Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28th, 1922. He grew up with his parents and brother in New York City, which clearly influenced his work when it came to placing superheroes in that location. His parents were both Romanian born Jewish, another facet of his life which influenced the social allegory of his work, including Captain America and the X-Men.
Growing up in the Great Depression, Lee's family struggled to make end's meet, but even then, the young Stanley Lieber wanted to be a writer and dreamed of writing the next Great American Novel.
As early as 1939, Stan Lee used the help of his uncle to begin to work in the comics industry. This would make him only seventeen when he began a lifetime journey into the world of storytelling. When World War II began, Stan Lee watched the horrors from an ocean away. He was only eighteen, around the same time that a young Bill Finger and Bob Kane responded to the tragedy by creating their own icon, Batman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby began to create Captain America as a response to the tragedies abroad. Stanley Lieber used the pen name that would become his legal name, Stan Lee when publishing the work. Captain America or Steve Rogers was an icon of their own making, a New York-born, (implied) Jewish man who stood up for what his creators believed America should be, from his creation, until the present. It was a brave move in a world that had grown dangerously more anti-semitic and in a surprise twist, the character was intensely popular. From an errand boy to a full-fledged writer in a short span of time, Stan Lee would have another rapid, intense shift in his life.
In 1941, Jack Kirby left Timely Comics, and Stan Lee entered the United States Army in the early months of 1942. He would return in 1945 to take his place alongside Kirby in what would become Marvel comics.
In the '50s, Stan Lee took issue with the perfect superheroes that he felt owned the medium and searched for characters who represented the flaws of humanity, and thus, they created the Fantastic Four, among so many other beloved characters, like Spiderman. But Stan Lee's influence went beyond his characters.
He influenced the reformation of the comic's code in the '70s, which had been accused of being nothing more than problematic censorship. He helped created thousands of stories and hundreds of characters that touched the lives of many, and he did charity work, after serving his country in one of the biggest global conflicts.
In Stan Lee's 95 years of life, he contributed long lasting heroes to popular culture, served his country, and overall made the world a better place with his efforts. His legacy is one of laughter and love and will never be forgotten.
Excelsior.
