Stan Lee (1922 - 2018)

When I was a kid, I adored Spider-Man.

I first came across him through Spider-Man: The Animated Series on Fox Kids, produced and written by the brilliant John Semper. To my mind, it is and remains the definitive Spider-Man cartoon. It introduced me to the Marvel Universe, and it is in large part because of this series that I got interested in comics. To this day, whenever I read a Spider-Man comic, I can hardly help but read Spidey's lines with the voice of Christopher Daniel Barnes (the voice of the character in this series) in my head.

When I heard there was going to be a big blockbuster film, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, then to my 6 year-old self, it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened, ever. I remember the crushing disappointment when I found out it was to be rated 12, and the excitement that built up again when Dad told me that it had been reclassified as a PG in some areas (or a 12A, allowing me to see it as long as I was with a parent).

It was around the time that the new Spider-Man film was being heavily promoted on Fox Kids that I found out who Stan Lee was.

Here was an old guy with dark sunglasses and a distinct New Yorker accent, and he was explaining how he CREATED Spider-Man!

As far as I was concerned, this guy was the new Walt Disney! He created Spider-Man, AND all the other superheroes I was watching on television then, like The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four? This guy with two first names (I remember thinking that was cool, but also weird) was an absolute legend!

I remember watching interviews with him from then on. When I got my first ever Spider-Man DVDs - some of the films, some of the animated series, there would be Stan Lee interviews, and I would consume them religiously, and play them over and over again. One in particular sticks out in my mind to this day, where I realised how underrated and underappreciated he must've been.

Lee spoke about how rare it was for him to be recognised, and how he couldn't understand some of his more famous friends who would sometimes tell him of how they hated being asked for an autograph. For Lee, he said that whenever someone came up to him and said, 'Hey, aren't you Stan Lee?', followed by 'the guy who created...' (whoever their favourite superhero was - invariably Spider-Man) and then 'Can I have your autograph?', he would smile that great big smile of his, thank them, and sign something for them. In Lee's words, being recognised and appreciated as the creator and writer of their favourite character was 'To me...the most flattering thing in the world.'

I remember how I used to ask friends about Stan Lee - friends who were fellow fans of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men etc., and they'd often look at me blankly. Maybe it was because I was a weird 6-7 year-old child who was interested in who created my favourite fictional characters.

But that all changed with the Marvel movies. After a few years of Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, and many others transitioning to the big screen, (but before the Marvel Cinematic Universe even existed), Stan Lee became a regular fixture of Marvel films, making guest appearances and cameos wherever possible. In some cases, he even cameo-ed as himself, including in the final episode of my favourite Spider-Man TV series!

By the time the MCU was in full swing, it felt like virtually everyone was in on the joke, and it became part of the regular ritual of going to see any Marvel movie, to wait and pick out the tiniest blink-and-you'll-miss-him moment of the God of Marvel making his regular, inevitable appearance.

Today, Stan Lee is recognised the world over. His cameos are some of the most anticipated moments of one of the biggest film franchises on the planet, and any panel appearance by him at a science-fiction or comic book convention is one of the most exciting parts of those events.

But what was it that made Stan Lee, and his characters, so different? So unique? So loved? So cherished? It's not like he was the first person to create comic book superheroes. Superman, Batman, Captain America and others - they were around long before Stan Lee and Marvel Comics.

I think the answer is this.

The key emphasis, with virtually any of the Marvel Superheroes, is that underneath the mask or costume, the characters are honestly, brilliantly, and irretrievably, human.

I loved the Superman Christopher Reeve films as a kid too, but it was always the Clark Kent scenes that interested me the most.

Because the thing about Superman is that he is so overpowered, and meant to be such an idealised symbol of 'truth, justice, and the American way', and is himself not human - that he is difficult to relate to. Superman always gets the girl, because he can save her life and easily sweep her off her feet. He is adored by every section of his fictional city of Metropolis - even the tabloid newspapers!

Marvel heroes are different. Marvel heroes are human.

