Though I’ll say I had a particular affinity for the outsider/group dynamics of the X-Men (and will also admit my great love of the Hulk mostly comes from the Bill Bixby TV show).Įven back then, it seemed like Stan Lee was everywhere. You already know the rundown, but we’re talking Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Black Panther, The X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Daredevil (it’s safe to say there have been worse resumes). He was the co-creator of, well, most of it. Subscribe to Observer’s Entertainment Newsletter And if the comic collection was an inherent fixture of my dawning consciousness, so was Stan Lee. It all became a part of some secret world-one full of stories and powers and adventures beyond measure. But that paranoid fear was matched only by his utter excitement. I even remember being expressly forbidden from talking about them with a few kids who had older brothers his age. And so his love of comics (along with Dungeons and Dragons), was quartered off and compartmentalized. My brother was a budding young football player, as insecure and eager to fit in as any other kid. The ‘80s were not exactly a kind time to these “dorky” properties. That’s because comics were forbidden in a different sense: I didn’t realize they were hidden in the attic because they were considered the opposite of cool. He was excited to bring me into his favorite worlds because he didn’t really have many other people to talk about them with. He showed me his favorites and taught me how to take care of them. But it’s not as if they were some forbidden thing that he hid up there to keep me from ruining-my brother was always excited to share them with me.

Even before I could really read, I was fascinated by them. As it modestly grew, it became further stuffed into cardboard boxes, much like you see in comic stores. We kept it up in the attic, piled along the shelves of the southern wall.

I was definitely born into his comic collection. It’s like you are born into a pre-made reality. Their likes and interests instantly feed into your own. With that kind of age difference, you end up inheriting a lot of things, from hand-me-down clothes to old toys, as well as certain elements of culture. Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post via Getty Images The Fixture of the Attic

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