By Abraham Riesman
Crown: 416 pages, $28
If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
Shortly after Stan Lee, the Marvel Comics legend, died in 2018 at 95, biographer Abraham Riesman paid a visit to his only sibling, younger brother Larry Lieber. Though he had drawn comics for Stan on and off for 60 years, Lieber never felt emotionally close to him. He tried to explain his brother the best way he knew how: by comparing him to an iconic film character. “I feel like I’m talking about Charles Foster Kane,” he told Riesman. “Who was he? What was he? What was he like? It depends on who you talk to at what moment.”
We Published Nearly 2,800 Stories in 2020. Here Are 22 of Our Favorites of the Year
We take a look back at some of the most serious, most joyful, and most compelling stories of 2020 with a selection of staff favorites.
December 29, 2020
A protester speaks to a crowd from the pedestal that once hosted the statue of Edward Colston. Photo by Giulia Spadafora/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
There’s no way around it: it’s been a bruising year.
The coronavirus pandemic taught us (as if we needed another lesson) that no one is an island. The police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others reminded us that struggles for political justice are only just beginning. And the election of President Joe Biden suggested a potential return to order but really, how can things ever be as they were?