What Stan Lee taught me
It’s not an overstatement to say Stan Lee and his creations changed my life. And I’m not the only one, writes Natasha Christian.
Whether you’re Marvel or DC you know Stan Lee.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the difference between the two comic publishers or which hero and villain fits where.
It’s pretty undeniable that Stan Lee is the hero us nerds deserve.
No, he didn’t create Batman but by-golly does his long list of beloved characters get my senses tingling.
I was a chubby, acne faced, insecure kid when I discovered Thor and Iron-Man/Tony Stark and today they’re still my ‘celebrity crushes’.
I didn’t take to Barbie like I did to the Hulk, Wolverine and Black Widow.
The X-Men and Professor Xavier’s school of mutant heroes like Storm, Colossus and Night Crawler showed me that it’s better to find strength in the things you don’t like about yourself — and if you can learn to appreciate and even celebrate those things about yourself and others, you can do some pretty powerful, and even heroic things.
Yep, I was a typical introvert ‘basement-kid’ who found a lot of joy in activities that are the best when alone. I spent hours and hours drawing, listening to music, reading, watching movies, building Lego and writing.
This probably paved way for school success in art, science and English (of course I sucked at sports).
I wasn’t anti-social, I liked connecting with people, but I quickly learnt the world tends to celebrate the exact opposite of a lot of things I truly enjoy. My love of being alone in a room and getting creative with my imagination is not something they teach you at school so I had to teach myself that it was OK to love it.
The comic world helped massively with this and a few other life-lessons.
There was Spider-Man/Peter Parker who taught me that feelings of rejection, inadequacy and loneliness are something we all face and are just a normal part of life.
I also resonated way more with the notional that with “great power there must also come great responsibility” than I ever did with traditional fairy tales.
Peter Pan’s ‘never grow up’ and Snow White’s ‘wait for prince charming to save you’ messages fell pretty flat compared to Stan Lee’s characters who celebrated individuality, disability and heritage while stressing the importance of handwork and perseverance to ‘win’ and overcome our personal struggles and set backs.
Daredevil and Black Panther among others are great examples of this, with stories that hit you hard in the feels while using satire, philosophy, history and science fiction to tell stories almost anyone can relate to in some way.
Stan Lee and Marvel gave us nerds the ultimate outlet to explore and enjoy fantasy worlds for hours and hours, while still keeping it real and teaching us some valuable life lessons.
Many of the storylines drive home the lesson of accepting the cards you’re dealt with and finding a way to hone in on your ‘true power’ within.
Doesn’t matter if you root for the hero or the villain, it’s hell inspiring stuff.
And while I’ve enjoyed plenty of hours deep diving in Marvel (and DC) escapism thanks to the books, movies and even Lego — I also found a tribe to connect with on a really solid level.
Some of my biggest heroes are Marvel fans who I connected with because I found a way to overcome my shy introversion and ‘nerd-out’ with them about the comic world.
It helped me make friends in school as I found a way to identify with other kids who wore the comic-nerd crusader cape like a badge of honour and it worked well.
Unlocking this key to easily make friends through finding common ground through comics has followed me to the office, the bar, the gym — pretty much anywhere I find myself wanting to connect with new people.
If you ask anyone “Marvel or DC’ I guarantee you, you’re in for a rock solid and entertaining conversation.
I’m always excited to talk to a Marvel fan — they’re passionate, usually art-obsessed and a little quirky and every single one has a character they identify with. Hearing them talk about their love of this world makes me smile from ear to ear. Sure it might stem from fantasy, but it’s still deeply personal.
Better yet, there are people who have gone on to become artists, photographers, journalists, writers, musicians, emergency service heroes and plenty more thanks to their love of comics.
It’s a powerful driving force in terms of paving way for your future.
I owe my own career to comics in a big way.
It was a combination of Marvel’s Daily Bugle, Peter Parker’s stint as a snapper and my mum nicknaming me ‘Lois’ (after DC’s Jerry Siegel’s Lois Lane) that was basically my yellow brick road to becoming a reporter.
To this day my mum still greets me with ‘hey Lois’ … I’m not even sure she knows my real name anymore.
But enough about me, let’s get back to Stan Lee.
I’m writing this piece because I can see his death has hit a lot of us self-deprecating nerds right in the feels.
He had an excellent run and lived to the fine-wine age of 95.
Even if you can’t rattle off many of his super-influential creations, it’s hard to deny that he was most definitely a larger-than-life hero himself.
In the last decade, any Marvel movie watcher would sit patiently and wait for the blink-and-you-miss-it Stan Lee cameo.
There’s been plenty of times where these brief pop-up appearances became the highlight of the movie.
Over the years I’ve asked plenty of people who their personal heroes are and who they’d most like to meet.
There’s no plot twist here: Stan Lee is by far the most common answer.
And for those who did meet their hero in person, wearing his ‘mask’ of signature sunglasses and slick moustache, they beam from ear to eat when they declare “I got to meet Stan ‘The Man”.
And why wouldn’t they be stoked? The man revolutionalised the comic and introduced us to the super hero with human fragility.
Not only that, but the characters kept coming.
Stan Lee somehow managed to create a world of heroes for me (and many others), both on and off the page.
And that’s no easy feat.
So thank you Stan, for making a nerd’s world a truly marvellous one to live in, and for leaving behind an outstanding and immortal legacy.
Excelsior!
Natasha Christian is a News Corp producer and writer.
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