The first inductee to the Johnpire Hall Of Fame is a true pop culture icon. Stan "The Man" Lee in hsi capacity as a comic book writer changed the entire landscape of pop culture in the 60's and led to a teenage revolution which is still to this day being played out.
Stanley Martin Lieber was born December 28th, 1922 in New York City, USA. In 1939 he became involved in Timely Comics a company which published the pulp comic books which were poular at the time. While at first he perforemd menial duties at the company he would finally achieve his dream and made his debut writing in Captain America Comics #3, this would also mark the first time Stanley used his well known pseudonym Stan Lee. Lee would continue to write various stories for Timely and its later incarnation Atlas throughout the 40's and 50's, becoming Editor In Chief in 1945, but became disatisfied with the business.
After DC comics introduced the Justice League, a team of superheroes, Lee on the advice decided to write a new superhero team; on his terms. Lee decided that his heroes would not be the perfect human beings seen in superhero comics at the time but rather would be flawed characters who would be prone the same vices as regular people: bad tempers, greed, vanity, etc and would have everyday problems such as paying bills. This team was The Fantastic Four who debuted in Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961 under the now renamed Marvel Comics publishing group. Lee was joined on this by Jack Kirby (who will most definitley be a future inductee) and would mark the begining of what, untill recently, was the longest running collabiration in comic book history. The Fantastic Four met with almost instant popularity amonst the teenagers of 1961 and buoyed by this sucess Lee with Kirby as artist would take this new formula and go on to create a number of other characters such as: The Incredible Hulk (May 1962), Thor (August 1962), Iron Man (March 1963), Doctor Strange (July 1963), The X-Men (September 1963), Daredevil (April 1964), Sgt. Nick Fury (May 1963). He would also create the Marvel version of the Justice League, The Avengers (Septmeber 1963) and would oversee the reintroduction of Timely/Atlas charcters from the Golden Age of Comics like Namor: The Sub-Mariner (in Fantastic Four #4) and Captain America (in Avengers #4) making the companys entire publication history availible for use.
Possibly Lee's greatest sucess though came in August 1962 in Amazing Fantasy #15 when as a result of the sudden spike in teenage readers Lee with artist Steve Ditko decided to create a character they could easily relate to. This charcter would be even more the opposite of the archytypical DC charcters than perhaps any other character. This character would deal with actual teenage problems (which can still be related to today) such as girls, the feeling of being an outcast, bullying, not having the money for what you want, uncertainty etc. To make this charcter even more challenged he was an orphan raised by an elderly Aunt and Uncle and in his first appearance his actions would directly lead to the death of said Uncle. That character is Spider-Man, arguabley, the most popular comic book character of all time.Spider-Man was received wwith instant commercial, critical and fan sucess. It's a mark of Lee's sucess witht eh charcter that now almost 50 years after the charcters introduction he is still as popular and omnipresent as ever.
As well as creating timeless charcters Stan Lee also dealed in his stories with a lot of the social concerns at the time: Space Exploration in Fantastic Four, Racism in X-Men, The Vietnam War in Iron Man, Nuclear Testing in The Hulk, Disability in Daredevil, Guilt in Spider-Man. However Stan Lee's biggest contribution again came in Spider-Man when in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 he delt with drug issues without the approval of the Comics Code Authority (a body set up in response to Fredric Wetham's book Seduction of the Innocent and The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenille Delinquency in the 50's), the CCA forbid publication companies from portraying certain "risqué" storylines, drugs included, and the praise received by Marvel for the way it dealt with drug concerns in Spider-Man the CCA was reformed to give publishing groups more leeway (no pun intended).
Lee's aproach of not treating his readers as children and using sophisticated vocabulary and storylines would have far-reaching efects essentially forcing DC into following suit. This would also inspire generations of comic book creators to come and truely established Lee as the father of all modern comics.
Outside of comics Stan Lee has made cameo appearances in virtually every Marvel comics property to be made into a film including The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, Spider-Man 2, Fantastic Four, X-Men The Last Stand, Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. It is also likely he will have cameos in Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers.
Perhaps Lee's best cameo though comes in Kevin Smith's 1995 film Mallrats where as himself he gives one of the main charcters Brodie Bruce a rousing speech to encourage him.
While Stan Lee today spends most of his time doing guest appearances, voice-overs and interviews his contribution to popular culture cannot be denied and for that reason I am proud to induct Stan "The Man" Lee as the first member of The Johnpire Hall Of Fame.
