When discussing Stan Lee‘s legacy, it’s easy to get distracted by the flourishes and flares. After all, as the man who co-created heavy hitters like Spider-Man or The Fantastic Four, it’s not hard to see why — there’s no small amount of glitz and glamor to be had. But buried beneath Lee’s massive roster of creative contributions to Marvel’s pantheon is a detail that may be considerably less flashy than the Bang! Zoom! Pow! of his costumed heroes, but is no less monumental in scale. By crafting himself into a bombastic, over the top editorial voice — “Stan The Man” or “Smilin’ Stan” — that featured heavily in every Marvel publication, Lee was leading a quiet revolution in not only the comic book industry’s business practices, but the world of superhero fandom as a whole.
Source: IGN.com How Stan Lee Revolutionized Fandom