The woke world of Marvel’s Stan Lee
In recent years, a supposedly conservative (“traditionalist,” some might argue) segment of comic book fans has grown increasingly angry as their favorite characters go through transformations seemingly for more political than creative reasons. Marvel, in particular, has introduced not just the long-running black/hispanic Spider-man, but an Asian Hulk, a woman wielding the hammer of Thor and a young black girl donning Tony Stark’s Iron Man, etc. Add in an increased hiring of writers and artists who happen to be other than straight white men and the charge is made that the comics industry has been overtaken by social justice warriors.
Well, bad news, guys. Much of the concept of “social justice” or “wokeness” in comic books can be laid at the feet of the giant of the industry who passed on Monday at the age of 95.
In the early days of Marvel Comics, the atomic age and the still-breaking Cold War cast a large shadow. It wasn’t a coincidence that most of the ‘60s-era lead Marvel characters had some form of radiation background in their beginnings — cosmic rays (the Fantastic Four), gamma rays (the Incredible Hulk), radioactive spider (duh!). With kids rehearsing “duck and cover” in classrooms and young vibrant American president was declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner” outside of the Brandenburg
Gate, it stands to reason that two World War II vets — born Stanley Leiber and Jacob (AKA, Jack Kirby) Kurtzman — would be influenced by those events as they gave life to heroes in “the world outside your window.”
But that wasn’t all that influenced them. The creative brain trust of what was, in 1961, then the perpetually No. 2 comic book company were outsider Jews; they were minorities. Unlike their competitor DC Comics, they ventured into showing an interconnected outside world where superheroes existed in real cities alongside ordinary humans who weren’t flawless and weren’t all white.
In essence, the 1960s Marvel Universe of Lee and Kirby was “woke” long before much of the world was.
In the pages of Fantastic Four, which launched the Marvel Age and where Stan and Jack had an amazing run of 102 issues, they introduced supporting characters like the (actually, not “superhero”) blind sculptress Alicia Masters, girlfriend to Ben Grimm (The Thing) and Johnny “Human Torch” Storm’s best friend Native American Wyatt Wingfoot.
Most significantly, they produced the first “black” hero, Black Panther, ruler of an advanced African nation — who, this year starred in Marvel’s biggest grossing single-character film. Two years later, Stan introduced as Captain America’s sidekick, the first African-american super-hero in Sam “The Falcon” Wilson. In one of his latter-day writing projects for Marvel, Lee also created the She-hulk — Bruce Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters, a lawyer you’d like even less if she gets angry.
More broadly, Marvel’s third super-hero group (who, two decades later, became their biggest selling title), the X-men — “mutants trapped in a world they never made” — were a perfect moving metaphor for any group that felt marginalized: Jews, like Stan and Jack, of course, but also, the civil rights movement and, in later years, gay rights, etc.
Now, a perpetual controversy among fans and comic historians alike is how much credit Lee should get for making Marvel what it is, and how much should go to Kirby (and how much Lee should have aided Kirby in his decades-long fight for control over many of the characters he created), In terms of design and basic background of characters, Kirby’s influence is unparalleled — heck, with Joe Simon, he had already co-created Captain American in 1940. Also, after Kirby departed Marvel for DC, his fertile juices were still going a mile a minute with the debuts of New Gods, Kamandi, OMAC and countless others.
But one only has to read Kirby’s post-marvel books to exactly what Lee brought to the table in terms of dialogue and writing structure. Theirs was a true collaboration and Marvel would not be Marvel without the “lyrics” Stan Lee brought to the table as a writer.
As a marketing and publishing genius, Lee also composed the “music” of Marvel — creating a continuity-infused shared universe, infusing lighthearted moments amidst all the planetbusting stories, using the Bullpen Bulletins page to hype the books and include at-the-time unheard-of social commentary in “Stan’s Soapbox” (his 1968 denunciation of bigotry in all forms is one for the ages — including our present one), touring college campuses or making countless cameos (in not just Marvel films).
Greg Pak, author of the already-classic “Planet Hulk” storyline (partly adapted in the recent “Thor: Ragnarok” film) tweeted Mondayafternoon: “’With great power comes great responsibility’ is one of the greatest single moral injunctions in all of American pop culture.” Those words, moved from the pen of Stan Lee into the ears of Peter “Spider-man” Parker, have inspired millions for more than six decades.
Stan Lee had great power. He realized that his little pocket of kids literature gave him a platform — and yes, a soapbox. Even in the medium of escapist superhero fantasy, he could portray the world outside his window — while recognizing his responsibility to also show what the world could and perhaps should be.
Fifty years later, with Marvel ascendant with a Cinematic Universe, plus other films, TV shows and media, the rest of pop culture is still catching up.
‘Nuff said.
Robert A. George is a member of the New York Daily News Editorial Board.