Stanley Martin Lieber, better known as Stan Lee, is considered one of the most iconic figures in the world of comic books. He sadly passed away on November 12th, 2018 at the age of 95.

Just the other day was what would have been his 100th birthday with many people across the entertainment industry celebrating his legacy. We even received a trailer from the official Stan Lee Twitter account for an upcoming Disney+ documentary about the legendary creator.

100 years of dreaming. 100 years of creating. 100 years of Stan Lee.

Stan Lee, an Original documentary, is streaming 2023 on @DisneyPlus.#StanLee100 #StanLee pic.twitter.com/hJUdCXsS97

— Stan Lee (@TheRealStanLee) December 28, 2022

To honor him, lets take a look back at the past century and see his many contributions to not just Marvel Comics, but the entire entertainment industry.

Stan was born December 28th, 1922. He began his career at Marvel (Then known as Timely Comics) in 1939. Where he worked as an assistant to Martin Goodman, the husband of Lee’s cousin Jean Davis. He mainly did tasks such as bringing artists in and running errands. Timely had multiple hero characters such as Captain America, the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner.



Over time he was given the opportunity to write his own story, creating The Destroyer in 1941, featured in Mystic Comics #1. He was a more darker version of Captain America. However he left to join the army during WWII and wouldn’t return to Timely until after the war.

When he returned the super hero genre was dominated by DC with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman while Marvel made monster, western and comedy stories.

In 1961 Lee, along with artist Jack Kirby, were asked to create a super hero team to compete with DC’s Justice League and thus the Fantastic Four were born. Timely, then was renamed to Marvel Comics, and Lee would go on to develop the “Marvel Method” to crank out more stories.



He would go on to co-create numerous characters like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, the original X-Men and The Avengers. Some of his most frequent collaborators included Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Joe Simon.

Sadly over the years Lee has been seen as the face of many of these characters, thus he was credited far more than his peers. It’s a controversial topic that is still brought up today.



In 1972 Lee became the editor for Marvel and was seen as a figurehead for the company, appearing at multiple conventions and interacting with fans across the world. Lee pushed for expanding Marvel outside of just comics and looked into bringing their characters into both film and television. He also began his tradition of “cameos” in various Marvel projects media.



Eventually he left Marvel and began his own company, Pow Entertainment.

Thanks to the popularity of the Marvel films and his various cameos Lee became a well known face, not just with the comic fans but also to general audience. He became a huge pop culture icon, even receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

Sadly in his later years he seemingly became the victim of elder abuse with his former business manager stealing money and assets.



Lee passed away at the age of 95 and his death marked the end of one of the last people connected to the Golden Age of comics.

To this day Lee is remembered for his various contributions to entertainment. Despite some controversies surrounding his creative credits, he is still loved by millions. If it were not for his creative ambitions to push Marvel beyond just comics we wouldn’t have the MCU.

What was your favorite Stan Lee character/story? Let us know how he influenced your life.