Stan Lee: A Marvelous Success
The creator used meaningful work, extraordinary opportunity, and community to become a success.
By Joel Smith | Biokinetics Major
Stan Lee, a 38 year old editor was having a mid-life crisis wondering if he should leave Timely Comics, thinking to himself in 1960 that he may have been caught up in the wrong business writing childish comics which he believed no one was interested in. His boss, and cousin-in-law, wanted Lee to write a group of superheroes that would compete with DC’s new hit the “Justice League of America.” Lee finally created what was interesting to him. The “Fantastic Four”, who unlike the perfect and emotionless Batman and Superman, fought crime with their strange new abilities yet weren’t always happy doing so. The “Four” were astronauts who received their powers through cosmic ray exposure and decided to fight crime while trying to fight their chaotic lives (Entertainment 26). It was published and submitted to the public not knowing the outcome. Who knew it would create great success?
Timely Comics reinvented itself as the world famous Marvel Comics. Creating iconic superheroes: Hulk, Iron Man, the X-men, the Avengers, Spider-Man and more. By the mid 1960’s, Marvel sold more than 40-million copies a year, grossing in popularity on college campuses (Entertainment 26). Fast forward to December of 2009, Marvel Entertainment approved the merge to Walt Disney for over $4 billion (Entertainment 44). By Lee’s time of death in November of 2018, he had a net worth of $50 million (“Celebrity Net Worth”).
When Stan Lee started to write characters that were interesting to him and stories he wanted to hear, his work then became more fulfilling. In the book, Outliers: The Story of Success by author Malcolm Gladwell states, “It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us” (149–150). Stan Lee displayed Gladwell’s theories of success through work that was meaningful, the extraordinary opportunities he received, and a community around him that helped him become the man that recreated the world of comics.
At the age of 18, Stan Lee became head editor after the head writer and artist at Timely were fired for writing stories for competing comic-book businesses (Raphael and Spurgeon 24). As lead editor, Lee had the task of creating whatever comics his boss, Martin Goodman, wanted him to write. Lee complied by writing stories of genres from westerns to horror to mystery. However, this wasn’t fulfilling to Lee as he wasn’t able to write about ideas or concepts which inspired him.
About two decades later Goodman’s friend Jack Liebowitz, the president of DC Comics, shared the success he’d been having with his new team of heroes “Justice League of America.” This was a group including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and more. Goodman then gave Lee the job of creating a new group similar to the “Justice League,” but this time he had the freedom to write whatever he wanted. Lee went to work. He wanted to create something more real and interesting; something original that had never been done before. So then the “Fantastic Four” were born. A group of heroes who experienced real emotions and challenges in life compared to the perfect and more romanticized DC group of characters (Entertainment 26).
In Outliers, Gladwell shares the story of an immigrant family. Louis and Regina Borgenicht a married couple with one child and expecting one more stepped off an ocean liner and onto American soil in 1889 after a thirteen-day trek across the Atlantic Ocean. Being immigrants landing in New York, they had enough money to only last them a few weeks. Louis then attempted to find a job. First, he started selling herring outside his sister’s fish store but didn’t believe there was going to be great success for his family staying there. He tried to start selling other things from towels to tablecloths, to notebooks, to food, to stockings. When there was no success, he changed tactics. Eventually, he came to the revelation, “clothes — it was clothes!” He tried selling many different types of clothes, but when studying the clothing stores and streets in Manhattan, he noticed a little girl wearing an embroidered apron and realized there were no stores in Lower East Manhattan that produced aprons.
He went home to his tiny apartment on Eldridge Street and told his wife his new idea. She pulled out an old sewing machine went to work, tag teaming all night to create forty child sized aprons and add buttons in the morning. Louis went out that next day and sold all the aprons by early afternoon. They had found their business! As time went on, they reached out and received more resources and labor, and expanded what they created to things such as petticoats, adult aprons, and dresses (qtd. in Outliers).
