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Writer's picturePhoenix A. Edwards

Societal Remembrance - Stan Lee and Marvel's Impact On The Modern World

Superhero movies may be fantasy, but they reflect trends in our society and encourage us to reflect on societal problems such as prejudice and diversity.


The stories can also help shape our development. For example, starting in childhood, creative play is very common – and superheroes have long been staples for children learning about the social world. Creative play helps us develop several skills – for example learning that other people do not necessarily think in the same way we do. We can then play out how they might respond to a situation and what the outcome of this might be.

We might play out a story where we pretend to be Captain America and follow all the rules, doing what is right. Later we might play a similar story but pretend to be Iron Man and break the rules, doing “what we want”. Regardless of what sort of person we are, we can put ourselves in the shoes of the characters and try out these different roles.


While celebrities engaging in politics through social media is seen as a new trend, Lee used his platform to fight prejudice.

From The Fantastic Four to the X-Men, his heroes were outsiders who fight for a better society - no surprise given they were created during the height of the civil rights movement. X-Men has often been praised for its portrayal of mutant oppression and its reflection of the fight for civil rights. Fans have even compared Professor Xavier and Magneto's differing views to King and Malcolm X's respective ideologies. "I always felt the X-Men, subtly, often touched upon the subject of racism and inequality," Lee told the Washington Post in 2016.


Alongside his long-time collaborator Jack Kirby, Lee also created Black Panther, the first black superhero to appear in comics. 2018’s film version was praised for providing the representation many black audiences had been craving for, from children seeing what they could grow up to be, to women witnessing their hair and skin tones being celebrated on screen. Other fans praised the comic and film for its portrayal of the fictional African nation Wakanda as the most technologically advanced country in the world.

Last year, when images of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville circulated on social media, Lee responded with a powerful statement of his own. "Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today," he wrote. "As true today as it was in 1968." The words he shared originally appeared in Stan's Soapbox, a column he wrote for Marvel that was published in the same year Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them – to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater – one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen – people he’s never known – with equal intensity – with equal venom. Now, we’re not saying that it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race – to despise an entire nation – to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if a man is ever able to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God – a God who calls us ALL – His children.”
- Pax et Justitia, Stan (Stan’s Soapbox, 1968)

Marvel’s latest show, the Falcon and The Winter Soldier, sends a strong message that the color of a person’s skin should not limit their opportunities to shine in a leadership role. Given the lack of black representation in the top echelons of businesses today, employers could certainly learn a lesson or two from this mini-series.


“I want you to know that Marvel has always been and always will be a reflection of the world right outside our window. That world may change and evolve but the one thing that will never change is the way we tell our stories of heroism. Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or color of their skin. The only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry. That man next to you, he’s your brother. That woman over there, she’s your sister. And that kid walking by, hey! Who knows he may have the proportionate strength of a spider. We’re all part of one big family, the human family. And we all come together in the body of Marvel. And you, you’re part of that family. You’re part of the marvel universe, that moves ever upwards, and onwards to greater glory. In other words, Excelsior.”
- Stan Lee

It’s fair to say that Stan Lee is one of the greatest authors and dreamers of his generation. His otherworldly concepts that were unimaginable to the average writer came naturally to him, but it was how he could marry those fantastical themes with real-life scenarios, making them relatable to the viewer, which was his true talent. When talking about arguably his greatest character creation, Spider-Man, Lee said: “He's the one who's most like me - nothing ever turns out 100% OK; he's got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.” Lee further explained to Newsrama in 2015: “What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.” It is that train of thought that he applied to so many of his characters. There’s a significantly human element in Stan Lee’s stories that immerses us in spectacular storylines and feats of extraordinary heroism, but all the while letting us know that there’s no such thing as perfection in life – not even for superheroes.

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