Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I know that this tribute is going to come late, but I felt that it was needed regardless of the timing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with his legacy, Stan Lee is known for the creation of iconic comic books such as Spiderman, Daredevil, X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk and various other titles that fall under the Marvel brand. Lee was regarded as comic royalty, not only for the iconic characters that he created, but for the way he changed the comic book industry.

When Stan Lee became the Jonny Come Lately to a comic book company that would later be called Marvel, he wanted to bring more depth to an industry that seemed only interested in producing writing and artwork that only appealed to seven-year-olds. Unfortunately, his superiors didn’t like the idea of changing the status quo, so Lee was stuck producing comics that contained second-rate stories and one-dimensional characters. As the old saying goes, “behind every great man there is a great woman” which best describes Lee’s wife Joan Boocock Lee, who suggested that her husband sneak a better story into the next issue, under the noses of his superiors. Since Stan was already toying with the notion of quitting, his wife reasoned that it didn’t really matter if he got fired for sneaking a story under the radar of the higher ups. When Stan took his wife’s advice, he ended up producing the highest grossing issue that his company had ever seen. This proved that comic books can possess more than simplistic stories geared towards seven-year-olds. From then on, Stan Lee’s superior storytelling, along with the cutting-edge artwork of Jack Kirby would create a new revolution in the comic book industry.

Lee not only gave the readers stories that were better structured, but he also gave us characters that were fundamentally flawed. You have Tony Stark who is a brilliant innovator who squanders his talent by spending his time boozing, gambling and womanizing, while not even giving a second thought to whether the weapons that his company had created could potentially fall into the wrong hands. When Stark is forced to see what his war profiteering helped create, he decides to reinvent himself as Iron man to clean up the mess that he helped create. Then there is Peter Parker, who would come to the realization that his newly gained powers weren’t all fun and games, when his grandfather is killed by an armed thief that Parker had refused to stop earlier. He soon realized that with great power, came great responsibility, which would be the very line that would define the Spiderman saga.

When I first got into comic books when I was seven, I hadn’t even heard of Stan Lee. I knew about Spiderman and The Hulk, but I was more into the DC superheroes, such as Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman and the Flash. As I got older, I became more interested in comic books produced by Marvel and Darkhorse. At that point, I had certainly heard of Stan Lee, but it wasn’t until I saw his performance in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats that I would finally learn who he was. In the movie he played himself, a wise and mild-mannered comic creator who encourages Brodie, the movie’s immature protagonist to fight for his girlfriend, who had broken up with him at the beginning of the movie.

There was a time when I wasn’t reading comics like I used to. For many years the only title that I read on a regular basis was The Punisher, my all-time favorite. My love for comic books would later be rekindled during the Civil War series, where a group led by Tony Stark was pitted against another group of superheroes led by Steve Rogers. This is where I ended up having a newfound respect for Captain America when he stood up against a law that required all superhumans to register their identities to the government. Rogers opposed this law not only because it could potentially compromise the secret identities that many superheroes use to protect themselves and their families, but because of the police state measures that would be used against those who refused to comply with the law. This is when I came to the realization that Captain America was the most libertarian of all the heroes in the Marvel Universe.

It’s interesting that Captain America was a character that Stan Lee had resurrected after the title had been discontinued when the Second World War came to a close. It makes me wonder if I would have the same love for comics today, if Captain America had remained a defunct character of a bygone era. I thank Stan Lee for bringing back a character that cared so much about individual liberty that he was willing to defy the government and the will of his fellow superheroes to defend it.

Sadly, Stan Lee has also had his share of detractors, who didn’t hesitate for a minute to dance on his grave as soon as his death was announced. First there were the Social Justice Warriors who called Lee everything from a misogynist to a homophobe to a racist. All of these charges are completely absurd, especially the part about Lee’s alleged racism. Anybody who knows anything about Stan Lee knows that he supported the Civil Rights movement back when it was in full swing. Plus, if they had ever bothered to read a single issue of X-Men or watch any of its movie adaptations, they would know that the overall message of the saga is that it is wrong to treat people like second-class citizens just because they are different. The only basis for these accusations was his lack of interests in changing the race or sexual preference of already established characters, even though he wasn’t entirely against the idea of creating new characters with different races or lifestyles. Then there was Bill Mahar, who not only trashed Stan Lee, but millions of comic book readers, which he somehow blamed for the election of Donald Trump. I would have to write another article to address the full absurdity of Maher’s claims.

Despite the drivel that flowed from the mouths of idiot commentators and so-called liberals who seem incapable of empathy towards their fellow man, most people respect Stan Lee for the legacy that he left us with. He has shown us that you can take a medium that was once dismissed as “Kid’s Stuff” and give it a story arch that appeals to people of all ages. The successful Avengers movie franchise and all the Marvel series on Netflix are direct testaments to this very notion. He also showed us the beauty of competition, when his competitors at DC, would take a page from Lee’s book on storylines and character development. Lee has also inspired countless writers and artists, many of which don’t even work in comic book industry. The one thing that will definitely be missed in future movie adaptations of Stan’s Lee’s work, are the cameo’s he made that always seem to reflect his quirky sense of humor.