It's hard to say more about Stan Lee than what has already been written. He was an innovator of the comic book craft and pushed the boundaries of creativity at a time when it was needed most. But most of all, Stan Lee is remembered as the idea man that brought an entire fictional universe to life. Everyone knows what he provided Marvel Comics, but what about DC Comics? Believe it or not, the face of Marvel also did some work for its biggest rival.

RELATED: DC Comics Honors the Life of Stan 'The Man' Lee

Together with artists like Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, and Don Heck, Lee brought Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Ant-Man into the world. After so many years of success at one company, how could Stan Lee's work at DC ever hope to live up to his name?

To be frank, it can't, but that's okay. He only had a few credits to his name outside of the Marvel imprint, and despite the fact that his work at DC has been mostly forgotten, it is still appropriate to pay homage to everything he contributed to the industry, no matter how small and inconsequential it may seem to have been. Any time you get to read Stan the Man, you take it and you enjoy it.

An Ode to Batman and Superman

Stan Lee's first credit in a DC Comics publication came in the Detective Comics #600 anniversary issue from 1989. The main story is the final chapter of the three-part "Blind Justice" from Sam Hamm, Denys Cowan, Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin.

However, DC brought together notable comic book writers and artists to add additional content to the back of the book. While Neal Adams and Will Eisner contributed pinups, Julius Schwartz and... Penn and Teller... wrote odes to the Dark Knight. Stan? He wrote a poem to Batman.

RELATED: How Stan Lee Helped Create the Modern Superhero Universe

His final work for DC was a story starring the publisher's other icon in 2004's DC Comics Presents: Superman #1. The issue was part of a series of one-shots that paid homage to the recently departed former editor Julius Schwartz.

Each issue followed Schwartz's practice of using covers as a starting point for the story. Lee was paired with Darwyn Cooke for his issue — a dream team if there ever was one. It would seem, if anything, that Stan's superpower was to work with the best artists of the age, and there were few in greater demand in 2004 than Cooke.

Next Page: Find Out What Stan Lee's Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman Looked Like

Stan Lee Just Imagines the DC Universe

The greatest contribution Stan Lee made to the DC Universe was an incredible undertaking in its own right. Doing what he did best, Lee worked with many talented artists on a series of one-shots that reinvented DC's greatest heroes. The 13 issues of the "Just Imagine" universe were published between 2001 and 2002, and included such talents as Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, Dave Gibbons, Jerry Ordway, Gary Frank, and many more.

RELATED: How Stan Lee Fought To Keep Spider-Man An 'Everyman'

In this new world, many of what made Marvel's most prominent superheroes were added to familiar DC concepts. That means names were changed to incorporate Lee's practice of alliteration. Batman was Wayne Williams, Green Lantern was Len Lewis, the Flash was Mary Maxwell, and so on. Tropes like the death of a family member, gene splicing and cosmic radiation were used as part of their new origin stories. It was both new and familiar at the same time.

The books all led to the formation of this universe's version of the Justice League. Heroes like Salden the Superman and Maria Mendoza the Wonder Woman came together to stop Reverend Darrk and his master Crisis — clearly something of a stand-in for Galactus — from destroying the world. Following the finale of this story, "Just Imagine" sat dormant inside DC's vault for over a decade, and has still never been properly revisited.

A Legacy Left Behind

Despite the small amount of work that Stan Lee contributed to the DC canon, he still leaves behind a great legacy all his own. Grant Morrison's The Multiversity from 2014 reintroduced the "Just Imagine" universe as Earth-6 within the reborn Multiverse. These characters returned for a brief cameo in the 2015 event series Convergence, where they are seemingly eliminated from continuity altogether.

RELATED: How Stan Lee Helped Bring Humanity to Superheroes

Their apparent demise didn't last long, though, as both Stan Lee's version of Superman and the Flash have turned up alongside their alternate Earth counterparts. Salden was among the contingent of multiversal Supermen in "Multiplicity" from Superman. Meanwhile, Mary Maxwell has been seen among the Flashes of 52 universes to advise Barry Allen in recent issues of The Flash.

Perhaps Stan Lee's most enduring legacy — at least as far as DC is concerned — is his recent cameo appearance in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. For an entire generation of fans, Stan Lee is remembered as the lovable guy from all those Marvel movies. What better way to pay homage to the man himself than by putting him in yet another comic book movie, even if it doesn't make any sense. Stan's line may be "I love cameos," but he might as well be saying "I love comics," and that's what really matters.

RELATED: Stan Lee Spoke Out Against Bigotry, Again And Again

No matter if you're a fan of DC, Marvel, or the movies, Stan Lee embodied the pure wonder that comic books can offer us. The art of storytelling can say something important, and superheroes have a way of bringing us together. But to Stan, comic books were mostly about having fun, and that's one hell of a legacy to leave behind. We could use more of that in the world these days.