Stan Lee's Best Single Marvel Story Was...?

[DrNewGod]

A lot of us are sorry to see Lee pass. However complicated his history might be, there's no denying he was a giant, and oversaw the remaking of comicbooks.

He was also a more-than-pretty good writer.

If you had to pick one Marvel story crediting Stan Lee as writer as his best, what would it be?

[K7P5V]

"This Man... This Monster!" - Fantastic Four #51

[LifeIsILL]

This is tough...

I feel like it should be one of his early Captain America or Spidey stories.

[Lorendiac]

I never asked myself that question before. But looking back on it, ever since my age was measured in single digits I've been particularly fond of "The Amazing Spider-Man #18," in which Peter Parker is trying to quit being Spider-Man because his Aunt May recently became very ill and he's afraid he'd be irresponsible to run off and fight crime and maybe get himself killed when she might not survive without him to take care of her. This leads to a period where the people of New York City (heartily encouraged by J. Jonah Jameson) think Spidey has turned into a hopeless coward. The time when he's out in costume and runs and hides from a rampaging Sandman does not exactly improve his image.

Eventually, thanks in large talk to a pep talk from a recovering Aunt May, Peter realizes he's duty-bound to get back into harness as a genuine superhero.

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[Jekyll]

This may be cliche, but I’m going with the first issue of Fantastic Four. This issue really set the ground work for Marvel comics and all the characters to come.51D86127-A6BA-4D17-8806-34E356A19A62.jpg

[gurkle]

"The Old Order Changeth!" (Avengers #16) is the one that I have to go with, where the original Avengers quit and Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch sign up to replace them. It's a strange issue because it doesn't have much plot or even a main villain. But even now it seems like such a strange thing for a comic to do, to suddenly kick out the entire original cast of heroes and replace them with three characters who were introduced as (reluctant) villains in other comics.

It says a lot about 1960s Marvel that Stan could take such a risk as editor/writer and make it work (according to Roy Thomas, sales of Avengers went up after this issue even though many fans were furious), and that he and Kirby could do an issue that wasn't mostly about fighting bad guys.

[Mike]

MY favorite penned story by Stan Lee would have to be:
Silver Surfer #4
Silver_Surfer_Vol_1_4.jpg

[Alan2099]

Amazing Fantasy #15

Stan did an idea that his boss told him wouldn't work and changed comics forever with it.

[Kuwagaton]

That's probably the best explanation for his greatest impact.

I'd say Amazing Spider-Man #33, because I don't feel that any other comic could have made me fall in love with comics the way I did, even like 40 years after it came out.

[KC]

If This Be My Destiny (The Amazing Spider-Man #31–33)

It has all the fundamentals of a great Marvel story and one of the best comic moments of all time.

[Derek Metaltron]

I definitely have a soft spot for #50 Of Amazing Spider-Man with No More, not only the iconic shot of him walking away from the dustbin and his costume but also the fact he returns after helping an old security guard who he realises looks a lot like Uncle Ben and that he can’t give up if he can save people.

[JackDaw]

Loads of stuff occur.

The one where the story impressed me most at the time I first read it (long ago!) was an issue of Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos....wish I could remember issue number...but basically the overall plot was how Reb slowly “lost” his racial prejudice as he fought alongside Gabe.

It didn’t come over as “preaching”...it was a great story in its own rights...but for me it does typify one aspect of Stan’s work, he consistently championed tolerant and humane values.

[Sandy Hausler]

The Galactus Trilogy in FF # 49-50.

Sandy Hausler

[DrNewGod]

By a narrow margin, my choice is The X-Men (v1) 4; featuring the first appearance of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

4-1.jpg

It's easy to dismiss this pretty much your basic superteam gang rumble, or to get enthusiastic about it as the introduction of The X-Men's long-standing opposite numbers. Nor was it just that it established Magneto as a real power and an anti-Professor X, fully capable of assembling an army and conquering a country if not checked. To me, however, the genius here was that this group was different than the "anti-superhero teams" that had come before, beginning with DC's Injustice Gang way back in the 1940s.

There were divisions of goals and motives in this crew, ranging from Magneto's megalomania, to Mastermind's crude criminality, to The Twin's reluctant-nowhere-else-to-turn antagonism. It was another example of how - even in those early days - Lee and his collaborators were out to change the rules of how comicbook stories worked.

[Triniking1234]

The Return of Captain America in Avengers vol. 1
The Galactus Trilogy and the Inhumans Saga in FF vol. 1
If this be my destiny in ASM vol. 1