Stan Lee, comic-book icon, dead at 95; his most notable TV appearances
It’s really difficult to put the impact of Stan Lee into words given that almost everything that he touched turned to gold — Spider-Man was one of his most-iconic co-creations, but he was also at least partly responsible for the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and many others. Without him, Marvel would not be the multi-million-dollar comic empire it now is with movies and TV shows.
Odds are that if you’ve watched a Marvel movie or TV series, you have seen Stan Lee in some capacity — he was notable for making a number of cameos across many of the live-action projects, including Agents of SHIELD on ABC. He also appeared on The Big Bang Theory and Chuck (which is one of our favorite series of all time), as himself. He is the sort of noteworthy name in the geek community that if you had him on your show, your Nerd cred went through the roof.
Even before this era of live-action cameos, Lee also did a lot of narration work for shows including The Incredible Hulk. With his distinctive cadence and noteworthy quotes (including “excelsior” and referring to many of his fans as “true believers”), he stood out in almost every single way. Personally, we remember being close to him at a convention once and you could just feel something in the air — he had a weight and an aura about him where even seeing him felt like witnessing history.
Our favorite Stan Lee TV memory
There are probably not too many people who remember this, but many years ago the network now known as Syfy had a show entitled Who Wants to be a Superhero? that was mostly about Lee trying to find the perfect person to be the star of their own comic book. It was a cheesy, silly little show where people were put through the paces of what would make a good comic-book star; yet, it was really our introduction to the larger-than-life character of Stan Lee and some of what he brought to the table. He had so much energy and passion despite being older even at that point, and you could just see how eager some of the contestants on that show were to be around him. This was during the golden age of reality competition shows, and the show only lasted two seasons — yet, there is still a part of us that misses it. We all need heroes in this world sometimes, especially in this era where it is hard to come by.
Thanks Stan, for all the memories, for inspiring millions and for making nerds like us feel like we have a place in the world. Our thoughts go out to everyone who loved him in this very difficult time, including all of his friends and family. (Photo: Syfy.)