Excelsior!

I've always had a love of all things nerd. A deep love of documentaries, the statistical deep dives in sports, and foremost in my own personal nerd universe was comic books. Growing up I was a voracious reader. Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, hell any book my local library had. It really wasn't until a buddy of mine growing up name Bo introduced me to the Fantastic Four did I even fathom I could read something not of this earth and be completely taken in. 

In the center of this new found world of nerdiness were the characters of the Marvel universe. I found Superman to be a bit corny, Batman while cool, at times was a bit unbelievable but Marvel characters? Now those were some fleshed out characters a young gangly bastard could get into.  And then I saw for the first time in a comic book, a black super hero.

T'Challa aka Black Panther was everything Batman was and more. So I dove deeper, and the characters of the Marvel universe weren't just mindless super beings. No, they were so much more. There was a message to these enhanced people. 

For instance, the X-Men, a group of people who were hated for their mere existence. Within this marginalized group there were different factions who had different solutions to the problem of the bigotry displayed to them. One faction felt peace was the route to go. Another faction felt that violence was best method to get their point across. Literally mirroring the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In Lee's own words:

"I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or zapped with gamma rays, and it occurred to me that if I just said that they were mutants, it would make it easy. Then it occurred to me that instead of them just being heroes that everybody admired, what if I made other people fear and suspect and actually hate them because they were different? I loved that idea; it not only made them different, but it was a good metaphor for what was happening with the civil rights movement in the country at that time."

What I loved most is that he as he got older, he didn't hide from his message of inclusion. As the times changes whether people want to admit it or not representation matters. It always has and he and Marvel always seemed to go off the beaten path to make sure everyone had a voice and was represented. While not always perfect (who is?) Lee was essentially the moral compass of the Nerd universe. 

Black Panther, Luke Cage, Blade, hell even arguably the most powerful hero of the universe is a woman. Stan Lee created a universe that was for everyone because everyone was represented. 

And I said on Twitter:

You know Stan Lee is about to make the most fire cameo at the pearly gates. #StanLee pic.twitter.com/WA5f1ntlYu

— Feast Mode (@mrthompson) November 12, 2018