 "Photo: Nicole Maddox")
In the 1960s there was a big boom, and the Marvel Universe was born.
A blind man without fear delivered vigilante justice, a playboy industrialist donned a suit of armor, and one kid even got bitten by a spider and ended up crawling the walls of New York City - a world of fiction created by Stan Lee.
"We need Stan," said Mike Carlin, editor of DC comics' "Justice League of America," a comic in print since 1960.
Carlin, a former editor at Marvel comics where Lee is now chairman emeritus, says a world without Stan Lee would be a bad thing.
"He revitalized a big part of the comics industry by doing work that didn't talk down to its readers," Carlin said. "Without Stan there may not be comics today, or some of the great movies that have been coming out."
Tonight, Stan "The Man" Lee will come to the University to inspire creativity in the fan-boy elite by sharing his insight into the birth of his characters that have taken popular culture hostage. Lee will be speaking to a sold-out crowd at 7 p.m. at the Texas Union Ballroom.
Lee is the latest in a high-profile list of visitors to be invited to speak at the University by the Texas Union's Distinguished Speakers Committee.
"Stan was on a speaking tour, students expressed interest, and he said he wanted to do it," said John Grube, future programs director for the committee.
Lee's career in comics is the stuff of legend.
Originally only meant to be a temporary fix to pay the bills, Lee's career launched from editor to creator and writer to figurehead for the Marvel Universe, and one of comics' most recognizable spokesmen.
Born Stanley Leiber, he began working for then Timely Comics in 1939, the year after the company that would become DC comics first published "Superman."
Lee found nothing exciting about an invincible man of steel. For him, characters who a reader could not worry about in a jam lacked a sense of humanity.
In 1960, when DC unveiled its first high-powered superteam, called The Justice League of America, Timely Comics was on the brink of collapse.
When Jack "The King" Kirby returned to Timely, the company was rechristened Marvel and answered back with its own superteam.
In 1961, the Fantastic Four - a group of adventurers given superpowers after a space trip went awry - were born. More than 40 years later, the book continues publication under the creative pen of veteran comic scribe Mark Waid.
Amazing Fantasy No. 15 would introduce readers to comics' everyman, Peter Parker, an alienated and awkward teenager bitten by fate and a radioactive spider. Spider-Man swung into his own new comic, "The Amazing Spider-Man," in 1963.
Every month, readers were treated to Lee's tales of a high school superhero trying to make it home in time for dinner while grappling with supervillains and his unrequited love for the girl next door.
"Stan put the 'human' in 'superhuman,'" said Dave Justus, of Austin Books and Comics.
Throughout the decade, Lee would work with artist John Romita Sr. on "Daredevil," the story of a lawyer blinded by a chemical accident, only to have his remaining senses amplified.
Perhaps Lee's most memorable work with the late Kirby was banding together five misfit teens born with special powers. After four decades, deaths and resurrections of characters, several spin-off books and two blockbuster films, "X-Men" continues to be a social satire about racism and discrimination.
"He wrote stories that people could really relate to," said Pete Smits, a lifelong comic book collector. "Stan set the stories in real places, like New York City, not fictional settings like Gotham. He added the soap opera to the heroes' secret identity."
For Grube, the chance to have Lee come to the University was a chance to have a speaker that has in some way connected to a point in many students' lives.
"I'm a Spider-Man fan so this is huge for me," Grube said. "It's great to see someone speak that has had a touch on my generation and pop culture."
Be the first to comment on this article!