Stan Lee: a life in comics

When Stan Lee died in 2018, he was celebrated as a pop culture icon who co-created such remarkable superheroes as the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and Spider-Man. Though he was born in 1922 as Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City to Romanian immigrants, Lee's Jewish identity has rarely been explored. Leibovitz, Tablet magazine's "Unorthodox" podcast host, adds a new volume to Yale University Press's expansive interpretative biography series "Jewish Lives," seeking to connect Lee's Jewish identity to his various co-creations. Leibovitz writes in an accessible, intelligent manner that brings a provocative perspective to Lee's life and comics. Though many other biographies have documented the challenges, controversies, and collaborations Lee experienced, Leibovitz's insightful consideration of the Jewish dimension of Lee's work marks this volume as essential for all scholars of Marvel Comics and graphic storytelling. Leibovitz's expert understanding of both Judaism and pop culture stretches from analyses of conflicted superheroes (such as Ben Grimm, an explicitly Jewish superhero, and Spider-Man, an allusive Cain-like figure) to revelation of the quasi-Talmudic debate and collaboration method employed by Lee and his fellow Jewish comic creator Jack Kirby. This volume contributes an important and even necessary interpretation of Lee, encompassing his life and his artistic creations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. General readers. --Shannon Blake Skelton, Kansas State University

Leibovitz (A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen) brilliantly charts the life and legacy of the founder of Marvel Comics in this slim but affecting biography. Leibovitz calls Stan Lee (1922--2018) an "effervescent self-promoter" and notes that "by any measure of significance at our disposal, few artists have had so much of an impact on American popular culture." He walks readers through Lee's childhood (he was born in New York City to poor Jewish immigrant parents), his start in the business as an errand boy for what was then Timely Comics, and his channeling of his dissatisfaction with existing characters into the development of ones that had recognizable human emotions, and which paved the way for Marvel Comics with such heroes as Spider-man, Iron Man, and Black Panther. Leibovitz examines Lee's ideas and the inspiration behind his characters, arguing that, in order to understand the characters, they must be regarded as having been "formed by the anxieties of first-generation American Jews who had fought in World War II, witnessed the Holocaust, and reflected--consciously or otherwise--on the moral obligations and complications of life after Auschwitz." Fans of the legendary comic book writer and publisher will devour this expert mix of biography and literary analysis. (Apr.)

An analysis that goes deeper than most into the metaphysical vision of comics pioneer Stan Lee (1922-2018). In the latest volume in the publisher's Jewish Lives series, Leibovitz necessarily focuses on Lee's essential Jewishness and indicates that his life and legacy deserve academic scrutiny. As an author and commentator who works closely with many Jewish media outlets (he is a senior editor at Tablet) and who has previously published on Jewish subjects, he has the right credentials for the subject. Most importantly, however, Leibovitz brings to the project a deep love for--and knowledge of--the comic-book world that Lee created and how that world impacted popular culture and vice versa. With Marvel Studios now dominating the movie industry, one is less likely to underestimate the popular reach of Spider-Man or the Avengers, but Leibovitz argues that most are missing the big picture, that even serious scholarly attention has been "focusing on history and sociology but rarely on philosophy and theology." The author's analysis is not exactly an introduction or a primer, and it will most satisfy those who are already well versed in the Marvel universe, the Talmud, and the cultural and political upheavals that so profoundly impacted the thematic progression of Lee's empire. Leibovitz wants readers to recognize the cultural parallels between comic books and rock 'n' roll, to see Lee as a kindred spirit with "another gnomic Jewish artist, Bob Dylan," and to see how "his comic books, like Dylan's songs, have become vast cultural canvasses onto which anyone interested in the art form can paint his or her own interpretations, an ongoing dialogue with the artist that mirrors the ancient Talmudic logic of constant conversation and disputation." The author also touches on Lee's gift for self-mythologizing and the charges that, as a collaborator, he has taken more credit than is his due. Another solid addition to the series in which the author brings the seriousness his subject deserves. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Leibovitz (A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen) brilliantly charts the life and legacy of the founder of Marvel Comics in this slim but affecting biography. Leibovitz calls Stan Lee (1922–2018) an "effervescent self-promoter" and notes that "by any measure of significance at our disposal, few artists have had so much of an impact on American popular culture." He walks readers through Lee's childhood (he was born in New York City to poor Jewish immigrant parents), his start in the business as an errand boy for what was then Timely Comics, and his channeling of his dissatisfaction with existing characters into the development of ones that had recognizable human emotions, and which paved the way for Marvel Comics with such heroes as Spider-man, Iron Man, and Black Panther. Leibovitz examines Lee's ideas and the inspiration behind his characters, arguing that, in order to understand the characters, they must be regarded as having been "formed by the anxieties of first-generation American Jews who had fought in World War II, witnessed the Holocaust, and reflected—consciously or otherwise—on the moral obligations and complications of life after Auschwitz." Fans of the legendary comic book writer and publisher will devour this expert mix of biography and literary analysis. (Apr.)