Stan Lee is one of the greatest storytellers of all time

 Stan Lee in Spider-Man Homecoming
Photo Courtesy of Walt Disney.

Stan Lee is the mind that helped create many of the greatest characters in media. Even if you are not a fan of comic books you have heard of at least three of his characters.

There’s a teen that swings around New York with webs. There’s a big green guy that you wouldn’t like when he’s angry. There’s also an African king of an advanced nation in Lee’s character archive.

Sadly, Stan Lee died on Nov. 15, of heart failure. His memory will live on through his comics and the media inspired by them.

Lee was a titan of creativity.

Lee had a massive fan base built on love. His personality bled into all of his work and it made his characters relatable and riveting.

Characters like the nerd, Peter Parker, who turned into the web slinging Spider-Man, saved fans from danger and had our hearts in a web.

Who else had Spider-Man bed sheets? I mean bookbags.

The comic books Lee helped create accumulated large followings. This following expanded into the audience of the most successful film franchise in history.

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe owes everything it is today to Lee. In every Marvel movie there was a moment every serious fan waited for: the Stan Lee cameo. Lee even appeared in the “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” movie!

Many stars and fellow storytellers paid tribute to Lee via social media. Among them were Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Robert Downey Jr., and Samuel L. Jackson. The famed Russo brothers tweeted a photo with the caption “Thank you for filling our childhoods with such joy. You will be dearly, dearly missed…”

It was Stan Lee’s personality that made him an icon. When you saw Lee in an interview or a cameo, that thought in your mind that begs the question “who could come up with these characters and worlds,” is satisfied when you see it’s an awesome comic book nerd that luckily never grew up.

Lee helped sculpt many childhoods with one justice delivering protagonist at a time. He even gave us foes to face like Green Goblin, Doctor Doom, and Loki.

He inspired many of our childhood Halloween costumes. I know my fanny filled a Spider-Man onesie as I wielded Hulk arms at the same time when I was little.

Toys and Marvel paraphernalia fill many kids rooms. There’s quite a bit of space in my own room dedicated to Marvel products.

As a young kid, I learned to recognize Lee as the creator of some of my favorite superhero icons and their villainous adversaries. Today I recognize him as the inspiration for an innumerable number of entertainers, writers, creators, entrepreneurs, and people of all walks of life.

I like to believe that Lee would not want fans to mourn his life but rather to celebrate his life and legacy.

Excelsior!