'A Marvelous Life' Holds Stan Lee High As The Man Who Made Superheroes Matter
Danny Fingeroth spends some time unpacking Lee's long-running dispute with Jack Kirby and others over ownership, but mainly offers strong insights into the forces that drove Lee and Marvel to success.
In 2018, Marvel Studios released Black Panther. The film grossed 1.3 billion dollars and was nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture (a first time for a superhero film).
Beyond the money and awards, the release of Black Panther was a global event. The story of a super-powered African king, leader of the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, allowed the film to address racism and the history of colonial oppression in entirely new and unexpected ways. If anyone was still raising questions about comics mattering for culture, Black Panther meant the definitive end of the argument. Marvel comics and their characters were culture.
So how did we get here? How did superhero
