10 Great Stan Lee Cameos Not In Marvel Movies

While it suffered a swift decline in quality in the seasons that followed, back in early 2007 Heroes was a slice of must-see TV. Superhero movies were big at the box office, but hadn't quite reached the dominance that we would later see with the MCU, and here was a fresh take on the genre grounded in the modern real world which didn't feel a need to draw on a comic book source.

The show's producers still felt enough of a tie to the superhero genre's past, though, to put in one tribute to an iconic creator of previous generations of superheroes and include a Lee cameo in the first season.

Lee naturally is paired up with fan-favourite time traveller and resident comic book geek, the only one of the Heroes really to delight in his powers, Hiro Nakamura. The Marvel legend appears at Hiro's lowest moment after splitting with best friend Ando in Las Vegas.

"Life isn't a comic book," Hiro tells Ando as he dismisses him to get on a bus alone, whereupon the bus driver, played by Lee, asks if he's travelling alone. The superhero creator's presence here seems to be to reassure us that yes, in this case, maybe life is like a comic book and Hiro still needs his sidekick.