#Epic rap battles of history stan lee series#

#Epic rap battles of history stan lee series#

Chris Claremont was the first writer to reinvent the X-Men as proxies for queerness Jim Starlin’s lysergic Warlock series took Jung's collective unconscious to the cosmos and Walt Simonson’s run on The Mighty Thor meshed mythology and anxious modernity well before Neil Gaiman and company perfected the formula.Ĭompared to these, Lee was down-to-earth. But there have been occasions when they seemed to come close. Never mind that such heights were seldom realized by the comic form, designed to be both disposable and immediate.

If you believe that comic books can embody broad societal trends, that their twisty madcap continuity is incubator for even more complex narratives, and that a childhood spent among merry mutants, monsters, and Avengers prepares the emerging intellect for the pleasures of literature, then you can count yourself as the kind of True Believer that Stan Lee, the great doyen of American comic books, had in mind in a famous 1967 dispatch from “Stan’s Soapbox.” Reprinted in the same comics he co-created as a sprightly young playboy, it read in part: Many of you unsung heroes have inquired whether we take them seriously or just treat ‘em as a patently pointless put-on! Well, just for the record, Charlie, we BELIEVE in our swingin’ superheroes! We created them - we live with their adventures - their hang ups - almost 24 hour a day It’s the REAL world we have our doubts about - but that’s another story!įor Lee, who died in 2018 at the age of 95, the escapist entertainment offered by The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Daredevil, the Man Without Fear had the potential to approach the prestige of high art.