Stan Lee's Presence in the X-Men

    X-Men is probably the first superhero-themed comic that appeals to me in a significant way. Heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, though both cultural landmarks, are too simplistic for my taste. If I read a superhero comic, I want to delve into the protagonists' powers, back stories, relationships, etc. And I don't mind if all of this is complicated. Lee does not shy away from complication in his X-Men narratives and trusts his audience to keep up with the striking individuality of each character.
    Yet this trust has its limits. In X-Men #9 there are two instances where Lee drops the narrator in order to reveal pertinent information explicitly to the audience. On p. 196 of the work, there is a small orange box bridging the first two panels that clarifies what a "dust devil" is: "* Idiomatic name for Western desert dust storm ... Stan." Here Lee is not only aware of his own colloquialism, but uses his first name in order to achieve some type of familiarity with the audience. We move out of the grand, exciting, narrative voice and into a simple, person-person, conversational tone. Also, by having the box cover the gutter between the two panels, we get the sense that this statement is not in the comic but an addendum to it. This further breaks down the wall between audience and author. For me, this suggests that Lee is concerned not only with the clarity of his work, but with his audience's perception of him as co-creator. He does not wish to invoke any hierarchy of author over audience, so he speaks directly to them.
    The second instance of this narration break comes a few pages later when the Avengers arrive on the scene. While the two super squads are squabbling over who will actually get to fight the great and terrible menace of Lucifer, Lee adds a note that refers to an older Marvel comic, "* See F.F. #31 - - Stan!" (p. 202). As the first side note showed us a transgression of the space between audience and author, this one reveals a little more of Lee's motivation. Most notably, I think, the exclamation point that finishes the note suggests Lee's need to showcase the levels of interplay in his works for Marvel. I think it is safe to assume that "F.F. #31" is Fantastic Four #31, a comic written by Lee, where the Avengers and Fantastic Four clash. Lee does not expect his audience to get this reference right off the back, hence the note, but he wants to explicitly state his level of commitment to the complexities of his work. In this way, he is allowing both avid readers and newcomers to access the beautiful interplay superhero comics can utilize. As I said before, he destroys the hierarchy of author/reader, but he also destroys any hierarchy within a readership by making even minuscule references accessible to all.