The thing about Peter Parker - aka The Amazing Spider-Man - is that when he first started, in the earliest comics, written by Stan Lee himself, he was nothing more than a teenager. And not only that, he was a geek. A nerd.

He wasn't cool, he wasn't handsome, he wasn't collected. He wasn't sporty, he wasn't lucky. He was, in fact, one of the unluckiest teenagers you could ever meet - even after he got bitten by a radioactive spider.

Everything conceivable that could go wrong for a teenage boy happened to Peter Parker. He had acne, he would get colds, he had trouble talking to girls, he was the unpopular kid, he was bullied, he struggled to get dates...

When he was a little older, he struggled to balance work, home and University life. He struggled to keep time. He struggled to pay the rent. People would think he was lazy. You name a problem, Peter Parker had it. He was an outcast - like so many of the kids and teenagers reading about him.

And then, when he put on the mask, and became Spider-Man, he became something different. Something more.

As Stan Lee said, one of the brilliant accidents of his and Steve Ditko's costume design for Spider-Man was that it covered his whole body. There was no visible skin, no holes for a mouth or eyes. From head to toe he was a hero in black, white, red and blue. And so, under that costume, theoretically, Spider-Man could be anybody. He could be black, he could be white, he could be Asian. Hell, Spider-Man could even be female! You never know, under that mask!

For generations, comic book, cartoon, TV series, film, and general superhero fans, have looked at the incredible roster of superheroes and supervillains, created by Stan Lee and beyond, and projected *themselves* onto them. As Lee often put it, the inherent appeal of Marvel characters was that readers could look at the ordinary lives of the extraordinary people on the page, and go 'Hey, that could be me!'

Stan Lee never talked down to his audience. From the oldest fanboy to the youngest child, he'd treat all of his fans the same - with credit for their intelligence, and respect. He never patronised his younger audiences. They felt as welcome a part of the Marvel family as any other fan. With his charm, and his wit, and his modesty, his New York twang and his winning smile, Stan Lee was a true, real-life hero to the young, and the forever young at heart. He touched so many lives, and so many people, and despite never having had the opportunity to see him at a convention, let alone meet the great man, I and so many others, felt like we knew him. It is to my everlasting regret that future generations may not know Stan Lee the way we all did.

Because you see, Stan Lee wasn't just some Walt Disney of the comic book world, or our creative idol.

Stan Lee was our friend.

He encouraged us to face front, true believers! He taught us that anyone could be a hero, and that with great power, must also come great responsibility.

At 95, he lived a long, successful, and happy life, and generation after generation of fans will be forever grateful that such a giant, such an inspiration, and such an ordinary, brilliant man, shared his time on this earth, his boundless creativity, and his big, open-hearted values, with us.

Rest in Peace, and in Power, Stan.

Forever.

Excelsior!

Remembrance Day, Respect, and The Three Poppies

Some unreconstructed thoughts on Remembrance Day:

- Poppies are great, and a really nice way of showing your respect. But only if you're actually bothering to donate to the Royal British Legion (or other relevant veterans charity) which is kind of the point. There are stories of TV news studios providing poppies for guests before interviews, and unless that guest has already donated to the RBL or intends to, it's kind of missing the point.

- People fought in WWI and WWII for people to have the rights that we enjoy today, and that includes freedom of expression. Someone may well choose not to wear a poppy. It doesn't make them a bad person, and for all you know they may have already donated to the Royal British Legion. Or they might be a war veteran themselves, who has chosen not to wear it for their own personal reasons (like WWII veteran Harry Leslie Smith). It doesn't mean they're not patriotic or respectful of war vets that have died.

- Other races and religions are not offended by the red poppy. No, they're really not. There were Indian and African soldiers that fought on the allied side in the world wars, and the British Army today is highly multicultural and multi-racial. They are not offended by poppies. That's a lie, originally cooked up by the far right to get you to try to hate Muslims and others.
I passed by plenty of people with Poppy stalls on the way into the Underground this week. Most of those people weren't white.

