KOMPAS.com - Stan Lee tutup usia dalam usia ke-95 pada hari ini, Selasa (13/11/2018). Sebagai sosok yang ikut menciptakan karakter ikonik seperti Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, dan Hulk, namanya memang dikenal luas hingga berbagai negara.
Stan Lee mulai berkecimpung di dunia komik pada 1939. Dia memulai karirnya sebagai penulis naskah untuk komik superhero dan misteri di perusahaan penerbitan milik kawannya. Berkat keterampilannya, dia menjabat sebagai kepala editor dalam usia yang cukup muda, yaitu 19 tahun.
Kerja kerasnya dalam dunia komik mendapat sorotan dari berbagai perusahaan ketika itu. Berbagai tawaran kerap datang kepada dirinya. Berawal dari kepala editor, imajinasi Stan Lee mengenai sebuah penciptaan karakter komik mulai terasah dan berkembang.
Perusahaan Timely Publications menjadi tempat Lee mengembangkan karyanya. Ketika Perang Dunia II bergejolak, industri komik bertemakan superhero mengalami penurunan. Akhirnya, pada 1950-an Timely Publications berubah nama menjadi Atlas Comic.
Berawal dari Atlas Comic, yang kemudian berubah menjadi Marvel Comics pada era 1960-an, nama ini masih digunakan dan menghasilkan beberapa karakter komik superhero yang banyak dikenal.
Baca juga: Stan Lee Tutup Usia, Musisi hingga "Tony Stark di Dunia Nyata" Berduka
KOMPAS.com/KAHFI DIRGA CAHYA Replika Thor dan Hulk di pameran 10 tahun Marvel Studios, ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, Singapura.
Pada era 1960-an, Marvel mendapat tantangan dari rivalnya, yaitu DC Comics. Saat itu DC Comics berhasil menghadirkan dan menghidupkan beberapa ikon karakter superhero seperti Batman dan Superman.
Martin Godman selaku pendiri Marvel berusaha memberikan wewenang kepada Lee untuk membuat ikon tandingan.
Dilansir dari The Washington Post , Lee ditantang untuk menghadirkan lawan bagi komik Justice League of America yang merupakan andalan DC Comics.
Bekerja sama dengan temannya, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee akhirnya menciptakan The Fantastic Four . Komik ini berkisah tentang empat orang yang memiliki kekuatan super nan mengagumkan.
Mister Fantastic memiliki kekuatan elastisitas yang membuatnya tubuhnya lentur seperti karet. Invisible Women mampu menghilang dan lenyap kapan saja.
Karakter Human Torch yang mampu mengendalikan kekuatan api dalam tubuhnya. Terakhir adalah The Thing memiliki kulit keras dan dijuluki sebagai manusia batu yang kerap memberikan kritikan pedas terhadap ketiga temannya.
Kesuksesan Fantastic Four disusul dengan kehadiran karakter berikutnya, misalnya Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, dan X-Men. Berkat inilah, dia berhasil melambungkan nama Marvel.
Marvel Comics menjadi waralaba yang sangat populer, dan Stan Lee dipromosikan menjadi direktur editor dan penerbit pada tahun 1972.
Lee lantas menjadi petinggi Marvel Comics pada tahun 1972. Komik miliknya mulai diadaptasi dalam film di tahun 1990 berjudul Captain America .
Baca juga: Stan Lee Meninggal Dunia, Para "Superhero" Berduka...
Pada 1996, Marvel dinyatakan pailit. Pemilik perusahaan saat itu, Ronald Perelman, menjual sahamnya. Hal ini menjadikan kemerosotan pengembangan dunia komik Marvel saat itu.
Setelah serangkaian proses penyelesaian pengadilan, Marvel pindah kepemimpinan dan mulai bangkit.
Kehadiran Stan Lee menjadi penting bagi Marvel. Berbagai imajinasi karyanya mampu membuat Marvel bangkit.
Stan Lee juga membawa Marvel berkembang menjadi sebuah figur penting yang telah mengilhami beragam film blockbuster seperti Iron Man, X-Men, Thor, dan The Avengers . Akhirnya, dia juga terjun langsung dalam pengembangan film-film Marvel.
Kini Stan Lee telah tiada. Dia meninggal dunia pada Senin (12/11/2018) pagi di Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. Sosoknya dikenal sebagai kreator yang paling berpengaruh dalam dunia komik Marvel.
KOMPAS.com — Meninggalnya pendiri Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, menimbulkan duka di banyak kalangan, dari anak-anak hingga orang dewasa, dari orang biasa hingga selebritas dunia.
Dengan sejumlah karya komik yang ikut diciptakan, Stan Lee memang menjadi dunia lebih berwarna.