Stan Lee did a Ted Talk in 2013 about the importance of superheros. Lee shared that what may be the most important part about superhero stories is that there is a personal life of a character with powers; otherwise, there’s no good story. When there is a focus on the human aspect of a superhuman readers are then able to connect. He didn’t focus on what he thought the public would like, but what was pleasing to himself because often times there will be people with similar interests as you. When Lee was given freedom to write what he wanted, he wrote stories that were interesting to him and it became more fulfilling to him. Lee also focused on the idea of using your imagination to create the wildest thoughts one can think of; something that’s different and colorful and never been done before (TED Talk). In alignment with Lee’s idea, the Borgenicht’s created something that was not done before in surrounding clothing stores. Louis created aprons which he noticed only one girl in all of Manhattan was wearing. When Louis’ business started booming based on focusing on his own area that he created, it became satisfying work. Though he was tired when he got home at the end of each day, he was alive and ecstatic. For the both of them, it became meaningful doing what they wanted.
In Outliers, Gladwell points out a list of seventy-five of the richest people from Wikipedia with net worth converted to current US dollars in 2008. It includes kings, queens, pharaohs all the way to billionaires that are more contemporary like Carlos Slim and Warren Buffett (Wiki). What is found within these seventy-five names is that twenty percent of them were born within nine years of each other and in the same country. These fourteen names fit in the gap between 1831 and 1840 with names such as George Pullman and Henry H. Rogers. It also includes the top two names of the seventy-five being in this time frame — Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Why is it that these names happen to be within nine years of each other; and being from the same country, the US? The American economy experienced what could be known as the greatest transformation in its history between 1860’s and 1870’s. Many advancements took place in the US from railroads to Wall Street emerging. It’s when the industrial manufacturing started producing products more intensely (5661–62).
What is also found in a study called “The American Business Elite: A Collective Portrait” by sociologist C. Wright Mills is that there is a theme of those being born into privileged backgrounds tended to be successful business leaders. The exception to this is the fourteen names that were born in the 1830’s. This group had a great advantage despite coming from modest circumstances. Mills writes regarding this same time for business elites studied, “The best time during the history of the United States for the poor boy ambitious for high business success to have been born was around the year 1835” (44).
Martin Goodman the 28 year old owner of the new comic-book department titled Timely Productions discovered great success within superhero themed comics which created an opportunity to bring in new comic artists. Goodman ended up pulling in artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who made a great team producing comics that put them on the map. This duo created the star-spangled Avenger who battled Nazi’s carrying his liberty shield prior to World War॥ and during worry of growth of Hitler’s Campaign. This patriotic character, Captain America, was an immediate success competing with DC heroes, Batman and Superman. Simon and Kirby requested Goodman to hire assistance in the department. Goodman hired his wife’s cousin, Stanley Martin Lieber. Lieber, a seventeen year old kid from Bronx, New York who had a heart to write, took the job with ambition.
Lieber was a gofer for Timely, running errands and doing chores around the comic-book department. Within a week the ambitious right-hand asked for a promotion and was given the chore of filling out the two-page text piece filling up the pages that are usually skipped over by readers but is produced to help with cheaper mailing rates. This was a great honor and taken seriously by the young staffer. His writing that ended up being included in the third issue of Captain America Comics were published with his new pen name, Stan Lee.
As business boomed and Goodman became rich off of Captain America, Simon and Kirby were dissatisfied with their pay after finding out from Goodman’s accountant that they were being shortchanged. Simon and Kirby, frustrated, started to secretly write on the side of DC. Goodman found out after a while and fired both of them. This opened up the position of head editor and Lee ended up being placed in that position that was supposed to be a temporary fill (Raphael and Spurgeon).
“It makes a difference where and when we grew up”
Of the seventy-five names found in the list of the history’s richest people, pointed out in Outliers, fourteen of them fall into the similar situation of being born within a nine year span of each other. This observation points to the fact that all these modest originated successes were born into an extraordinary opportunity. Extraordinary opportunity is an idea founded by Gladwell where many successful people are beneficiaries of their own situations. Gladwell states, “It makes a difference where and when we grew up” (19).
Because these people were born between 1831 and 1840, they all grew up to be able to experience an opportune time in America’s transformation that took place nearly thirty years later. An essential time for a younger and determined mind to take advantage of a wondrous season for America’s business elites.
