Excelsior! Dark news on this November day: Mr. Stan Lee, the man who is considered the father of Marvel Comics, has died at the age of 95.
Despite the death of his wife who had dealt him a blow in July 2017 and despite his night in the hospital in February 2018 for shortness of breath and heart rate problems, Stan Lee continued to appear in public with his legendary good humor until very recently. Unfortunately, it now leaves many fans of the world of superheroes orphaned.
Writer, actor, comic book publisher, but above all co-creator of a significant part of the 5000 characters in the Marvel catalog, Stan Lee has given life to what could be described as a pantheon of superheroes. He created characters like Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil and many others, too many to list them all. Anyone who has ever put their nose in a Marvel work has ever crossed his name. He collaborated with other big names in the field such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, both of whom are also deceased today, which certainly made Stan Lee the last monument of this glorious era to which were born many superheroes forever anchored in our collective imagination. It is no coincidence that the golden age of comics began in the 1940s : superheroes were there to give a smile, hope during the dark hours and show that sometimes, a weakness can become a strength. Many of them are representative of a struggle for the rights and values they represent such as freedom, patriotism, feminism or other struggles against discrimination and racism. Let's mention randomly names such as Captain America, Luke Cage or Wonder Woman at the competing publisher DC Comics. In fact, as he himself said:
"Comics are tales for the greatest."
Stan Lee, or "Stan the Man" as he was sometimes called, was a character in his own right, an eternal child who always had a smile and above all, who knew how to sell dreams to people. He stated:
"I was always embarrassed because I was just a comic book creator while others were building bridges or getting active in the medical field. And then I started to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Otherwise, they would sink into confusion or madness. I feel like if you're able to entertain people, then you're doing something right."
Beyond the world of comics, the man was best known to the general public thanks to his many cameos in almost all adaptations of Marvel characters in the cinema, mainly since the early 2000s, all studios combined. He has even appeared in animated adaptations, video games, TV series, etc.
One of his funniest cameos in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012:
His latest cameo was in the movie Venom, released last October. However, we are largely entitled to think that he had already shot for a while those of Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 respectively scheduled for March and April 2018. The least we can say is that Mr. Lee has a sense of timing and has chosen to bow out at the end of eleven years of MCU. It will certainly be an opportunity for Marvel to pay him a last moving tribute that may even go beyond his last cameo and a "In Loving Memory" in the credits, hopefully.
"Odin, I hope you have found your place in Valhalla, where the brave live forever. We must not weep but rejoice for all those who die in honor and glory." Quote from the dialogues of Thor: Ragnarok.
