Love Letter #4
Youthquake is Back with Venus in Cat Eyes' TGIF #2
Youthquake is a nostalgic biweekly newsletter of the pop culture elite (past & present).
Friday’s TGIF Post varies from New Music Friday releases, Retro Fixation, film reviews, The Audio Files, and so much more in pop culture adjacency.
We’ve been away for a bit to be off the radar for a bit— well, I’ve been away. Sometimes living off the grid is nice, and I’m enjoying being less visibly online. However, we’re back with a dreamy aesthetic to give off a surreality that the internet can be yet with a focused and direct emphasis on pop culture, commentary, and critique.
Additionally, you can catch up on our previous Love Letters, like my Ode to the Blockbuster Experience and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides or Sam’s composition of Ariana Grande’s retro aesthetic. I’m happy that you’ve come across Youthquake; subscribe and get into it below.
With appreciation,
Naomi
If you’ve been paying attention to mainstream pop culture media for the last twenty years, there’s no doubt you know who Stan Lee is, even if you’re not a Marvel fan. If you’re unfamiliar, Stan Lee’s the creator of Marvel Comics and many of its well-known superheroes. For instance, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk Ant-Man & the Wasp, and Marvel’s most notable hero, Spider-Man. These superheroes are just a small group of the incredible characters he and Jack Kirby created together.
With countless biographies and documentaries on Stan Lee, so I’ll spare you the redundant facts. Still, I wanted to focus on today’s Love Letter is what Stan Lee has done; Marvel completely changed the comic book game. The dominating blockbuster hits from the MCU also helped kids, and young adults that didn’t have resources to comic books feel seen while mostly being or feeling unheard of or respected in their world.
What sets Marvel apart from DC is that Marvel wanted to tell stories that touched on serious, real-life subjects with their characters. With this in mind, it would make for more well-rounded and, most of all, relatable heroes for people to read. You get an unexplainable feeling when you read about a character as cool as Tony Stark, and then you realize that he struggles with anxiety and familial issues of inadequacies. There’s been (and still is) a huge rivalry between Marvel and DC fans. Besides the constant and annoying theoretical online argument of who would win in a fight, Batman or Iron Man, I think what Marvel has that DC doesn’t is a clear set goal in what they wanted to achieve in their comic book stories, and that is all thanks to Stan Lee.
Another goal Stan Lee had behind Marvel was to create a strong relationship between readers and Jack Kirby, the editors. Marvel was a pretty interactive comic back in its day, where Stan would write “Stan’s Soap Box” every so often to address various issues the comics may have had, including many societal problems. The duo even published letters from fans addressed as “Dear Stan and Jack” to strengthen the bond as creators. While Stan’s powerful vision of the duo’s creations wasn’t always a carefree path, he continued to create and share his love for humans capable of doing kind, good-hearted things that happen to have superpowers. Stan cared most about telling a riveting story that not just kids could relate to, and if his readers truly enjoyed what he created, it was important to him, the relatability.
There are many reasons why Stan Lee is the icon he’ll always be remembered as, mainly for me; it’s the way he didn’t seem to change at all, even when he gained even more popularity with his cameos in Marvel Studios movies. If you didn’t know much about Stan Lee before, I hope this Love Letter illuminates him and his words which still help us feel comforted and, most of all, seen— many years later.
Devoted ‘fandoms’ have always been around despite having many synonyms, yet Stan Lee truly set the standard for galvanizing passionate comic fans into a mighty tour de force it is. His longstanding legacy was always more than just comic books or tales of superheroes; they’re about flawed humans trying to do the right thing. Like his words towards being more kind and understanding with the aforementioned ‘Stan’s Soapbox,’ below are some of our favorites.
This week’s TGIF is short and sweet; Youthquake will officially be back with a new lineup. Until then, enjoy the weekend, which is calling our names.