- Putting poppies on food packaging, or having people dress up in giant poppy costumes, is spectacularly missing the point. I happened to catch a clip or two of X Factor's Halloween week the other day, and they were all wearing poppies over the top of their Halloween costumes, and I have to say, it not only looked weird, but I would argue it was a bit disrespectful, to be honest. Halloween and Remembrance Day are tonally very different, wearing a poppy over your Mummy costume while you murder a Michael Jackson classic isn't the height of respect for the war dead.

- The size of your Poppy *really* doesn't matter. The Royal British Legion sell poppies in all shapes and sizes, from the traditional paper ones, to the larger silk versions, and to smaller pin badges. Jeremy Corbyn chose to wear a pin badge poppy today, on top of his raincoat and suit (yes, he wore a raincoat, given that it's London, in the middle of November). At his first ever cenotaph memorial as Labour leader, he also stuck around and chatted to the veterans, while the rest of Britain's current and former Prime Ministers (many of whom have continued to send off British troops into pointless wars) went off to a lavish state banquet. And Corbyn actually wants to increase *government* funding for homeless veterans, as opposed to just paying lip service to respect for soldiers.

- Plenty of people also choose to wear the white poppy, either instead of or alongside the red poppy. White poppies are not disrespectful, and they are not some new fad. They have been around since 1933, and were first distributed by the Co-operative Women's Guild. Many women wore them in honour of the husbands, brothers and sons they lost in the First World War. And in the run-up to WWII, many women wore them in protest against the march to war when politicians had promised them the previous war would've been the 'War To End All Wars'.

We can argue about the wisdom of that at the time, given that attempts to find a peaceful solution to Hitler's imperial tendencies demonstrably didn't work, but the point is, the white poppy is to symbolise a commitment to peace. The Peace Pledge Union distribute them today, and the aim is to remember victims (both servicemen and women) and civilians of war, and to continue to work towards peace. You can wear a white poppy or red poppy, or both, as many do, and you are not necessarily depriving money that would otherwise go to veterans. You can wear a white poppy *and* donate to the Royal British Legion or other veterans' charities.

- Having said that, the Peace Pledge Union also believe that really, war veterans should not have to rely on charity, and that the government should be the ones providing healthcare, medical care, therapy, a safe home etc., to veterans. There are thousands of homeless war veterans, and it shouldn't just be the job of the Royal British Legion to help them in their hour of need. Our government ought to be the main ones looking after them, given that they are the ones who sent them off to war in the first place.

- People also wear Purple Poppies, to commemorate the animals who have been used and fought with in war. That's perfectly legitimate and respectful too. Again, just because someone might wear a purple poppy instead of a red one, doesn't mean that they haven't donated to the Royal British Legion in private - again, the donation to the RBL (or other veterans charity) is the point.

- We shouldn't glorify war. The whole point of the poppy - the original point of Remembrance Day - was to not only remember those we have lost, but to resolve to avoid conflict and war in future. Almost every war and conflict starts with the failure of dialogue and descent into violence, and ends in a political agreement. It would be great if we could cut out the middle part, of so much death and destruction, and tried, wherever possible, to find a peaceful solution. War should be a last resort, not a first response.

- WWII in particular largely began with fear and loathing of the unlike, and the different. It came with not only providing simple solutions to complex problems, but with the simple solution often being to blame the other. The immigrant, the Jew, the gypsy, the disabled. Leaders also targeted people for their political beliefs - socialists, social democrats, communists. They would demonise the free press, and call them 'enemies of the people'.

Make sure that we don't let the same thing happen today, and that we don't let it happen in Britain. Don't blame Muslims, don't blame Jews, don't indulge in conspiracy theories or stereotypes about either, because they are dangerous. Be a citizen of the world as well as a citizen of this country. Look after and respect minorities, and champion liberty, and freedoms. That is and will be the most fitting tribute to those who fought and died to protect those rights.