It was just under a month ago that the world lost one the greats - Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, who passed away on November 12 at the age of 95.
In recent years, the creator of the likes of Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, Daredevil, Thor, and Ant-Man, had enjoyed an incredibly successful renaissance, thanks in part to Marvel Studios' movie and TV adaptations of his superhero characters.
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One of the most successful of those has been the Avengers franchise - this year's Avengers: Infinity War was the highest grossing film of 2018, and the highest ever grossing superhero movie ever.
And while Stan Lee might have left us, his legend and legacy live on - not just in all the amazing characters he created for the Marvel Universe, but on a much deeper level, too.
A perfect example of that is found in the trailer for the new Avengers film, Avengers: Endgame, which was released a couple of days ago. The trailer depicts an exhausted and beaten down Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) - played, of course, by Robert Downey Jr - drifting through space on an abandoned spaceship.
Resigned to his fate, he records a message for whoever may find his body years down the line - and one of the things he says is this: "Part of the journey is the end."
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While that's suitably dramatic and has definitely got us biting our nails until the film comes out towards the end of April, it could also well be a nod and a tribute to Stan Lee himself.
Lee's eccentric motto - which he used on autographs to fans - was "Excelsior". And it seems that what Downey says in the clip is hinting at the meaning behind that phrase.
In an interview with Playboy from 2014, which the magazine republished after his death, Lee explained exactly what that word meant.
"I'm always looking ahead, even at this age," he told the magazine. "You know, my motto is 'Excelsior.' That's an old word that means 'upward and onward to greater glory.' It's on the seal of the state of New York.
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"Keep moving forward, and if it's time to go, it's time. Nothing lasts forever. Hell, I'm 91 years old. If I have to go while I'm talking to you, I've had a long enough life. I'd hate to leave my wife and my daughter, but heaven knows it's beyond me. And I don't even really believe in heaven."
Those words ring true not just in real life, but also in the context of the carnage that the Marvel Universe was left in at the end of Avengers: Infinity War - when super villain Thanos essentially ended the world as we know it - and by saying those words, Tony Stark is essentially playing a sincere tribute to the creator of his universe.
Sure, it might be a litttttttttle bit of a stretch, and it could just be a coincidence, but isn't it nice to think of it as a tribute? Here's to you, Stan Lee!
Featured Image Credit: PA/MarvelTopics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment