Bill Maher incurs the internet's wrath after belittling Stan Lee and comic books

Commentator Bill Maher disparaged Stan Lee, the seminal creator of iconic comic book superheroes like Spider-Man, The Hulk, and The Fantastic Four, in an unsolicited 293-word Saturday morning blog titled "Adulting."

Twitter was quick to rebut Maher's cultural musings after he mocked the late Lee's widely-appreciated work, belittled millions of people who value comics, and broadly labeled comics as "stupid stuff."

"I’m not saying we’ve necessarily gotten stupider," Maher wrote, before adding, "The problem is, we’re using our smarts on stupid stuff." 

Distilling decades of comic book history, culture, and meaning down to a short, oversimplified opinion is naturally going provoke the ire of the public, especially those who possess a greater familiarity of both comics and Lee's intellectual influence. 

As Mashable's Adam Rosenberg wrote following the comic legend's Nov. 12 death: "Lee, and through him Marvel, recognized that superheroes were still fundamentally human, capable of all the same flaws and fears as anyone else. It's a mindset that led to more human stories, but also one that unavoidably flirted with the political climate as well."

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As New York Times reporters Jonathan Kandell and Andy Webster noted, "Under Mr. Lee, Marvel transformed the comic book world by imbuing its characters with the self-doubts and neuroses of average people, as well an awareness of trends and social causes and, often, a sense of humor."

Maher, forever a firestarter, probably wrote what he wrote to provoke a response. That doesn't make the drags aimed at him any less entertaining, though.

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