Photo: Entertainment Weekly
DC and Marvel have been in competition for years, but that didn’t stop DC from paying tribute to a Marvel legend.
In honor of the late creator, DC dedicated the final page in all of their comic book releases this week to Stan Lee, who passed away at the age of 95 on Nov. 12, 2018. The message reads: “With Utmost Respect from the Distinguished Competition… ‘Excelsior!’”
The humor of the tribute lies in the “Distinguished Competition” line, which was the phrase Lee used when he referred to DC in Marvel letters pages.
DC was the big name in the superhero comic business for decades until Lee and partners Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created dozens of new characters for Marvel in the 1960s. Despite their rivalry, DC’s tribute to Lee shows the ultimate respect for an icon who had a tremendous impact on the superhero world.
Marvel Comics also included a tribute in this week’s comics through three completely black pages and an artistic sketch of Lee at the start of every comic. They also placed a black banner atop the cover of every comic with the memorial, “Stan Lee 1922-2018.”
