Arie Kaplan, author of \u201cFrom Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books,\u201d<\/a> Lee and Kirby created \u201ca group of superheroes who weren\u2019t sunny or optimistic like rival company DC\u2019s heroes. One member of the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) felt like a freak because cosmic rays had transformed him into an orange, granite-skinned monster. With Ben Grimm, Lee and Kirby were using a superhero as a metaphor for Jews, African-Americans, and other minorities.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the introduction to the book \u201cDisguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero,\u201d by Danny Fingeroth, Lee wondered if the anti-Semitism he and other young comic book writers and artists experienced played a role in their art.<\/p>\n
\u201c[C]ould it be that there was something in our background, in our culture, that brought us together in the comic book field?\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhen we created stories about idealized superheroes, were we subconsciously trying to identify with characters who were the opposite of the Jewish stereotypes that hate propaganda had tried to instill in people\u2019s minds?\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet readers also appreciated the vulnerability and human scale of his otherwise outsized characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis stories taught me that even superheroes like Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk have ego deficiencies and girl problems and do not live in their macho fantasies 24 hours a day,\u201d Gene Simmons of the band Kiss, who immigrated to the United States from Israel as a child, said in a 1979 interview. \u201cThrough the honesty of guys like Spider-Man, I learned about the shades of gray in human nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1972, Lee was named publisher of Marvel, leaving the editing to others as he went about promoting the Marvel brand. He set up an animation studio in Los Angeles, and saw the company eventually grow from TV production into a multimedia giant that has dominated the movie box office. In 2009, the Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.<\/p>\n
The most recent Marvel film, \u201cAvengers: Infinity War,\u201d is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to gross more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n
In 2002, Lee published an autobiography, \u201cExcelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Joan, his wife of 69 years, died in July 2017, Lee\u2019s final few years were marked by a series of lawsuits over his fortune and allegations that Lee was a victim of elder abuse by a man handling his affairs. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lee\u2019s estate is estimated to be worth as much as $70 million.<\/p>\n
Upon hearing of his death, Lee\u2019s Jewish fans offered tributes on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn honor of the late great Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber, you should all read \u2018The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay\u2019 by Michael Chabon, a novel about how American Jews invented superheroes, and why,\u201d wrote Peter Sagal, the host of the NPR game show \u201cWait Wait \u2026 Don\u2019t Tell Me!\u201d<\/p>\n
NBC News correspondent Benjy Sarlin described Lee as \u201ca big source of cultural pride as a kid, both as a New Yorker and as a Jew. It meant a lot to me that so many great comic creators had similar biographies to my grandparents and that their world was reflected in the work itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Survivors include his daughter and a younger brother, Larry Lieber, a writer and artist for Marvel. Another daughter, Jan, died in infancy.<\/p>\n
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