
Stanley Martin Lieber, aka Stan Lee, was born on December 28, 1922 in NYC to two Romanian immigrants. During most of his childhood, he grew up during the Great Depression with his younger brother, Larry. Stanley Lieber, who later changed his name to Lee, went on to be hired as an assistant at Timeley Comics in ’39 and quickly became an acting editor for the company in the early 1940s. Lee also served in the Army during World War 2 from home, working as a writer and illustrator.
In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics (Timely’s new name) called upon Lee to create a new series that could compete with Justice League of America, from Marvel’s rivals, DC Comics. Lee cites that he was influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, while receiving encouragement of his wife, Lee did away with the normal conventional ideas of a superhero and with the help of co-creator Jack Kirby, came up with Fantastic Four in 1961.

Following the Fantastic Four, was a huge group of new characters from Lee and his Marvel legions. This includes the Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil and the X-Men.
He was mainly known for imbuing his characters with a sense of humanity, tackling real-world issues like drug use and bigotry, which continues to influence comics. As an outgoing and humorous man, Lee developed many slogans including a “Excelsior!”, a Latin word to rise.
As Marvel Comics grew in popularity, Stan Lee was promoted to editorial director and publisher in ’72. He eventually moved to the West coast to be more involved in Marvel’s films and he eventually retired but could continue to be chairman of Marvel.

Eventually, Lee became involved in many different multimedia projects while serving as an ambassador for Marvel, even while filing lawsuits against the company and the subject of debate over appropriate compensation for comic creators. Lee has watched Marvel develop into a leading entity by inspiring blockbuster films in entertainment like X-Men and the Avengers franchises. He started his own company called POW! Entertainment in 2001 and eventually published his autobiography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee.
He eventually received the Medal of Arts honor from President Bush and launched Stan Lee’s Superhumans on the History Channel. The show looked at people with remarkable skills and remarkable abilities.

The very active 90 year old, Stan Lee lost his wife of nearly 70 years, Joan, in July of 2017. He then checked into a hospital with an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath the following January giving many comic book fans and movie fans a scare! He was shortly discharged and announced he was ready to continue as Black Panther, was soon to be released.
On November 12, 2018, the world lost a magnificently creative man. The world weeped as the knowledge of never seeing another cameo of Stan Lee in anymore Marvel movies came to light.
The Aurora Public Library District owns many Marvel movies and currently has a display up on the first level in the JFic area. Please, feel free to check any item on the display out to celebrate Stan Lee’s life!
Information Derived from the following websites:
https://www.biography.com/
https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/stan-lee/