If you're like me, then you probably grew up heavily influenced by superheroes one way or another. Many of us growing up were able to get our hands on comics from the bookstore, action figures from the cereal box or just getting your hero fix by sitting down in front of our televisions every Saturday morning just to watch our favorite superheroes go up against the worlds greatest tribulations.
Even if you had never watched an episode of the spectacular spider man, or are only just now catching up with the Avengers movies and taking your first dive into the Marvel universe. You too have been touched by these characters, who time and time again have shown us that, there is so much more good in life that we have to offer.
These characters gave us the courage to face our own problems head-on and helped us try to come out the other end feeling like we accomplished something amazing. In doing so, it made us feel like the heroes we so admired. As for these heroes we were so able to look up to, there was one hero behind them all, Stan Lee.
Stan Lee was the man who gave you all of your childhood favorites like Siderman, X-men, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, DareDevil and many more. Starting in a small comic shop in Manhatten, New York, he rose to the top using influential characteristics and strong ideas he gave his own characters like perseverance, courage and just a bit of witty humor to help keep your spirit up in the most trying times.
Stan Lee's work was incredibly powerful. It connected with people on a deep, emotional level, and that's what makes it all so enduring and heartbreaking. With his epic heroes, he was able to build his characters worlds and have them leap out of their own pages and mesh into an entire universe of possibilities that would go on to inspire, and one that still inspires, children and adults over the generations.
"With great power comes great responsibility". A narration originally appearing in Amazing Fantasy #15, and later given to his character, Uncle Ben when he helping Peter (a.k.a, Spiderman) during a crossroads in life. But in reality, this line was a lesson he'd come to teach us all with his life's work. Stan chose to give us characters that were heroes who had godlike powers, but underneath all of those powers and super suits, they were still devastatingly human. Teaching us that at the end of the day, no matter what you feel sets you above the rest, we are all the same. Everyone has a great responsibility to rise above whatever troubles life throws our way, be that an alien invasion or a bump in the road, to help your fellow man.
While Lee may have passed on, his amazing work will live on forever. From all of us who will continue to pass down your heroic legacy, we say, Excelsior.
