The man who gave superheroes their humanity—and built a universe where outcasts could see themselves as heroes.
Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922, in New York City, to Romanian Jewish immigrants. He started as an office assistant at Timely Comics at 17 and by 19 was its interim editor. For two decades he wrote pulp comics without distinction until the early 1960s, when he and artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four—flawed, bickering, human heroes unlike anything comics had seen. With Kirby and Steve Ditko he went on to co-create Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and the Avengers—almost the entire foundation of what became Marvel Comics. His heroes had bills to pay, prejudices to overcome, and doubts to wrestle with. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the highest-grossing film franchise in history, was built from characters Lee created in a decade of creative explosion. He died on November 12, 2018, at 95.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
“I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical research. Now I realize that entertaining people is one of the most important things anyone can do.”
Co-created the modern superhero as a vehicle for exploring prejudice, failure, and self-doubt—characters so resonant they became the foundation of the highest-grossing entertainment franchise in history.
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