Stan Lee was born December 28th of 1922, placing him as a maturing teenager that was needed at a time of Timely’s growth in the late 1930’s. Being close enough to his extended family and being the right age where his cousin-in-law needed an office assistant requested by two artists created great chances for Lee to step into a maturing comic-book business. Then having been taken into this job gave him the opportunity to take over as head editor at Timely. If Goodman’s accountant hadn’t shared the pay situation, and Kirby and Simon wouldn’t have been found making comics for DC, Lee wouldn’t have been able to be promoted into this position where he stayed for over three decades except for a three year gap where Lee served in World War॥. Further, Lee having been in this situation gave him the convenience of writing what he wanted when Goodman was wanting to compete with “Justice League of America” almost thirty years later from when Lee started as a gofer.
Back when Lee was a boy, life was tough while the Lieber family struggled to make ends meet. On top of financial struggles his parents created a difficult atmosphere. His father, Jack, was demanding and difficult to interact with while his mother, Celia, was so nurturing she often made self-sacrifices which would oppress her. Lee’s refuge was often in reading and watching movies to escape from reality — reading books from a variety of authors, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Mark Twain, and reading pulp novels along with some news comic strips. He would watch 25 cent movies, taking part in the adventures of actors from Royal Rogers to Errol Flynn, when he could afford them. Before he was 10 years old, Lee also had a great passion for William Shakespeare.
These interests influenced the type of jobs he applied for in high school while trying to help his father support his family. Lee pursued many part-time jobs that obtained a position that fit his interest in writing. He wrote obituaries at a news service of famous people prior to their deaths and ended up quitting due to it being so depressing. At a Jewish hospital in Denver he wrote publicity material. Moreover, for awhile he worked at the WPA Federal Theater, a local company that was founded by national public works providing jobs to unemployed theater professionals.
Lieber received more experience in writing through getting involved in extracurriculars. One of the activities that benefited him were being involved in the Magpie, a student literary magazine published within his high school. Every semester, this group came together to collaborate to collect literary works such as short stories, poems, articles, photographs and drawings. In the June 1939 edition, Lieber was listed as one of Magpie’s business staff, working as the publicity director (Raphael and Spurgeon).
In 1921, Indian-born educational psychologist Lewis Terman, committed his life to study what would make a child a genius. He studied many factors that were thought to connect children to great success. He observed hereditary and environmental aspects and deviation from the average through intelligence tests. Terman studied the type of environment and education that was in the school system. Furthermore, he studied racial and ethnic differences within the students studied. Terman found there to be no effect in intelligence in any of these areas.
Seventeen years later from when he devoted his life to these studies he found another approach to his study. Terman examined records of seven-hundred and thirty men and divided them into three different groups. The top 20 percent were found to be in what was called the A group. These were the people who were known as successful for high end jobs and a majority of this group continued into post-secondary education degrees. Then the lower 20 percent known as the C group which Terman noted to have inferior mental ability, though as kids they were very curious and had great mental ability. This group, though, had a great fraction of those who were college dropouts and a smaller fraction that only contained a high school education level. Terman found that a few of the factors he discarded from his studies over the years had an impact that he had missed. He looked into the personality and manner of each of the subjects finding the interaction of environment and hereditary played a great role. Terman found that all of those in the A group were similar in having nicer clothes, had a self-assured manner and were attractive meaning it came down to background (Kreuter).
What Terman discovered was that it was more of a social factor. Those with parents who had greater social and economic standings could support their children more who received greater benefits. The lowest social and economic class ended up being squandered success because they had no support. Gladwell refers to the Terman Study when showing this idea that leads to outliers of success. In Outliers, Gladwell tells us it is community that formed around the A group prepared them properly for the world. The C group didn’t have extravagant successes because there was no community which wasted their genius (112–113).
For Lieber, it wasn’t his parents that had the influence like the Terman Study, but the interests he used to exit reality with and in the jobs he became immersed in. Which were all surrounded around writing. He surrounded himself in groups and experiences that set him up to have an upper hand in writing. Each community most likely taught Lieber something about the world of writing; assuming, through, every vocation and group Lieber was apart of he learned tips and writing methods that would benefit him in the future. Gaining many perspectives on how to professionally write created a great background that later would benefit him when given a bigger role at Timely Productions. When Lee was having a midlife crisis contemplating if he should leave Timely while Goodman asked him to create a new group of heros, his wife, Joan was his needed community. When he told her his plans to leave Timely she encouraged him to take the opportunity to make a story that had more depth and make characters that would have more interesting personalities (Entertainment 26). This was the type of community for Lee that gave him a boost of energy to become successful.
