On Monday, I was in class when I got an alert from CNN saying that Stan Lee had passed away. At the time, I didn’t know how to react and when I told a few of my classmates their response was lackluster. After having some time to process outside of class, I felt shocked and upset. Stan Lee along with Jack Kirby and others were responsible for so many of the superheros that I looked up to when I was a child. Therefore, I wanted to take the time to write this article as a thanks to Stan Lee and to describe the impact that Marvel has had on my life.
When I was a child, I spent countless of hours with my younger sister watching the Spiderman and X-Men cartoon series. Even one of the bonding activities for my family was going out together to see new Marvel movies in theaters. My sister and I were amazed by their cool powers and would pretend that we were superheroes that had to defeat the bad guys. There was just something inspiring about seeing these characters who would always save the day and stand up for what they believed in.
This ideal still resonates with me to this day and I’m sure it does with other people. Seeing how powerful superheroes are makes me believe that I too have some power within myself to make a difference in this world. I think we all need this kind of inspiration as often it feels like with the continued negative and tragic news in the media that we are helpless. However, we are not, we need to believe that we do have the power to enact change for the better.
Even now, I’m still excited everytime a new Marvel movie comes out and I rush to go see it with my friends. I’ve also gotten my younger brother into Marvel shows as well. Currently, he is at a stage where he is starstruck by Spiderman and has insisted on having Spiderman toys, blankets, games, etc. Therefore, even though Stan Lee is gone, his impact will continue on. Once again, I want to say thanks to Stan Lee for having a part in my childhood by creating these characters that will stick with me for a long time.