8 Amazing Ways Stan Lee Changed Comics Forever

8. He Created The World's Most Famous Superheroes

Stan Lee Marvel Comics Creations
Marvel Comics

Stan Lee gave birth to dozens of comic book characters over the years, and in doing so ended up providing the definitive image of the Marvel Universe. Lee did not, of course, do this alone. Together with figures like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and John Buscema, a veritable modern Marvel was created, with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Avengers and countless others all coming into existence during this period.

Lee’s influence on these respective creations was certainly varied, but he still wrote dozens of issues on each of these respective characters, and would thus conjure the blueprint and platform all subsequent Marvel writers would use when jumping into the world of the Marvel Universe.

To call these characters immortal would only go some way in doing justice to their permanence, but it’s about the best we can do. These heroes and villains have brought so much joy into the lives of kids and adults alike for decades, and Lee was at the forefront of all of it.

The Marvel dynasty owes its success to a great many people, but Lee fostered its success with characters who were both fantastical and yet somehow completely relatable at the same time. A revolutionary approach, for a revolutionary company.

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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.