Good News Tommy strikes a superhero pose on playground monkey bars, inspired by the imaginative storytelling legacy of Stan Lee.

The Legendary Legacy of Stan Lee

December 28, 2022

Put a child on a playground after they’ve read a great superhero story and something magical can happen. The monkey bars become skyscrapers. The slide becomes an escape route. An ordinary kid can suddenly leap, climb and race through an entire world created inside their imagination.

Few people understood the power of that kind of storytelling better than Stan Lee.

For generations of children—and plenty of adults—Lee's name became almost inseparable from superheroes. But his greatest contribution wasn't simply helping create characters with extraordinary powers. Alongside remarkable artists and collaborators including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee helped create heroes who could be extraordinary and surprisingly human.

Vintage 1960s-style comic book illustration of Stan Lee smiling in sunglasses, with a colorful halftone background and the words “Stan ‘The Man’ Lee.

From Stanley Lieber to Stan Lee

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City on December 28, 1922. As a teenager, he landed a job at Timely Comics, the company that would eventually become Marvel Comics.

His earliest published work for the company appeared in Captain America Comics #3 in 1941. He used the name “Stan Lee,” a name that would eventually become far more famous than the one he was born with.

By the 1960s, Lee was working with an extraordinary group of comic-book artists and writers during the period that would establish the modern Marvel universe.

Marvel's history of Stan Lee credits him as co-creator of characters including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and the X-Men.

What Made These Superheroes Different?

Superheroes had existed long before Marvel's famous characters arrived. But Lee and his collaborators began telling superhero stories in a way that often made the people underneath the costumes just as interesting as their powers.

The Fantastic Four didn't always get along.

Bruce Banner struggled with the monster inside him.

And Peter Parker wasn't introduced as a fearless, perfect superhero. He was an awkward teenager who could feel lonely, worry about everyday problems and make mistakes.

Marvel itself describes the Fantastic Four created by Lee and Jack Kirby as characters who dealt with recognizable problems—including money troubles and disagreements—even while embarking on fantastic adventures.

That combination helped change superhero storytelling.

The hero didn't have to be perfect to be heroic.

Then Came Spider-Man

Perhaps no character demonstrates that idea better than Spider-Man.

Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962, created through the collaboration of writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko.

The Library of Congress, which holds original artwork from the story, describes Peter Parker at the beginning of the adventure as a lonely teenager before the famous radioactive spider changes his life.

That was important.

Underneath the mask wasn't an untouchable hero living in some distant fantasy world. He was a kid dealing with many of the same emotions young readers understood.

He just happened to be able to climb walls.

Great Characters Give Kids Somewhere to Go

There's a reason children don't always finish a superhero story and simply put it down.

They become the characters.

A couch becomes a mountain. A blanket becomes a cape. A playground becomes a city skyline.

Stories give children raw material for imagination. They can take a character, a problem or an adventure and continue it long after the book has closed.

And the most memorable characters often aren't memorable because they're perfect.

They're memorable because we recognize something of ourselves in them.

That's one of the enduring lessons in the characters Lee helped bring to life.

Stan Lee Didn't Do It Alone

It's impossible to tell the story of Stan Lee accurately without talking about collaboration.

Comic books combine writing, drawing, character design, pacing and visual storytelling. Lee worked alongside some of the greatest artists in comic-book history.

He and Jack Kirby collaborated on the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor, X-Men and many other characters and stories. Lee and Steve Ditko collaborated on Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

The Library of Congress describes the creative process behind Marvel comics as highly collaborative and even preserves original Spider-Man artwork containing Lee's editorial notes to Ditko.

That's a wonderful lesson for young creators, too.

Big ideas don't always come from one person working alone.

A writer can imagine something. An artist can transform it. Someone else can add another idea. Together, they can create something none of them might have created individually.

From Comic Books to a Worldwide Phenomenon

The characters Lee and his collaborators helped develop in the 1960s eventually traveled far beyond comic-book pages.

They became cartoons, toys, television programs, video games and some of the biggest movies in the world.

Lee himself became a recognizable part of that world. His enthusiasm, larger-than-life personality and famous appearances in Marvel films introduced him to generations of fans who may never have seen one of the original comic books.

But everything traces back to something wonderfully simple:

A writer. An artist. A page. And an idea.

Let Kids Create Their Own Heroes

You don't need superpowers—or even a comic book—to bring a little of that creativity into your own home.

Ask your child:

If you could invent a superhero, what would their power be?

Then keep going.

What would the hero be afraid of?

What would make them laugh?

Who would their best friend be?

What problem would they have to solve?

Have your child draw the character, invent a name and tell you an adventure. Younger children don't even have to write it down. They can act it out in the living room or take the adventure outside to the playground.

Suddenly the monkey bars aren't monkey bars anymore.

They're the top of a skyscraper.

And that's the real power of a great story: the audience doesn't just watch it. They carry it somewhere new.

An Influence on Storybooksong

Stan Lee and the extraordinary artists and storytellers he worked with—including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko—have also been an influence on Storybooksong.

Their ability to create memorable characters with distinct personalities, recognizable worlds and stories that sparked the imagination helped show generations of creators what character-driven storytelling could accomplish.

Storybooksong lives in a very different world of children's music, animation and stories, but that same fundamental idea is important to us: create characters children care about, give them stories worth following and inspire kids to use their own imaginations.

Whether it's through a song, an animated adventure or a character like Good News Tommy, we want the story to continue after the screen turns off. If a child starts singing, drawing, pretending, inventing a new adventure or turning the playground into an imaginary world, the character has done something bigger than simply entertain them.

It has inspired them to create.

The Legendary Legacy of Stan Lee

Stan Lee died on November 12, 2018, at the age of 95, but the characters and stories he helped create continue to reach new generations.

His legacy belongs not only to comic-book history, but to the larger tradition of storytelling—the idea that fantastic adventures work best when there's something genuinely human underneath them.

And perhaps that's one reason his influence continues. Great storytellers don't simply give children a world to watch.

They give children a world to imagine.

So the next time your child turns the couch into a spaceship, races across the playground pretending to save the world or draws a superhero nobody has ever seen before, don't be too quick to call it “just playing.”

You may be watching a young storyteller at work.