If we had to report every time some right-wing guy on Twitter said something moronic we’d be here all day, but sometimes someone says something so jaw-droppingly vapid that you have to sit up and pay attention.
Said someone is professional troll and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, who after seeing Captain Marvel, tweeted: “Imagine if Stan Lee saw what they’ve turned the MCU into…,” with the presumed implication being that the comic book legend would be absolutely horrified that Marvel put out a movie about a female superhero.
Given that Stan Lee is actually in Captain Marvel, it’s already an utterly boneheaded thing to say. But wait, the idiocy doesn’t stop there. That’s because Lee was a famous champion of inclusion across his long, long history in the medium. This is the Stan Lee who was the child of immigrants, and who created a universe full of characters from different classes, genders and races, going out of his way to write heroes dealing with disabilities.
In fact, this is the Stan Lee who once said the following in his monthly column:
“Racism and bigotry are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them – to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater – one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. … Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.”
And sure, you might argue that he wrote that in 1968 and might have changed his politics over the years, but here’s Lee in 2017:
“Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender or color of their skin. The only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance and bigotry.”
That’s why Stan Lee will go down in history as one of the greatest fictional creators of the 20th century, a man who birthed a universe of heroism and who encouraged his readers to fight against the very evil Posobiec represents. And comments like Posobiec’s are why he’ll be a footnote in history. At best.
