Since nerd culture burst into the mainstream years back, there's been an onslaught of artists proclaimed gods to the masses of fanboys and fangirls who eagerly cosplay at Comic Cons, scour the internet for any scrap of information on their latest endeavors, and turn out in droves for the midnight releases of movies like The Avengers. But while Joss Whedon won praise from critics and moviegoers for his smart and satisfying superhero movie, his impact on pop culture still pales in comparison to that of the great Stan Lee.
Lee has been working in comics since 1939, and in his career he helped create such iconic characters as The Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. He is one of the few comic book writers who is known and recognized by people outside the comic connoisseur community, and that is thanks in no small part to moviemakers' love of offering him eye-catching cameos in their adaptations of his works. Below, courtesy of Geeks Are Sexy, you can check out all Lee's cameos, spanning from the 1989 TV movie Trial of the Incredible Hulk to 2012's Avengers and The Amazing Spiderman.
Whether he's being saved by an adolescent Daredevil, earning some rare lines with TV Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, or trying to dislodge Mjolnir from the Earth with the help of a pickup truck, Lee's appearance is typically a welcomed Easter egg to in-the-know audience members. And this trend shows no sign of stopping as Lee is currently listed as playing a bus driver in 2013's Thor: The Dark of the World and will surely make some kind of appearance in Iron Man 3. The only question is who will Tony mistake him for this time?
