Hannah Collins, Comic Book Resources; Stan Lee Spoke Out Against Bigotry, Again And Again
""None of us live our lives in a vacuum," Lee wrote in 1970,
"none of us is untouched by the everyday events about us -- events which
shape our stories just as they shape our lives." Here, Lee directly
addressed readers who had been disgruntled by his "moralizing," a bell
continues to be rung to this day. "They [Marvel comics readers] take
great pains to point out that comics are supposed to be escapist reading
and nothing more. But somehow, I can't see it that way. It seems to me
that a story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man
without a soul."
It's alarming and disappointing that so much of what Lee railed
against over 50 years ago still feels so prescient in 2018. He also made
mention in the same column of his talks at college campuses where
"there's as much discussion of war and peace, civil rights, and the
so-called youth rebellion as there is of our Marvel mags per se," and
Lee continued to connect with people, face-to-face, as recently as last
year. A 94-year-old Lee recorded a video message
for Marvel's YouTube channel in response to the violent white
nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017,
reaffirming that Marvel's stories "have room for everyone, regardless of
their race, gender, religion or color of their skin. The only things
we don't have room for are hatred, intolerance or bigotry.""
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