In late 1940, seventeen year old Lee approached a blue-green terra cotta, thirty-three story skyscraper on West 42nd Street. New York City’s news paper’s popular comic strips were produced in the McGraw-Hill building where Lee was interviewed by Simon and shown around the department. Lee met Kirby, who would later become his partner to create some of the world’s most famous comics (Raphael and Spurgeon). Little did he know, this job which started at eight dollars an hour would, in a few decades, lead him to build a comic-book empire that would eventually make billions.
Lee found fulfillment in his work from writing what he wanted to hear when given the opportunity to do so. He also immersed himself in communities that would benefit his later career to prepare him for his profession. The culmination of these factors of Lee’s life led to a greater success than he would have imagined. “I never thought that Spider-Man would become the worldwide icon that he is. I just hoped the books would sell and I’ll keep my job” (Interesting Engineering).
WORKS CITED
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
Mills, C. Wright. The American Business Elite: A collective Portrait. Journal of Economic History 5 (December 1945): 20–44.
Lee, Stan. “The Story As He Saw It.” Entertainment Weekly 12 Nov. 2018. Print.
— -. “What makes a superhero?” TED: TEDxGateway 2013, Dec. 2013. https://www.ted.com/talks/stan_lee_what_makes_a_superhero?language=en Accessed 11 Apr. 2019.
“List of Wealthiest Historical Figures.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_figures. 20 May 2019.
Raphael, Jordan. Spurgeon, Tom. Stan Lee And The Rise And Fall Of The American Comic Book. Chicago Review Press, 2004. Print..
Rogers, Shelby. “15 Marvel-ous Quotes from Legend Stan Lee” Interesting Engineering, 2018, https://interestingengineering.com/15-marvel-ous-quotes-from-legend-stan-lee. 29 April 2019.
Sands, Rich. “Origin Story.” Entertainment Weekly 12 Nov. 2018. Print.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel Smith, a freshman at Bethel University, seeks to find his calling as a Biokinetics Major in order to benefit others. Smith likes watching Marvel movies, running for the track team, and learning more about the Bible.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
Researching for this class has helped me find a greater interest in research based writings and helped me get used to scholarly writings more.
Performing speeches in this class has taught me to be more prepared. When forming your speech you should know your material and ideas rather than have it memorized where it sounds like you’re reading it straight off a piece of paper. This class has helped me be more comfortable in front of others.
Malcolm Gladwell displays artistic and complex ways of writing books and sharing ideas. Every book of his that I’ve experienced seems to be written to benefit those who read it to be used to change perspectives in someones business and personal life.
Through being a part of a Book Club you realize the importance of staying up on your work otherwise you feel as though you are letting the rest of them down. I’ve seen that it helps to have a small accountability group in class and people you can consistently work with.
Through meeting with Scott in his dark office you are able to see his knowledge and gain insights on work. You also get to know him as a friend rather than a teacher, you get to know more about who he is and the experiences that help him be the Scott Winter that he is.
In “Sarah’s Hope” a story by Eric Adler about a girl named Sarah Clark you learn how to write with great intentionality. You learn how to write stories that pull readers in and experience it with you. You learn how to name dogs and drop someone in a moment.
Through TED Talks you can go into depth about any topic, including spaghetti sauce.
Teamwork is helpful when writing papers. They help gain other perspectives and see problems you may be over looking.
Success may come from all the same factors but there are unique experiences that come together to produce prosperity. There may be other factors that attribute to someones success in the future that they may not see. You could be an outlier in the making.
In writing the Success Paper you must be intentional with every word you use and every fact you include. There is meaningful work in writing a paper like this. When writing about a hero you look up to and learning more about that hero, this class becomes more enjoyable.
Over the course of this semester I’ve learned that I am really interested in videography/cinematography. When recording videos I get a certain vision in my head that I want. I want to create the right angle of pictures. In this class I’ve struggled with “naming the dog” and dropping readers in a moment. When writing I should try to envision the moment I want to record then display the scene into words which could help create a descriptive moment.
(Editor’s note: This paper was written as a part of a GES160 Inquiry Seminar class at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn.)
