Since the dawn of the Marvel Universe in 1961,
Stan Lee has been the public face of superhero
comics, and the co-creator of some of the
world’s most popular fictional characters.
If that was all he'd done, he'd still be one
of the most important figures in comics history.
But with a writing career that's spanned eight
decades, he also collaborated with amazing
artists to produce some of the greatest comic
book stories of all time.
Here are ten of his absolute best.
Identity Crisis
Amazing Spider-Man #600, 2009
Lee had mostly stepped away from any regular
comics work in the 2000s, but if you thought
he had lost his touch as he got older, you
should probably check out a charmingly goofy
short story with artist Marcos Martin that
ran in Amazing Spider-Man #600.
Not to be confused with the somewhat mystifying
Spidey story of the same name from 1998, where
Peter Parker faked his death and replaced
his alter-ego with four new superhero codenames,
"Identity Crisis" is about Spider-Man explaining
all of his troubles to a psychiatrist.
Not the usual troubles like supervillains
— the troubles of being a fictional character
whose personal continuity is subject to being
tweaked and retconned by his creators.
The twist?
The psychiatrist, who has the groanworthy
name of "Gray Madder," is drawn by Martin
to look just like Stan Lee.
And there’s an even better twist at the
end, when Spider-Man's questions drive Madder
to seek therapy himself, and he winds up on
the couch with a psychologist who bears a
striking resemblance to Spidey’s other co-creator,
Steve Ditko.
Bedlam at the Baxter Building
Fantastic Four Annual #3, 1965
While Stan Lee had a hand in creating virtually
every character that was featured at the dawn
of the Marvel Age of Comics, there are a handful
that he clearly cared about more than others.
His involvement with Avengers and X-Men, for
instance, was relatively short-lived, but
with the Fantastic Four, he and Jack Kirby
collaborated for 102 issues straight, plus
six annuals.
It’s where they did some of their best work,
and while "Bedlam at the Baxter Building"
might not quite hit the operatic highs of
Galactus descending from space to chow down
on the Earth, it's still one of the highlights.
It’s the issue where where Reed Richards
and Sue Storm finally get married, an event
so important that it involves every single
character in the Marvel Universe up to that
point.
It's a showcase of just how cohesive that
universe was, and with Dr. Doom hypnotizing
every supervillain in New York to attack the
blessed event, it's just plain fun to read.
The best bit, though, comes at the end, Stan
and Jack themselves are refused entry into
the wedding and sullenly head back to the
office to make the next issue.
That's what was so great about Stan's contribution
to the early days of Marvel — with gags
like this, he and Kirby formed a bridge between
our world and the one they were creating on
the page.
The Sinister Six
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, 1964
In a lot of ways, Amazing Spider-Man was the
book that defined Stan Lee’s first decade
of Marvel Comics.
He wrote the first hundred issues, and then
stayed on the book off and on for another
few years before finally handing it off.
The Fantastic Four might've been Marvel's
first family, but Spider-Man was the character
so popular that they put him on the letterhead.
Stories like this one are why: an action-packed
thrill ride that hits the ground running and
doesn't slow down for a full 41 pages.
As the title implies, it's Spider-Man taking
on every single one of his major villains,
one right after the other, and while it feels
a little old-fashioned when you look at it
50 years later, it still holds up as one of
the greatest all-out action comics of all
time.
To be honest, though, the star here is Steve
Ditko.
His awkward, spindly figures, which were perfect
for Spider-Man's earliest adventures and Dr.
Strange's weird sorcery, always set him apart
from the rest of Marvel’s artists.
The splash pages of Spidey slugging it out
with each member of the Sinister Six, however,
aren’t just Ditko’s greatest moments,
but some of the best pages Marvel has ever
seen.
Then again, Stan was the one who wrote dialogue
that featured Peter Parker getting madder
and madder at these villains, winding up with
some real gems like calling Electro a "high-voltage
heel."
The Peril and the Power
Fantastic Four #57 - 60, 1966
When they introduced Galactus, Lee and Kirby
brought in the idea of cosmic powers who were
well beyond even the superheroes of their
brand-new universe.
Less than a year later, they reminded everyone
why Dr. Doom always is listed among the greatest
supervillain of all time - if not the greatest.
Seriously…
In "The Peril and the Power," Doom fools the
Silver Surfer into thinking that he's a nice
guy and then immediately hits him with a science-taser,
steals the Power Cosmic, and then proceeds
to beat the ever-lovin' blue-eyed mess out
of the FF for the next four issues.
In addition to boasting one of the all-time
great Ben Grimm fights and a climax where
Reed manages to outthink Doom despite being
woefully outmatched, this story has Lee's
operatic superhero writing at its best.
He's always great at lending Doom his bravado
and self-serving grandeur, and the scene where
Doom is running a con on the Surfer by just
standing there pretending to like puppies
until the Surfer turns his back for a second,
is genuinely great.
The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny
Silver Surfer #4, 1968
Whenever someone asked Stan Lee who his favorite
character is out of all the heroes and villains
that he's created, he always has the same
answer: the Silver Surfer.
That might be surprising, but it's also easy
to see when you read his Surfer comics.
There's a rare thoughtfulness to them as Stan
deals with the challenge of writing a superhero
who's essentially a pacifist.
