Stan Lee Hated One Marvel Superhero So Much, That He Kept Them Dead For 37 Years

Published Sep 28, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

One famous Marvel hero was removed from the Marvel Universe because Stan Lee hated their archetype. DC Comics' Robin popularized the concept of the comic book sidekick in 1940, introduced only a couple of issues into Batman's early years as a conversational partner and a compelling figure to younger readers. Soon, nearly every major hero was paired with a youthful counterpart, including Sandman's partner Sandy the Golden Boy, Green Arrow’s archer protégé Speedy, and Superman's coworker Jimmy Olsen. These sidekicks served the dual purpose of giving adult heroes a relatable audience surrogate to mentor and injecting lighthearted energy into their respective heroes' stories.

As the comic book industry matured, the tone of superhero comics grew darker, and teenage sidekicks started to feel out of place. In 1988, DC Comics editors grew frustrated with fans' widespread dislike of Batman's second Robin Jason Todd, so DC set up a telephone voting hotline to decide his fate. Jason Todd's subsequent death at the hands of the Joker in A Death in the Family became synonymous with the death of the teenage sidekick. Since then, the idea of sidekicks has evolved, leading to the concept of the more independent idea of legacy heroes.

The Marvel Universe had its own Jason Todd situation, but for a very different reason, as one sidekick's number one hater wasn't the readers, but Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee himself.

Stan Lee Personally Killed Off Bucky Barnes As Soon As He Could

Stan Lee Hated The Idea Of Teenage Sidekicks

Even though sidekicks are a famous trope of the superhero genre, Stan Lee wasn't a fan. After Roy Thomas killed off Jim Hammond's teenage companion Thomas Raymond a.k.a. Toro in 1969's Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner #14, Lee's editorial direction maintained that Toro remain dead permanently. More notoriously, Stan Lee seized the opportunity to kill off a sidekick he considered unnecessary in 1964's Avengers #4. Determined to make Captain America a solo act, Lee wrote Bucky Barnes's death directly into Cap's modern backstory, revealing via flashback that Bucky had perished in World War II while failing to deactivate an explosive drone plane before Steve Rogers fell into the ocean.

Stan Lee eventually went on record about his dislike for the classic comic book trope of teenage sidekicks. In a 2005 interview with Movieweb, Lee explained, "I always figured if I were a superhero, there’s no way on God’s earth that I’m gonna pal around with some teenager." To Lee, it made no narrative sense for an adult hero like Captain America to constantly lug an underage person into deadly battle zones. It was only until Ed Brubaker turned Bucky Barnes' story around in 2005 that Captain America's teenage pal was allowed to return to Marvel lore, this time transformed into the deadly adult assassin known as the Winter Soldier.

The MCU Solved The Bucky Barnes Problem Stan Lee Hated

Sebastian Stan's MCU Bucky Barnes Was Never Captain America's Sidekick

The Marvel Cinematic Universe avoided the teenage sidekick trope entirely, reimagining Bucky Barnes as an older brother figure and peer to Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger. Sebastian Stan's Bucky was introduced as Steve's best friend, who starts out as a naturally taller and stronger protective ally and evolves into a trusted brother-in-arms once Steve transforms into Captain America. The MCU's older Bucky avoids the moral dilemma of an adult hero dragging a child into active combat, and yet it retains the close bond that makes the Cap and Bucky duo so memorable across the Marvel multiverse.

Although Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes is far from an innocent and playful child in his debut movie, his eventual transformation into the brainwashed Winter Soldier packs the same punch in the MCU. In fact, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is widely regarded as one of the MCU's finest outings, with Bucky’s tragic descent standing out as a heartbreaking story of a stolen life between equals just as well in live-action as it does in Ed Brubaker's acclaimed comics. Gone are the tight red pants and the domino mask, but Bucky's story remains roughly the same.