Karakter superhero, seperti Captain Amerika, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, dan Fantastic Four, menjadi sosok rekaan ikonik yang menjadi idola.
Ungkapan duka atas meninggalnya Stan Lee tidak hanya diungkapkan para aktor yang berperan sebagai superhero dalam film besutan Marvel Entertainment.
Baca juga: Stan Lee Meninggal Dunia, Para Superhero Berduka...
Namun, ungkapan kehilangan atas meninggalnya Marvel itu juga diungkapkan banyak selebritas dunia, mulai dari kalangan musisi, aktor, hingga pengusaha teknologi.
Berikut di antaranya:
Bassist grup rock legendaris KISS, Gene Simmons, mengucapkan terima kasih atas karya-karya Stan Lee yang membuat masa kecilnya lebih menyenangkan.
Simmons menilai bahwa karakter seperti Hulk, Fantastic Four, Thor, dan lainnya membuat dia berani untuk berpikir dan bermimpi besar.
To Stan Lee: Thank you for making my childhood so much more exciting with your astonishing superhero characters. Thank you for inspiring me to think and dream big. Thank you for the Hulk, Thor, Fantastic Four and many others. You will be sadly missed. RIP.
Satya Nadella berbagi ilmu, salah satunya soal kepemimpinan, saat menyambangi almamaternya di University of Chicago. Ini 3 kriteria pemimpin hebat menurutnya.
The feisty writer, editor and publisher was responsible for such iconic characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four — 'nuff said.
Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics whose fantabulous but flawed creations made him a real-life superhero to comic book lovers everywhere, has died. He was 95.
Lee, who began in the business in 1939 and created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Ant-Man, among countless other characters, died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family representative told The Hollywood Reporter.
Kirk Schenck, an attorney for Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, also confirmed his death.
Lee's final few years were tumultuous. After Joan, his wife of 69 years, died in July 2017, he sued executives at POW! Entertainment — a company he founded in 2001 to develop film, TV and video game properties — for $1 billion alleging fraud, then abruptly dropped the suit weeks later. He also sued his ex-business manager and filed for a restraining order against a man who had been handling his affairs. (Lee's estate is estimated to be worth as much as $70 million.) And in June 2018, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Police Department had been investigating reports of elder abuse against him.
On his own and through his work with frequent artist-writer collaborators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee catapulted Marvel from a tiny venture into the world's No. 1 publisher of comic books and, later, a multimedia giant.
In 2009, The Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, and most of the top-grossing superhero films of all time — led by Avengers: Infinity War's $2.05 billion worldwide take earlier this year — have featured Marvel characters.
"I used to think what I did was not very important," he told the Chicago Tribune in April 2014. "People are building bridges and engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed."
Lee's fame and influence as the face and figurehead of Marvel, even in his nonagenarian years, remained considerable.
“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created," Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. "A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart."
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also paid tribute. “No one has had more of an impact on my career and everything we do at Marvel Studios than Stan Lee," Feige said. "Stan leaves an extraordinary legacy that will outlive us all. Our thoughts are with his daughter, his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan’s genius, charisma and heart.”
Beginning in the 1960s, the irrepressible and feisty Lee punched up his Marvel superheroes with personality, not just power. Until then, comic book headliners like those of DC Comics were square and well-adjusted, but his heroes had human foibles and hang-ups; Peter Parker/Spider-Man, for example, fretted about his dandruff and was confused about dating. The evildoers were a mess of psychological complexity.
"His 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," Gene Simmons of Kiss said in a 1979 interview. "Through the honesty of guys like Spider-Man, I learned about the shades of gray in human nature."
(Kiss made it to the Marvel pages, and Lee had Simmons bleed into a vat of ink so the publisher could say the issues were printed with his blood.)
The Manhattan-born Lee wrote, art-directed and edited most of Marvel's series and newspaper strips. He also penned a monthly comics column, “Stan's Soapbox,” signing off with his signature phrase, “Excelsior!”
His way of doing things at Marvel was to brainstorm a story with an artist, then write a synopsis. After the artist drew the story panels, Lee filled in the word balloons and captions. The process became known as “The Marvel Method.”
Lee collaborated with artist-writer Kirby on the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Silver Surfer and X-Men. With artist-writer Ditko he created Spider-Man and the surgeon Doctor Strange, and with artist Bill Everett came up with the blind superhero Daredevil.
Such collaborations sometimes led to credit disputes: Lee and Ditko reportedly engaged in bitter fights, and both receive writing credit on the Spider-Man movies and TV shows. "I don't want anyone to think I treated Kirby or Ditko unfairly," he told Playboy magazine in April 2014. "I think we had a wonderful relationship. Their talent was incredible. But the things they wanted weren't in my power to give them."
