One less hero

Almost everyone who knows me knows that I am a massive nerd. I'm writing this at my desk, beneath a huge portrait of several iconic Marvel Comics characters. On my left is a Captain America mask. On the wall behind me is the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe collection on blu-ray, arranged in my preferred viewing order. To my right is large, loud, moving action figure of Rocket Raccoon who fires his blaster rifle when you flip the switch. Yeah, I'm a massive nerd and I love it. Some people ask me how I can still enjoy comics and superhero movies in my thirties. The answer to that question is this guy right here:

December 28, 1922 - November 12, 2018

Stan Lee. Even if you don't know who he is or what he did, you recognise his face. He's appeared in almost every Marvel movie and TV show in some capacity, and the audience always reacts loudest to him. Hell, his cameos are sometimes better than the rest of the movie (see The Amazing Spider-Man) and his positive, infectious charm and energy always radiate off the screen.

But today, Stan Lee has died. This man had a huge hand in revolutionising the entire comic book industry - a movement that is just now reaching the movie industry, too. He created, co-created, or had a direct hand in influencing scores of characters known and beloved around the world. Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four. The Incredible Hulk. The X-Men. Literally dozens of characters both big and small, well-known and not so popular. He invested them with charm, personality and humanity.

I'm not usually the type to care about the passing of somebody famous, but Stan's work had a genuine impact on my life. He made me believe in heroes. Not superheroes, but heroes.

The reason I've always preferred Marvel to DC is because Stan Lee chose to set his comics in the real world. While DC's characters inhabited fictional settings (Metropolis, Gotham, Bludhaven, Star City, etc.), Marvel heroes lived in real locations. Spider-Man slung his webs in New York. The X-Men battled Magneto on the White House lawn. Luke Cage defended Harlem. The characters existed in a recognisable and believable world - our world. But they had one thing that the rest of us didn't:

Courage.

Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man because of his superpowers. Peter Parker is Spider-Man because he chose to use those powers to make a difference. Reed Richards chose to use his unwanted abilities to make the world a better place. The X-Men swore to defend the human race, even though they were hated and feared by almost everyone they saved. But they persevered. All of them. They fought on because it was the right thing to do, no matter how hard or impossible it seemed.

I would not be doing this without Stan Lee's influence in my life. I would never consider running a marathon - far less to run it for charity - without Stan Lee showing me that people like that do exist. People who do impossible things every day. People who give their all for the sake of helping others. People who push themselves to the limit to change the world.

I'm not comparing myself to the characters he created (I'm not selfless, heroic, courageous or brave in any sense), but I try to emulate the examples he laid out. I try to be better because it's possible. I've seen it. I believe in it.

You know what shirt I wore to the gym a few days ago? It was this one:

No walls were crawled in the making of this picture.

I wore it because I needed to feel more encouragement. I needed some extra strength to face the treadmill and do what had to be done. I couldn't face it alone, so I wore the emblem of the bravest character who ever existed in all of fiction. Stan Lee taught me that heroes do exist. And their real superpower is inspiring others.

The greatest sentence in comic book history.

Excelsior. Thank you, Stan.