Last month, Stan Lee passed away at the age of 95. Lee was likely the most famous comic book creator in the history of the medium and he was the Editor-in-Chief for Marvel Comics for a remarkable three decades stint from the Golden Age through the launch of the Marvel Age of Comics. Working with iconic creators like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Joe Maneely, John Buscema, Don Heck, Wallace Wood, Dick Ayers, Gene Colan and many more, Lee either co-plotted and scripted or simply scripted some of the most famous stories in the history of comics. We asked you to vote for your picks for the top comic book stories that Lee either scripted or co-plotted and scripted. Here are the results!
25. "The Black Panther!" Fantastic Four #52-53 (1966)
Originally, the Black Panther was going to debut in his own comic book series, but Marvel Owner and Publisher Martin Goodman ended up squelching those plans and so, instead, the Panther debuted as the capper of one of the most extraordinary string of comic book stories in the history of superhero comics. Imagine introducing the Inhumans, Silver Surfer, Galactus and then "This Man, This Monster" and then follow it up with the introduction of the first black superhero at Marvel Comics!
That's just what Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott did in this two-parter, which opens with the king of Wakanda, T'Challa, inviting the Fantastic Four to his kingdom, where he proceeded to beat them up for most of the issue, before revealing the truth of his attack...
The next issue saw the FF help Black Panther defeat Klaw.
24. "The Inhumans Saga" Fantastic Four #44-48 (1965-66)
Like Black Panther, the Inhumans were originally going to debut in their own comic book series, and a result of them instead being folded into the pages of the Fantastic Four, Jack Kirby had come up with such developed back stories for everyone that the introduction of the Inhumans was filled with an astonishing amount of plot development for brand new characters. Medusa had fought the Fantastic Four as a villain, but then we learned that she had amnesia. This is just in time for her cousin, Gorgon, to show up to bring her home to the secret abode of the Inhumans. Her long lost love, Black Bolt, had temporarily given up his throne to his brother, the mad Maximus, while Medusa was missing, but with her back, Black Bolt was ready to take his throne back...
How amazing is that sequence where Maximus debates what to do, going from instant anger to "nah, I'll get him later instead." Jack Kirby was a genius. This storyline also introduced the Romeo and Juliet-esque relationship of Crystal and Human Torch, with the star-crossed lovers stuck between his world with the humans and hers with the, well, you know. This marked the debut of the classic Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott creative team. Sinnott would ink Kirby for the rest of Kirby's time on the Fantastic Four.
23. "The Strange Death of Captain America" Captain America #110-111,113 (1969)
In this three-part epic by Stan Lee, Jim Steranko and Joe Sinnott, Captain America ran afoul of Hydra and their leader, Madame Hydra, who kidnap Rick Jones to draw in Captain America in one of the most stunning sequences of ANY comic, but especially a comic forty plus years ago!!
This leads to Cap's seeming death and when he returns - oh my goodness -
Lee and Steranko fit about twenty-five issues of coolness into just these three issues (although, to be fair, it was SO much coolness that Steranko was late with the final part, resulting in an extremely rushed Jack Kirby fill-in issue for Captain America #112).
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22. "The Origin of Doctor Strange" Strange Tales #115 (1963)
When Doctor Strange debuted, Stan Lee had very little to do with his personality, but when the strip was a success, Lee bunkered down with Ditko and they came up with one of the best origins in comic book history, while mostly working from the same framework that Ditko and Lee had worked with on Spider-Man's similarly amazing origin. Here, we learn that Stephen Strange was a jerk surgeon who lost the ability to perform surgeries...
He sought out the Ancient One, but he couldn't be helped. He then learned, though, that the Ancient One's top disciple, Baron Mordo, meant the Ancient One harm. Mordo used magic to keep Stange quiet and so Strange realized that the only way he could help the Ancient One was to learn enough magic to get rid of Mordo's magical trap and so a selfless act led Strange on a path to true heroism...
That's just beautiful right there.
21. "The Power and the Prize" Silver Surfer #3 (1968)
As I have noted in earlier stories on the countdown, the Silver Surfer series was a big deal to Stan Lee. This was the comic book where he would have twice the room so he could tell bigger stories and Marvel was now established enough that he could push the envelope a little bit and tell some more adult stories. This was marked by the third issue, which introduced, in effect, the devil. Technically his name is Mephisto, but come on, he's obviously Satan and he becomes obsessed with winning Silver Surfer's perfect soul (Lee was REALLY into the idea of Surfer as Jesus stand-in) and so the issue is all about Mephisto somehow getting at the Surfer's soul, including some mighty fine temptations (with some women offered that really skirted the line of what the Comics Code would allow). However, the Surfer was just too pure...
Classic work.