What Stan Lee Taught Me About Comic Books and Fandom

Stan Lee has passed away at the age of 95, and though it may sound like a cliché, his legacy will live forever. It’s not just that Lee oversaw the creation of such Marvel characters as Spider-Man, the original X-Men team, and the Fantastic Four. Stan Lee was a life-long ambassador for comic books. He loved telling new generations about how he created his most famous characters. Lee showed up for fans, supported younger writers, and took pride in the brand’s evolution. Because of this, he touched many people’s lives — including mine.

When I was a little girl, comic book characters weren’t as mainstream as they are today. I only found out about Batman, Superman, and their ilk from the splashy live action movies that my family showed me. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. And I wouldn’t fall in love with comic book characters until a fateful trip to Pizza Hut in the early ’90s. Back then, there was a promotion called “Book It,” where if you read five extracurricular books, you could show up to Pizza Hut and get a free kids’ meal, along with a gift. These gifts were usually janky toys, but on one occasion, I received a VHS tape with the first two episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series. What played before the feature presentation has stuck with me for life: a small panel of X-Men writers, including Stan Lee, explained the origins of the X-Men.

The clip is less than five minutes. It’s as grainy in quality now as it was in the ’90s. Still, I found it absolutely magical. Here was a man exuberantly explaining how he crafted his own mythology. Other masters can take the magic away from their creations when they over-explain them. However, Lee’s effervescence made the X-Men seem cooler because their origin story was so practical. Lee was tired of thinking of crazy ways to create superheroes, so what if they were just born that way?

Lee did what no other comic book guru had done for me: he welcomed me into his world. As a kid, I tried to enter my local comic books, and was always met with stern silence and an overwhelming panic that I could never catch up on any of the titles. In under five minutes, Lee is able to explain the general concept of the X-Men and detail why they are such a welcoming group of superheroes. “The X-Men are still one of the only groups that has youngsters, oldsters, girls, boys, men, women, of all colors, ages, sexes…and I think it just works!” Lee enthuses before tipping his hat to the creators who came after him to push the series in that direction. 

So I watched what came next, and I was enchanted. I’ve written before about how impactful those superhero cartoons were to me as a child. For the first time, I saw a show where women could be heroes, and they didn’t have to fit into a predetermined mold. Rogue could be messy and dangerous, Storm could be regal as an empress, Jean could be kind and feminine, and Jubilee could be an effervescent mall rat.

X-Men became my gateway to a larger world of comic book storytelling. From there, I got into the larger Marvel and DC Universes. When I grew up and went to college, I found a local comic book store that welcomed me the way my hometown’s wouldn’t — and I made some of the most important friends of my life.  Comic books have been an escape, an inspiration, and a way to bond with others for me. And Stan Lee did that.

Stan Lee opened the door for younger fans. He ushered them into the club by introducing comics not as some kind of card-carrying secret society for an elite, studied few, but a world where anyone was welcome. Stan Lee created superheroes, but he also created a sterling image of what fandom should look like. It should be about love, exuberance, creativity, and inclusion. Excelsior.

Where to Stream X-Men: The Animated Series