We lost Stan Lee this week at the age of 95. Many people first became aware of him from his cameo’s in Marvel movies, but his impact on popular culture goes far beyond that: For better or worse, make your own mind up; without Stan Lee we probably wouldn’t be seeing all the comic book movies that are dominating cinema screens. Like many people I first became aware of him from the animated shows of the 1980’s. These animated show were the start of a push to develop Marvel properties into other media. Initial results were mixed at best but eventually led to what we now know as the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). 
But it all started before that, growing up Lee born (Stanley Martin Lieber) loved swashbuckling movies, and dreamt of becoming a novelist. One of his earliest jobs as a writer came writing obituaries before at the age of 17 a family connection got him a job as an assistant at Timely Comics, the precursor Marvel Comics was at the time a new division of a pulp magazine.
Lee’s first job actually writing in a comic book came with the text fillers for Captain America Comics #3 in 1941. This was the first time he used the pseudonym Stan Lee, which later became his legal name. Before long he moved from fillers to writing the backup feature, “‘Headline’ Hunter, Foreign Correspondent”.
His early creations Jack Frost, Father Time, and Destroyer may not be household names now, but things were about to change. At the age of just 19 Lee was made interim editor, a position that quickly became permanent, one that he remained in for just over thirty years before becoming Publisher. After the war, were Lee served in first the Signal Corps, and then the Training Film Division, he formed a partnership with artist Jack Kirby, together they created a few characters you may have heard of: the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and the Fantastic Four. 
He also created Daredevil with Bill Everett. And with Steve Ditko with, Doctor Strange and his (and Marvel’s most successful character) Spider-Man. 
As significant as the characters they created, in 1963 gathered them together along with some older character, most notably Captain America to create the Avengers, a rival to DC’s Justice League (originally Justice League of America). With various reboots, relaunches, spin-offs, alternate universes, and ever changing line-up, The Avengers have been a constant fixture within the comic book world. 
In 1981 Lee moved from New York to California in 1981 to develop Marvel’s movie and TV, while the live action of these were forgettable at best, the cartoons introduced a whole new generation to Marvel. They also provided the springboard of what was to come. The success of Blade for New Line Cinema, X-Men with Fox Studio’s and Sony’s Spider-Man movies proved there was a market for quality comic book movies that snowballed into the MCU, and who knows where that will take us? Excelsior!
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