To what extent was stan lee's marvel revolution

The complexities of society construct the social norms which govern societies. Issues around the United States of America during the 1960’s and the 1970’s are what largely influenced Stan Lee’s Marvel revolution.

The marvel revolution was the revolution of the comic book industry. Before then the DC Company, which created heroes like Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder woman and more, was the main supplier of superhero comic books. These heroes were widely regarded the driving force for material in the adolescent community. This however changed when sales for comic books declined rapidly. This was a continuous thing until Stan Lee came to the scene. 1939 to 1947 saw the age of heroes with no weaknesses and it thrived for a while but then it got rather cliché. Then superheroes had dogs and the whole industry was a mess. It was problem, villain, and then the hero saves the day, in the times the DC comic book universe ran the industry. It got dull and people lost interest.

Stan Lee’s first individual comic book, the Fantastic Four, has sold over 150 million copies to date. He single handily saved the comic book industry and Marvel, the company he worked for and rival to DC Comics. The 1961 hit saw the company go from small comic book distributors to the biggest in the industry, and it came with no surprise. The comic addresses the issue of family. The four characters constantly have to fight crime together but fail to do so without understanding each other. They have to always work hand in hand and also acknowledge each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This emotionally struck people as family was and will always be a very important factor in people’s lives. The comic book was powerful and the volumes that followed did not disappoint. Even if it was a very big achievement, it was only the first of many successful comic books for Lee and the Marvel Revolution. His second comic book and largely regarded as his biggest, the Amazing Spider-man, was a huge success. The 1963 hit saw lee fly to the title, Atlas of comic books. The comic sees a teenage boy, without parents living with his poor aunt, discover powers and help people.

The famous line, “ With great power, comes great responsibility”, which is also spoken in the supreme court of America today, is by the man himself, Stan Lee. The line is featured in the comic book, the Amazing Spider-man. The comic itself highlights the pressure of youth. The protagonist, Peter Parker, has these amazing powers granted to him. He still feels a sense of hopelessness when he allows a man to rob the store and leave, as the cashier had offended peter parker, to later find out that that man had killed his uncle after leaving the store. Peter has to deal with poverty, bullying and the hole his parents left when they died and still deliver on his responsibility as the hero of New York. He has to hide his identity to keep his friends and his aunt safe. He feels alone in the world and gets into so many unfortunate events. He is blanketed a nerd at school, trashed as a menace in the press, and regarded as a nuisance in the supervillain society. Lee’s complex portrayal of such a character is much respected. He shows a prominent bullying society and how people can overcome adversity in an unfavourable America.

Lee shook the system with his 1967 release of the Black Panther. In a predominantly racist society, Lee made his richest and smartest character black. The comic follows African king, T’challa, From the fictional Country, Wakanda. This comic received a lot of criticism. People saying there were not enough of different races in the comic. Lee took this as a driving force to make the Black Panther the smartest and richest character. He stated that no one complained when his comics were predominantly white, but when the roles were reversed, suddenly people saw error. The comic book was huge success to the Marvel community. It was the power to challenge racism that made it such a powerful comic. It proved to bee rather promising franchise as the Black Panther Movie is the 3rd highest selling movie domestically, before Infinity War (which contains Lee’s characters) was released, and the highest grossing individual hero movie of all time.

Stan Lee personally connected to his works. His work on the X-men is one of his most respected works. In a time where marginalism was large, a work on Marginalism could have been a huge error. Yet it was a success. The X-men follows a time when some humans have evolved into the next stage of humanity. These people are called mutants. They are highly feared by society as they are powerful and very different from the rest. Professor Xavier creates a safe haven for these human while his former best friend turned enemy, Erik Lehnsherr creates a base for Mutants who wish to seek revenge for their discrimination. Xavier’s school helps Mutants understand their natures and learn to coexist with the Humans. While secretly he has a group of crime fighting heroes called the X-men, saving lives and foiling Erik’s (Magneto), plans. Heroes well known such as Wolverine. In a time of mass racism, Stan Lee rose to the occasion and delivered a very relevant piece of work.

Lee had a lot of pieces. He had a lot of praise and admiration. However he was criticised heavily. It could be said by critics that Lee was not even responsible for the explosion of the Marvel universe. People like Jack Kirby deserve this credit. The argument being for many of these characters Jack Kirby was the artist. On the other hand critics say that Kirby did not get affected by the situation surrounding America. He merely created work identical to the society he lived in by coincidence. This has been greatly disputed by many historians as all the major characters in the Marvel Universe were created By Stan Lee. He greatly revolutionised the thought process behind every comic book made. It went on to spread to other fields as Stan Lee is greatly regarded as a genius in the art of dissecting humanity.

Lee is a major creator in the Industry of comic-books. Greatly influential in the turn in creation of comics. His great works were affected by the social issues in the United States of America in the 1960’s and 1970’s.