A man that has inspired generations of children, a man who aided in raising many of us without even knowing it, a man whose creativity and imagination led to Christmases filled with action figures and movies that we dreamt about owning, has died today. 

The internet and social media is in mourning with posts and tweets taking over everyone’s feeds about the late Stan Lee and his overstretching influence in lives. 

CNN, NPR, NBC and The New York Times are calling him a visionary, a “marvel” of a man, the superhero of Marvel comics and frankly the list goes on, as it should. 

Of course we are happy to jump on the bandwagon here to talk about how great Stan Lee was, because he was just that, but he did more than create the superheroes and this make-believe universe that so many of us wished we were in; you see, he helped so many youths overcome real life struggles that could have stumped and defeated any superhero imaginable. 

The New York Times and NPR said Lee humanized his superheroes and revolutionized the comic book industry, which he absolutely did. The articles also mention the revolutionary diversity within the Marvel universe that put the rest of the world to shame; he did that.

But what he also did that many of these articles seem to forget was offer unintentional support to kids who desperately needed a helping hand. These humanized characters that he thought of and put on paper and eventually in movies helped kids overcome their own struggles either by leading by example or offering solutions within each and every conclusion, each and every “The End.” 

But it didn’t end there. 

See, these characters, this man gave a voice to people who were looked over in society, people of color, people of a different “unfavorable” background with different circumstances that make other more fortunate folks stick up their noses in the air with disgust. 

He made people cry with pride when they saw the Black Panther embrace his culture and defend his nation. He helped encourage women that they are in fact wonderful and that everything about them and everything they do is a force to be reckoned with. He brought huge audiences to tears when heroes died, make-believe, fictional characters that people everywhere were emotionally attached to.

The child in the broken family relied on these heroes to give him hope. The teen who felt so left out and tortured by trends and people she hated relied on these storylines to get her through high school. The movies and comics that brought two people together to share the love they had for each other and the stories, movies, characters.

And the man behind all these wonderful, spectacular, Ka-Pow comics and writings and movies has moved on, and the world should mourn. 

This man never flaunted his talents, and he never bragged about the characters he created, but even if he did, nothing would’ve changed. 

We still would’ve loved every last thing about those characters because they were a part of all us, they belonged to all of us, they took care of and protected all of us. 

So we say a sorrowful, tear-filled goodbye to the man, the legend, the superhero himself, Mr. Stan Lee.

Thank you for everything you did for us.