Marvel: 17 Stan Lee created Marvel characters ranked worst to best

4. Black Panther

There isn’t much representation in the world of Marvel. This isn’t just about Hollywood, but about the comics as a whole. However, Stan Lee did create the first-ever black superhero within American comic book history. Black Panther came to life in 1966 in Fantastic Four #52.

Hollywood never thought that Black Panther would do as well as it did. Just look at the small cameos he gets in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War and you’ll see that Hollywood never expected the standalone movie to gain such traction. Stan Lee did things the opposite way with the character, starting him as a side character with the Fantastic Four to see what the reaction would be like.

Now we know that the reaction was positive. After the first few guest appearances, the smartest and richest of all the Marvel characters gained his own series. It all started with Jungle Action and it grew from there. To prove that the character is so great, the Panther’s Rage story arc has become Marvel’s first graphic novel.

While being rich and strong (and definitely deadly), Black Panther is the guy that you want to be. He is kind and compassionate, proving that being a good man isn’t a weakness.

By the way, for those who believe the name of the character is linked to the Black Panther Party, it’s not. The debut of the character came before the party was founded and was thanks to a pulp adventure hero whose helper was a black panther. This was all about the animal and it’s no wonder the character’s powers are developed from that animal.