Like any Marvel employee, Lee had no rights to the characters he helped create and received no royalties.
In the 1970s, Lee importantly helped push the boundaries on censorship in comics, delving into serious and topical subject matter in a medium that had become mindless, kid-friendly entertainment.
In 1954, the publication of psychologist Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent had spurred calls for the government to regulate violence, sex, drug use, questioning of public authority figures, etc., in the comics as a way to curtail "juvenile delinquency." Wary publishers headed that off by forming the Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body that while avoiding the heavy hand of Washington still wound up neutering adult interest in comics and stereotyping the medium as one only kids would enjoy.
Lee scripted banal scenarios with characters like Nellie the Nurse and Tessie the Typist, but in 1971, he inserted an anti-drug storyline into "The Amazing Spider-Man” in which Peter Parker's best friend Harry Osborn popped pills. Those issues, which did not carry the CCA "seal of approval" on the covers, became extremely popular, and later, the organization relaxed some of its guidelines.
Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, he grew up poor in Washington Heights, where his father, a Romanian immigrant, was a dress-cutter. A lover of adventure books and Errol Flynn movies, Lee graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project, where he appeared in a few stage shows, and wrote obituaries.
In 1939, Lee got a job as a gofer for $8 a week at Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. Two years later, for Kirby and Joe Simon's Captain America No. 3, he wrote a two-page story titled "The Traitor's Revenge!" that was used as text filler to qualify the company for the inexpensive magazine mailing rate. He used the pen name Stan Lee.
He was named interim editor at 19 by publisher Martin Goodman when the previous editor quit. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Signal Corps, where he wrote manuals and training films with a group that included Oscar-winner Frank Capra, Pulitzer-winner William Saroyan and Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). After the war, he returned to the publisher and served as the editor for decades.
Following DC Comics' lead with the Justice League, Lee and Kirby in November 1961 launched their own superhero team, the Fantastic Four, for the newly renamed Marvel Comics, and Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil and X-Men soon followed. The Avengers launched as its own title in September 1963.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Manhattan's high-literary culture vultures did not bestow its approval on how Lee was making a living. People would “avoid me like I had the plague. … Today, it's so different,” he once told The Washington Post.
Not everyone felt the same way, though. Lee recalled once being visiting in his New York office by Federico Fellini, who wanted to talk about nothing but Spider-Man.
In 1972, Lee was named publisher and relinquished the Marvel editorial reins to spend all his time promoting the company. He moved to Los Angeles in 1980 to set up an animation studio and to build relationships in Hollywood. Lee purchased a home overlooking the Sunset Strip that was once owned by Jack Benny's announcer, Don Wilson.
Long before his Marvel characters made it to the movies, they appeared on television. An animated Spider-Man show (with a memorable theme song composed by Oscar winner Paul Francis Webster, of "The Shadow of Your Smile" fame, and Bob Harris) ran on ABC from 1967 to 1970. Bill Bixby played Dr. David Banner, who turns into a green monster (Lou Ferrigno) when he gets agitated, in the 1977-82 CBS drama The Incredible Hulk. And Pamela Anderson provided the voice of Stripperella, a risque animated Spike TV series that Lee wrote for in 2003-04.
Lee launched the internet-based Stan Lee Media in 1998, and the superhero creation, production and marketing studio went public a year later. However, when investigators uncovered illegal stock manipulation by his partners, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. (Lee was never charged.)
In 2002, Lee published an autobiography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee.
Survivors include his daughter and younger brother Larry Lieber, a writer and artist for Marvel. Another daughter, Jan, died in infancy. His wife, Joan, was a hat model whom he married in 1947.
"J.C. Lee and all of Stan Lee's friends and colleagues want to thank all of his fans and well-wishers for their kind words and condolences," a family statement read. "Stan was an icon in his field. His fans loved him and his desire to interact with them. He loved his fans and treated them with the same respect and love they gave him."
"He worked tirelessly his whole life creating great characters for the world to enjoy. He wanted to inspire our imagination and for us to all use it to make the world a better place. His legacy will live on forever."
Like Alfred Hitchcock before him, the never-bashful Lee appeared in cameos in the Marvel movies, shown avoiding falling concrete, watering his lawn, delivering the mail, crashing a wedding, playing a security guard, etc.
In Spider-Man 3 (2007), he chats with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker as they stop on a Times Square street to read news that the web-slinger will soon receive the key to the city. “You know," he says, "I guess one person can make a difference … 'nuff said.”
Duane Byrge and Borys Kit contributed to this report.
