain America and Thor and Iron Man,” she explains.
Such was her love for fantasy and sci-fi that Niamh decided to study special and visual effects at the University of Bolton.
“You could choose to do CGI, but I went down the road of physical effects such as sculpture, costume and character design, because I wanted to go on and work in the movies.
Marvel was a big part of that. It would be my dream job one day to work on the Marvel movies,” she says.
But when Niamh first went to university she found a distinct dearth of student societies — so she ended up founding her own, the Geek Culture Society.
“Our first event was a Marvel vs DC Comics bar crawl, and it was so successful that the society went on to become the biggest student society in the university — it still is, years after I’ve graduated,” she explains.
“I’ve always been really drawn to Spider-Man, and my favourite character is Gwen Stacy. She was Spider-Man’s first girlfriend in a lot of the comics — she’s really intelligent and goes on to become a scientist in a lot of the comics, but she gets accidentally killed.
“I also love X-Men — I love the idea of a mutant school and all the children with superpowers having to go to school and learn how to use them.
“Everybody has a character that they connect with and feel inspired by. It’s something a lot of people need — they need somebody to feel inspired by.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that Stan Lee had passed. He was 95 years old and had led such a life.
“We are going to miss seeing his cameos in all the films. Marvel is an incredible legacy to have left behind.”