Stan Lee’s brilliant take on Superman and the rest of the Justice League was radically different yet familiar to audiences.

Marvel Comics owes a lot to Stan Lee’s imagination, given that the late comic book legend was responsible for some of the most popular characters to come out of the Silver Age of comics. Stan Lee’s unique style, something that resulted in the creation of the likes of Spider-Man, The X-Men, and The Fantastic Four, was once brought over to Marvel’s biggest rivals, Detective Comics, to create versions of some of their most popular characters.

Stan Lee in Thor: Ragnarok || Credit: Marvel Studios

While fans and audiences are aware of the various origin stories of characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, Stan Lee was able to put his own spin on these characters, such as turning Superman into a Space Cop and making Batman a professional wrestler. The stories were part of the Just Imagine… initiative, which saw a slew of other characters be reimagined by Stan Lee as well.

Cop Superman, Wrestler Batman, and… Demon Shazam?

Stan Lee’s Superman || Credit: DC

Stan Lee took a lot of liberties in the way in which he reimagined the characters of the DC canon. Superman became a Kryptonian space cop, hunting a criminal. Batman became a Black wrestler by the name of Wayne Williams.

Other characters also got completely overhauled, such as Shazam abandoning his roots in Greco-Roman mythology, and becoming more involved with King Arthur’s mythology, while Green Lantern becomes a more fantastic entity, drawing their powers from Yggdrasil, the Worlds Tree in Norse Mythology.

These heroes have been given their own designated universe in Earth-6 in the DC Multiverse. This universe has other characters that were reimagined by Stan Lee, like Aquaman, who is an environmentalist who can turn his body into living hard water, The Flash, who received her speed powers from hummingbird DNA, and Wonder Woman, who is an activist blessed by the Incan Sun God.

Stan Lee decided to give the characters a distinct quality

The Justice League in the DCAU || Credit: WB

The Justice League, and DC characters in general, have always had an aura of being all-powerful. Their powers are godlike, making them absolutes in the world that they exist in. However, Stan Lee made these characters a little more grounded, as was the case with the likes of Iron Man, Spider-Man and Captain America.

Stan Lee has had a huge impact on the world of comic books, be it with The Avengers, the X-Men, or even The Fantastic Four. While Stan Lee’s take on the DC heroes was not as popular, they serve as an important reminder of the impact the writer had on the world of American comics. While Stan Lee also collaborated with other comic book companies around the world, his characters remain some of the most lucrative IPs to come out of Hollywood.