Just so you know, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby, basically showed Kid Me how to be a human with stories about people whose humanity was challenged because of just a little difference in their DNA. I never was religious in the regular sense, but in a way, superheroes were my church, because through stories about facing adversity and deciding because of it to do the right thing, I understood what character was. Knowing things like "With great power comes great responsibility" was not for me a commonplace thing to know but never use, but a standard to be applied to lawmakers and other people in power--were they using their great power responsibly?
I learned from my comic books that you could take your situation, whatever it was, and just try to do something good with it. I am not physically strong or superpowered, but I have words, just like my real-life heroes who wrote great comics, and I try to use words to do some good, because this is what I've got.
I loved the X-Men, because the idea that puberty makes you different and suddenly you are ripe with all kinds of potential and strangeness and are in conflict with the world as it is and can do something about it all makes the only kind of sense I ever understood. I used to wonder with a kid's mind if powers like these X-Men mutants existed (I longed to be different in a more identifiable and powerful way than being kind of queer and smart), but realized later on that words and stories and beliefs did have power, and could move worlds.
This framing of my reality is grounded in diversity and social justice because of a world Stan Lee helped build. I used to love seeing his cameos in Avenger-related films because he was having such a great time being a part of this compelling and noble universe he made.
I loved the world he helped make and always will, and this is a kind of immortality. He used his comics to promote his values, and this made his stories compelling and real.
Stan Lee, you were excelsior! to the greatest degree. And will be missed.
