"Stan Lee was always a hero of mine", writes Eric Deggans in his tribute to book writer Stan Lee. "It's a feeling I share with many comic book fans. But it wasn't until recently – and especially following his death Monday at age 95 – that I began to realize that some of my love for him came specifically from my perspective as a black kid who grew up reading comic books in the 1970s."

Lee's legacy was complex; he stood atop the comic book world as the editor-in-chief and later publisher of Marvel Comics, his final triumph the cinematic tour-de-force, Black Panther. Yet, comic book graveyards remain littered with rejected action figures created by black illustrators. Read Eric Deggans' tribute...