Happy 85th birthday, Stan Lee!
In honor of Stan Lee’s 85th birthday, here are my 85 favorite comic books by “The Man.”
1. Avengers No. 4 — My favorite for sentimental reasons, as Captain America is revived by the Avengers. Historically, this issue is important as Lee directly tied the Marvel of the 1960s to the Timely heroes of the 1940s, making Marvel continuity all the more intriguing.
2. Fantastic Four No. 48 — Stan Lee kicks off the “Galactus trilogy” with the introduction of the mysterious Silver Surfer.
3. Fantastic Four No. 1 — Stan Lee introduces a new kind of superteam in the first issue of “Fantastic Four.”
4. Amazing Fantasy No. 15 — Stan introduces the everyman hero of Peter Parker, who becomes Spider-Man.
5. Fantastic Four No. 5 — The Fantastic Four’s nemesis, and one of the greatest villains in comics, Doctor Doom, is introduced.
6. Captain America No. 100 — Captain America leaps into his first solo series since the 1940s in No. 100, spinning out of “Tales of Suspense,” which featured both Iron Man and Captain America in half-issue stories.
7. Amazing Spider-Man No. 5 — Spidey faces off against Doctor Doom, and Flash Thompson is mistaken for Spidey.
8. Fantastic Four No. 50 — The conclusion of the Galactus trilogy.
9. Amazing Spider-Man No. 50 — Peter Parker quits being Spider-Man (he later reconsiders). First appearance of the Kingpin.
10. Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 — Trapped beneath rubble in an underwater tunnel, Spider-Man must summon all his strength to escape.
11. Fantastic Four No. 49 — The first full appearance of Galactus has the Fantastic Four scrambling like never before.
12. Fantastic Four Annual No. 1 — Namor invades the surface world in this classic battle.
13. Amazing Spider-Man No. 3 — The first appearance of Doctor Octopus.
14. X-Men No. 1 — Stan introduces the X-Men: Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Marvel Girl and Angel — and the villainous Magneto.
15. Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 — Spider-Man graduates into his own
series, and faces off against the Fantastic Four
16. Silver Surfer No. 1 — The first series featuring the sentinel of
the spaceways.
17. X-Men No. 14 — The Sentinels, mutant-hunting robots, are introduced.
18. Fantastic Four No. 4 — Namor the Sub-Mariner is discovered
amnesiac and homeless by Johnny Storm. This revived the popular 1940s
character into a longtime Fantastic Four foil, sometimes as an ally
and sometimes as a nemesis.
19. Tales of Suspense No. 39 — Tony Stark, arms dealer, becomes Iron
Man to save his life.
20. Hulk No. 1 — The man-monster Hulk is introduced.
21. Fantastic Four Annual No. 3 — Reed Richards and Sue Storm become
one of the first married superhero couples (second only to Aquaman and
Mera).
22. Amazing Spider-Man No. 14 — First appearance of the Green Goblin.
23. Journey into Mystery No. 83 — Stan reworks Norse mythology to
create Marvel’s version of Thor, God of Thunder.
24. Fantastic Four #52 — First appearance of the Black Panther, Marvel’s first black superhero.
25. Fantastic Four 51 – “This Man, This Monster” features a criminal trying to take the place of The Thing in one of Stan’s most memorable stories.
26. Captain America No. 109 — The origin of Captain America.
27. Daredevil No.1 -- The blind lawyer Matt Murdock is secretly the adventurer Daredevil.
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