In this issue, though, the Lee and John Buscema
went all in on the fighting.
There's a little bit of philosophy in the
part where the Surfer’s hanging out with
animals because they lack the cruelty that's
so common in human beings.
But mostly, it's about Loki deciding he should
ruin Thor's day by convincing the Silver Surfer
that he should crash a party in Asgard and
get into a fistfight with everyone there.
It's a perfect clash of weird sci-fi and superhero
fantasy, and Buscema draws the sneeringest
Loki that you're likely to see anywhere.
The Coming of Galactus
Fantastic Four #48 - 50, 1966
For any other pair of creators, a story like
"The Coming of Galactus" would unquestionably
be the single best thing they'd ever done.
The fact that it only rounds out Stan Lee's
top five — and might not even rank that
high on a list of Jack Kirby's greatest hits
— says a lot about how many truly great
stories he's been a part of.
To say that this story is a game-changer is
underselling things quite a bit.
It was the biggest story that superhero comics
had ever seen, and the impact that it had
on comics can't be measured.
It's the blueprint for every big event comic
ever: a story where everything is in danger,
and where, at the end of the day, the main
characters have to confront the fact that
there are cosmic forces well beyond their
ability to deal with on their own.
And the wildest thing?
It actually ends halfway through #50, so that
we can move on to Johnny Storm's first day
at college.
The civilian soap opera and the cosmic heroics,
and the way they blend together, is exactly
how Lee and Kirby revolutionized comics.
Spider-Man No More!
Amazing Spider-Man #50, 1967
In Amazing Fantasy #15, Stan Lee and Steve
Ditko established Spider-Man's fatal flaw:
an all-too-relatable desire to just stand
by and let things happen without his intervention.
It's the reason that the line about power
and responsibility is repeated so often in
those stories, because it has to be a constant
reminder.
Five years later, Lee and John Romita Sr.
put a new spin on that same idea, and actually
improved it.
After years of adventures, they told a story
in which Peter Parker finally got tired of
having all of his heroic efforts rewarded
with endless problems, and gave it up.
There was even a justification: hadn't he
made up for that one mistake with 50 issues
of fighting against evil?
The answer, of course, was no, and it marked
a massive change for Peter Parker as a character.
Even though he tried to give up on heroism,
he couldn't — his nature had changed from
the person who wants to stand by to the person
who can't, replacing his old fatal flaw with
a new one.
This Man, This Monster
Fantastic Four #51, 1966
Most creative teams would have a hard time
topping the Galactus saga for the rest of
their careers.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, on the other hand,
managed to do it the very next month.
Ever since he made his first appearance, Ben
Grimm had been the prototype for the Marvel
superhero.
As the Thing, he was powerful, but also cursed
with the body of a misshapen rock monster.
In this story, Ben gets his wish when a new
villain turns him human again, only to take
the Thing’s form for himself.
Naturally, it's all an evil plot to murder
Reed Richards, but for Ben, it presents an
interesting dilemma.
When he returns to the Baxter Building, his
teammates don't believe he's been turned back
into his old self.
His choice, then, is to accept the price of
no longer being a monster — losing his family
— or try to regain the people he's closest
to at the cost of what he's always seen as
his humanity.
Parable
Silver Surfer #1 - 2, 1988
On a technical level, "Parable" might be the
single best comic book story Stan Lee has
ever done.
It boasts a staggering level of craft, and
was largely responsible for introducing American
audiences to the legendary French cartoonist
Jean Giraud, better known by his pen name,
Moebius.
As the title implies, the story deals with
downright Biblical themes of morality and
free will.
It focuses on Galactus, who descends on Earth
to feed on the worship of humans who see him
as God.
He even commands humanity to end all wars
and violence, which seems like a good idea
until you consider that his act of saving
us from ourselves is built around the threat
of planetary annihilation.
That's where the Silver Surfer comes in, literally
rising up from living on the streets in order
to confront Galactus and debate the nature
of divinity.
As befitting the idea of Stan's take on the
Surfer as a cosmic pacifist, there's surprisingly
little "action" to be found here, but every
piece of it is compelling in a way that's
decidedly rooted in superhero comics and allegorical
sci-fi.
The Final Chapter
Amazing Spider-Man #33, 1966
There's a reason a lot of people in the know
consider this is the greatest Marvel comic
of all time, and arguably the single greatest
superhero comic ever printed.
Even if you haven't read it, you know how
it works.
Spider-Man’s trapped, exhausted and beaten,
being crushed under the weight of his enemies'
machinations.
He's at the end of his strength, but instead
of giving up, he has to keep going because
there's someone out there who needs him, and
he’s willing to fight his way through whatever
it takes to help them.
It's the epitome of what Lee's sensibilities
brought to the genre, the story that crystallized
the idea that it's not that heroes don't get
knocked down, but that they keep getting up.
It became so emblematic of superheroes in
general and Spider-Man in particular that
it was even re-enacted in Spider-Man: Homecoming
to show moviegoers exactly how this character
works.
What’s especially impressive is that when
this comic was being made, Lee and Steve Ditko's
working relationship had deteriorated to the
point where they were no longer speaking to
each other.
The plot and staging are all Ditko, but that
soaring dialogue is Lee through and through,
and stands even today as an all-time great.
