A-listers, cutting-edge CGI, chaos, quips, and post-credit scenes—that is 21st-century Marvel Entertainment in a nutshell. Churning out one blockbuster production after another, Marvel has established itself as a live-action media mogul persistently setting the pace for family action movies over the past two decades.
My time as an educator prior to joining the curatorial team for the upcoming Stan Lee: Beyond the Book exhibit has made it evident that contemporary youths are ecstatic about what they are seeing on the screen. There was seldom a school day when I was not reminded of the reach of Black Panther, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and more. I watched as the heroes’ exuberant exploits leapt from the screen and latched themselves onto cherished t-shirts, bursting backpacks, and even to fruit-snack packaging! At elementary schools, secondary schools, and here on campus at the University of Wyoming, the influence and adoration of modern-day Marvel is tangible.
Evidence of Lee’s commitment to education is plentiful throughout his immense 127 cubic-foot collection at the American Heritage Center. And while noticing the connections between the artifacts housed at the AHC and the thrilling scenes coming from Hollywood studios has been absorbing, working with the Stan Lee Collection has resonated more with the educator in me than the consumer.
By itself, the comic book form is an apt conduit for learning. Afterall, novels like Great Expectations are lovely, but students often meet a wall of text and are instantly intimidated, sleepy, or dramatically claiming death by boredom (trust me, I am an English teacher). Conversely, comics provide the perfect recipe to trick a developing and hesitant reader into a darn good time. The vibrant colors are alluring, the text is distributed throughout the page, the dialogue accelerates the plot, and the ability to turn page after page provides a significant boost to students’ self-efficacy. Furthermore, the congruity between illustrations, captions, and dialogue balloons offers students a digestible way to understand literary devices. Comics abound with symbolism, metaphor, allusion, flashback, foreshadow, and more. Illustrations make these techniques more interpretable, and the action displayed on the page encourages readers to make context-based inferences.
When comics mixed with Lee’s indelible vocabulary and his alliterative virtuosity, teachers and students alike realized that entertainment and education could be symbiotic after all. Lee was well aware of the potential of comics to inspire learning. In the article above, Lee is quoted, “The vocabulary in our comics is of college level…We figure the young readers will learn the word by its use in the context and if they should go to the dictionary to look it up, that isn’t the worst thing that could happen.”
Integrating academic, colloquial, and expressive language is a great way to improve reading comprehension and speaking skills, especially for remedial readers, students with special learning needs, and English language learners. The Stan Lee Papers feature scores of letters and comments from parents and students alike thanking Lee personally for his impact on their reading and writing skills and subsequently, the quality of their lives.
Simply writing comics made a difference in the lives of people around the world. Yet, Stan Lee was compelled to do more than that. Educators of all levels wrote Lee requesting whatever volumes he and Marvel might be able to spare. He answered the call generously; for teachers, for researchers, for prisoners—for years.
What a great and inspiring thing to receive a bundle of comic books from one of the most reputable comic book writers in the history of the genre… but imagine the rush of a visit from the charismatic creator himself. Countless students across various grade levels were granted such a visit. Lee was renowned for lecturing at college campuses, including the University of Wyoming, but he also frequently visited elementary and secondary schools across the country. In collaboration with programs like Los Angeles County’s “Principal for a Day”, Lee would enter classrooms to discuss the importance of literacy and his favorite superpower—knowledge. He often convinced Spider-Man to take the day off from fighting crime to accompany him on these visits as well. Lee is pictured below at the then, University of Wyoming’s Lab School.
But we know that all superheroes need help. Stan Lee did too in his effort to promote the importance of education. In coordination with the American Spirit Foundation, Lee chaired the “Entertainers for Education” project, which recruited a diverse array of entertainers to fundraise for the development of educational programming and facilitated celebrity visits to schools to reinforce the importance of being a dedicated learner.
Lee’s efforts did not go unnoticed. The collection boasts several letters from Presidents Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and Carter expressing their appreciation to Lee for his dedication to supporting students of all ages. In the letter below, President Clinton commends Lee for his leadership during the 1997 America Reads Challenge.
Ultimately, Stan Lee will primarily be remembered for his contribution to the creation of famous superheroes like Spider-Man, The Fantastic 4, Black Panther, and more. However, the Stan Lee Collection offers insights that indicate that there was much more to the icon than initially meets the eye.
To discover more about Stan Lee, be sure to check out the exhibit—Stan Lee: Beyond the Book opening May 1, 2024, at the American Heritage Center. The exhibit runs through November 1, 2024.
‘Nuff said…no, actually, I will leave the last word to Stan:
Post contributed by AHC Intern Liam Leslie.
