Of course, in order to address Marvel's approach to reflecting the world outside our windows, we have to talk about the kind of characters they chose to spotlight.
Peter Parker was just a high school geek who was bullied - an outsider, by any other name. The X-Men, born into a system of oppression simply because they were considered 'different', were also outsiders, and resonated with those who felt as though they too never really fit in.
The characters Lee created alongside Kirby, Ditko and Bill Everett resonated with people the world over for a whole host of different reasons, but the fact that most were flawed, relatable individuals who felt as though they didn't belong empowered so many readers who felt they didn't have a voice.
By spotlighting these kinds of characters, Lee genuinely helped a great many people, as do the writers and artists of Marvel today.
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.
