Who Really Created the Marvel Universe?

Unravel the mystery behind the creation of the Marvel Universe. Delve into the minds of the visionaries, their inspirations, and the intricate process that birthed this iconic realm. A journey through time, exploring the unsung heroes and celebrated geniuses behind Marvel's legendary cosmos.

Stan Lee’s Legacy

Stan Lee put his pen name, Stan Lee, on all his work

• He wanted credit because he wanted power and responsibility
• “True Believer” isn’t the first serious biography of Lee, but it is the first completed since his death
• It does best to unfurl a Künstlerroman, a story about the growth of an art form and an artist who was also a director and a leading man

The Silver Age

Lee and Kirby devised what Riesman calls “a massive latticework of stories,” in which any character could meet any other; fans could project themselves into it.

• They tried, if awkwardly, to reflect generational conflict, giving power to young people (like Spider-Man and the X-Men) and “ugly” outsiders (like Ben Grimm).
• The comics became hits with kids, and then with older teens and college students, too.

Stan Lee became the editor-in-chief of Atlas Comics

Stan Martin Lieber was born in 1922 in Manhattan, New York, the son of Romanian immigrants.

• His older brother, Larry, worked with Stan in comics, off and on, for most of the 20th century, and Stan took an entry-level job at Timely, his uncle Martin Goodman’s firm
• Timely emphasized quantity over quality, trend chasing over trend creating, and Lee quickly proved that he could serve the model
• He displayed a spectacular ability to meet deadlines, scripting comics for Timely artists-Kirby among them-to draw
• The Second World War might have derailed him, except that when Lee enlisted he was assigned to the so-called playwriting division at Fort Monmouth, in New Jersey, where he wrote training films for soldiers and kept writing comics
• After the war, he returned to the company, and to self-promotion
• Lee did not, in those years, write superheroes: much reduced from their wartime prime, they earned little money for anyone except DC Comics, the home of Superman
• By the end of the decade, DC had found success in rebooting old heroes, like the Flash, and combining them into new teams like the Justice League of America

What became known as the Marvel Method

Lee and an artist would start out by chatting, perhaps making notes. The artist would draw the story and flesh out the plot, and Lee would add captions and dialogue.

• The method suited artists like the energetic veteran Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, known for their dynamic action and far-out costumes.

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