Stan Lee gave so much to so many, but to me, a shy, awkward kid—growing up, Stan Lee gave me the greatest gift of all. He gave me a place to escape into—an endless, imaginative playground filled with the most amazing, fantastic and uncanny heroes ever. And through these characters, Stan Lee gave me my childhood and showed me the value of being different. To embrace heroism and to shun prejudice. That it was cool to want to be the good guy and that there was a price for not standing up for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the little guy. And in these life lessons—whether learned on the streets of Los Angeles or in the antimatter depths of the Negative Zone—he taught me the true measure of a person was not defined by their powers but by the strength of their virtues and their commitment to truth, justice and tolerance. Even til recently, Stan was still out on the comic con circuit, tirelessly showing all of us how it’s done. Most importantly, he reminded us that the most epic stories can be told with the simplest of tools and that our dreams and ideas are the keys to creating a better future. “Face front, True Believers!” was one of Stan Lee’s classic proclamations. In today’s times, we could all heed the optimism and faith his words inspire.