8 Amazing Ways Stan Lee Changed Comics Forever

Excelsior, to the real-life hero of Marvel Comics.

by Ewan Paterson
The Stan Lee Story
Pow! Entertainment

Stan Lee, everyone's beloved generalissimo, passed away on Monday at the age of 95. He leaves behind a seismic legacy, having revolutionised the comics industry and, in no small way, having influenced popular culture as a whole in doing so.

Lee's influence is impossible to overstate, with Marvel today boasting a reach that spans the globe, and is recognisable in a variety of different mediums. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, although very much the brainchild of Kevin Feige, owes its very existence to the works of Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and those other visionaries of the Marvel bullpen era.

Although this may already go without saying, Lee impacted thousands of individuals throughout his life, most of whom he'll have never met. Simply put, comic books - and countless people too, for that matter - would not be what they are today without Lee's presence, so great and positive were the changes he affected during his decades-long involvement with Marvel.

So, in celebration of Lee's life, let's take a look at just eight of the amazing ways he changed comics - and comics readers - forever.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.