marvel comics heros with stan lee in memory pictures

But observing the immense dissemination of specific narratives, images, symbols, and tropes mostly through the comic books during the Cold War and the films since September 11, 2001, it becomes clear that Lee's work has left the realms of being merely entertaining and escapist to unfold political and social potential. Captain America (not an original creation of Stan Lee), Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Falcon, and many more enjoy vast popularity outside the borders of the USA. Political and social potentialīut the characters Lee created are by no means only part of an exclusively American cultural and political context. The films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the great re-launch of the comic books (Marvel NOW!) enjoy popularity throughout all age groups the superheroic characters appear on merchandise products, T-shirts, stickers, tattoos, in video games, music and on social media. In doing so, he contributed to the rise of the Golden Age of Comic Books and the whole genre being seen as an entertainment product not just for young people but for adults too.

One of Lee’s major abilities, aside from an extraordinary talent for inventing original stories with fascinating characters, was his skill over decades to weaving them into political and social themes and narratives of their time. Serious issues such as civil rights and anti-discrimination were expressed through the mid-1960s issues of The Uncanny X-Men and Black Panther. However, Lee always aimed for more complexity than that, creating characters that showed nuances beyond merely fitting into a good-evil duality. Against the backdrop of the nuclear arms race, superheroes with special powers (more often than not acquired through a catastrophe or accident) would rise to greatness to protect regular people and save the world. Lee’s characters, from Spider-Man and Iron Man, to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, were seen as a reflection of Cold War anxiety embedded in an American context. This will not only be the last of Lee’s dozens of appearances in Marvel films but fittingly, also the end of phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe whose success has underlined the surge of superhero characters, many of which were created by Lee, in the past decades. Julian Schmid, a doctoral researcher in Warwick’s Department of Politics and International Studies, looks at Stan Lee's legacy from a cultural and political perspective.Īfter Stan Lee’s passing, the director of Avengers: Infinity Wars, Joe Russo, quickly confirmed that Lee would have a last cameo in the upcoming Avengers film to be released in mid-2019.

Marvel comics heros with stan lee in memory pictures