Stan Lee, known to those who knew him well as a grand self-mythologizer, had an ability to impress strangers. He himself had superpowers, like great storytelling abilities, or the way he coaxed talent from others. Many compared him to an orchestra conductor, who acts as a human catalyst.

When he left the day-to-day operations at Marvel Comics in 1972 and became President and Publisher, his company became disorganized, and had five different editor-in-chiefs in five years. The sixth one, Jim Shooter, who was a ‘normal’ manager despised by many, stabilized a rocking ship.

After many attempts to get Marvel into Hollywood, Stan Lee retired from the executive activities as President of the company and opted for some retirement money and a cut of film/TV productions.

As soon as he was gone, Marvel’s movie business lit up with X-Men (2000) and the Marvel Rocket Ship went into the galaxy with Iron Man (2008) kicking off the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). The back-to-back blockbusters had Stan Lee’s cameo appearances, much to the delight of Marvel fans.