Stan Lee collection

Excelsior! The rallying cry of Stanley Martin Lieber, who joined Timely Comics in 1939 and became Marvel's spokesman under the name Stan Lee, sums up a career spent giving neuroses to gods and rent worries to superheroes. With Jack Kirby, he co-created the Fantastic Four in 1961, then Hulk and the X-Men, before dreaming up Spider-Man and Doctor Strange alongside Steve Ditko, while his brother Larry Lieber wrote the first scripts for Thor and Iron Man. His belief came down to a simple idea: a hero who doubts himself and pays the price for his powers rings truer than an invincible giant. From 1967 on, his Stan's Soapbox editorials spoke to readers as if they were accomplices, proof of a man who preferred conversation to a pedestal. His movie cameos, nods that became a ritual, made him a familiar face far beyond the comic panels. He passed away in 2018, leaving behind a legacy that the books and figures made in his image keep very much alive!