Stan Lee died on Monday. That is to say, Stan Lee died today. I'm writing this shortly after hearing what had happened, and I hope it's somewhat coherent. (I was going to post this pitch I wrote for a 100 story Spider-Man run later this month, but after reading it over, I noticed that it was extremely crap and I wanted nothing to do with it, especially after today. If you want to see it with some commentary, DM me.) There are many things that could be said about Stan Lee, most of them probably not to his benefit. There are also things to be said by better writers than I (Andrew Rillstone, for example. His Spider-Man work has always been better than mine). The truth of the matter is for all that I am a "Spider-Man Guy," my knowledge of the character has massive gaps. I haven't read the Clone Saga or most of the things by Gerry Conway or even that one story where Peter throws his costume into the trash because he can't take it anymore. Most of my knowledge of the character comes from writers like David Brothers, David Mann, and the aforementioned Andrew Rillstone, all of whom have shaped how I view the character. Hell, of the Spidey comics I have read, Lee's are relatively middling. That's not to say there aren't some greats in there (the one where Peter lifts the rubble is perhaps one of the best Spidey comics ever), but compared to the one where Peter gets shot by Kraven the Hunter and doesn't realize he's just become a magician or the one where Peter reveals his identity to J Jonah Jameson, a lot of the Lee era stories seem to be less... personal. Not as focused in the characters interiority. There are some moments of genuine wonder (the conversation between Betty and Peter under the desk, Aunt May's Speech about Parkers not giving up, Peter coming to terms with never being in a relationship with Betty), but they're fleeting moments for arch characters living a farce. But there is one issue by Lee that I always hold dear to me. Back when either the first or second movie was coming out, the New York Times decided that it would be fun to reprint some of the old Spider-Man comics by Lee and Ditko. Being a kid who loved reading the funny pages of the newspaper, I was curious to see what these comics were like. The one that was, in retrospect, the most important one to how I view Spider-Man was The Amazing Spider-Man #2. The issue had two stories in it, one being a Vulture story that I didn't remember much about. But the other one focused on a relatively minor villain called The Tinkerer. It's an odd story for people who are familiar with Spider-Man's cultural myth. It's not about some their on the run or a billionaire trying to ruin a working class guy's life because he keeps spoiling his plans to become richer and richer. It's an alien invasion story like you'd see in an EC Comic (a company I was not familiar with at the time). Reading it now, it's very much a relic of cold war fiction with the aliens being a metaphor for the Reds (despite being Green) and Spider-Man being a good old fashion American (despite being dressed in Red and Black). At the time I read it, I didn't think much of it. I didn't think much of anything I read when I was that little. And yet, the story stuck with me all these years. It was revelatory in its implications for the character of Peter Parker. Peter didn't have to be bound to stories of soap operas and "realism." The character could go into the fantastic or the weirdly science fiction. He could be the mentor to an immortal witch or the hero with a thousand faces. He could just be some regular ordinary guy or he could be the most interesting person in the world. He could be black or asian or even female. A Spider-Man story could be about... well, just about anything. It was that single, kind of bad, kind of wonderful Spider-Man comic by Lee and Ditko that started the fire. (Looking at it now, it feels more like a Lee story than a Ditko one. Lee's EC esque work tended to be more action oriented than Ditko's more quiet and philosophical ones.) And great ideas, to riff on someone else's words, are forged. So I'll always be grateful for that, Stan Lee.
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