Excelsior!

Many years ago, a man was about to give up on comics. He worked for Atlas Comics, and he was disillusioned with the way the industry was going. His career wasn't where he wanted it to be and, perhaps, he was less than happy with the censorship of the industry.

Then his boss asked him to design a superhero team to respond to the Justice League of America. On the verge of quitting, he decided to write whatever the heck he wanted. He didn't care if he got fired.

Whatever the heck he wanted was superheroes who bickered, who had problems. Who struggled with their relationships.

It was superheroes who were at their heart more human than the rest of us.

The team was the Fantastic Four and the man, of course, was Stanley Martin Leiber, better known as Stan Lee.

Stan Lee was the John W. Campbell, Jr. of comics. Yes, he was personally responsible for Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Black Panther, the original X-Men, Ant-Man, Iron Man and Thor.

But it was as an editor that he guided an industry for so many decades that his very name is synonymous with superhero comics.

It was as an editor that he demanded colorists and letterers get proper credit for their work.

It was as an editor that he created the "Marvel method" in which artists and writers would work together as equal terms, rather than the artist drawing what the script said.

He stopped writing in 1972 to concentrate on editing, publishing, and entertaining people at conventions all around the country. Everyone knows his face - if not from a convention appearance, than from his cameos in most Marvel movies (the "meta" explanation is that he works for The Watchers, recording events in the universe). Oh, and he also cameo's in Teen Titans Go!, in which he follows the grand tradition of breaking the fourth wall.

But it was his work as a mentor, as a guiding hand, as the "Watcher," of the Marvel universe (although he did also do work for DC on occasion) that makes Stan Lee perhaps the most important figure in both the comics industry and the superhero genre.

Excelsior! Stan.

You will never be forgotten while this civilization lasts.