Stan The Man

Stan The Man

“I love Marvel and the people there. I'm glad I'm still part of it.”

Stan Lee

By: Erreh Svaia

Stan Lee is my Jules Verne, and well, too many other things, he is the man capable of creating big stimulus for my generation´s brains, thanks to him, many of us dreamed of science, mythology and history in a way few other writers were capable of, you might think of Allan Poe, Conan Doyle (another favorite of mine), or Homer and the Iliad and the Odyssey, but Lee was all of them rolled in one. 

I grew up with Stan Lee work for Marvel Comics, as a matter of fact I learned how to read, even before I went to school, with Spider Man, Fantastic Four and with Avenger comics, (I also read Kaliman and Fantomas two wonderful Mexican comics), nostalgia invades me every time I talk about those old comics, Daredevil was also a big favorite of mine, I loved the idea that Lee perfection the “bat” concept behind Batman with this character, I remember starting to collect Spider Man comics from No. 300 and beyond, my mother as quite aware of my love for comics, and she was proud of how quickly I learned to read in order to understand those stories, and then one unforgettable day my mother arrived with SM numbers 30s and 40s and I was completely blown away, how on earth could my mother been able to get those early numbers? Where did she get them? The magazines had the nostalgic smell of old books, I was hooked on them, she bought them on downtown flea markets for a very cheap price, from that moment on I became addicted to those old and cheap second hand comics, they were obscure and less accessible than the ones I was reading at the time, I started buying them in large quantities and filled boxes and boxes with them until I could keep them in my room, I was a kid, I never imagined that those old comics one day would be worth millions, if I knew, you bet I would have keep them with me, but my mom at one time got rid of them, that happens when you grow up.

I was a big fan of Stan Lee style of writing, he was unique in combining different sort of types of literature in his writing, he was a big fan of scientific magazines always using incredible details about scientific advances, he included things from science fiction movies adapting them in an amazing way to the superhero context and also he introduced me to Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, thanks to him I learned a lot about history and geography, I learned about clones, cosmic rays, gods, mutations Nazis, and time travel, I was the smartest kid on school thanks to all those hours of reading comics, reading put me in clear advantage from my school peers, reading became a big part of my life and it still keeps well ahead of people at work.

Through Marvel comics Stan Lee taught me about writing as a popular art form, storytelling was another thing to learn from him, he mastered it completely, he had the big talent to write amazing short stories in a very prolific way, he wrote simple and beautiful at the same time, few others could do that, writing became a habit of mine thanks to Lee, he was a pioneer in introducing human nature in a superhero context, Spider Man was Peter Parker the teenager first of all, Daredevil was the blind lawyer Matt Murdock, Reed Richard was the scientific genius with the beautiful blonde wife, he created humans who later became super humans, Superman was Superman, beyond the hero, few cared for Clark.

Stan genius was unlimited, he was Homer, Esope and Poe all at once, he created great myths, fables and metaphors in his writing, in his way he spoke to me about racism, drugs, life in other planets, war, the nuclear age, responsibility, and the eternal fight between good and evil, he knew how to put all those concepts in the most simple way for kids to understand.

I’m a little troubled about Stan´s legacy, I really don’t care a lot for the new superhero movies, I think all those effects betray the true nature of Stan´s legacy, it was always storytelling in the first place, then imagination, and then human nature, today´s , Marvel movies are all about special effects and flashy costumes, it´s all about show business, there is no heart in those works, I dreamed about one day the movies made Stan Lee work justice and that he got the respect he rightfully deserved, I guess he got some big bucks after all those movies, but the essence of Stan Lee vision is definitely lost an absent from all those Hollywood big budgets movies full of crap, Robert Downey Jr. is an asshole thinking he is doing comics good, he might be a great actor, but those movies are shit.

The great homage to Stan Lee´s work lies in the work of the Wachowskis, the work of Alan Moore or Frank Miller, that´s taking a kid´s thing and making true art out of it, just like Stan did.