Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee was a master when it came to Marvel movie cameos, and here are his best 25. Even though Stan is one of the most recognizable names in the history of comic books, he was close to giving up this career before he and Jack Kirby created The Fantastic Four. This success catapulted him to the top and was the beginning of him creating countless characters that still live on to this day in print, and also on the big screen.

As Marvel movies started to become popular at the turn of the 2000s, a new tradition was created when Lee made a small cameo in X-Men. From that point on, it is difficult to find a Marvel movie that doesn't feature him for a few frames. He has even gone on to have cameos in a variety of other movies too, and it will be Avengers: Endgame that marks his final one. But, with decades of cameos in the books, which one is the best?

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Screen Rant's newest video takes on this topic to rank the 25 best Stan Lee cameos in Marvel movies. Our picks span all franchises, whether that means the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Fox's X-Men franchise, or even some older and less revered adaptations. There may be dozens of cameos on this list, but our top pick is actually one of his more recent! Check out the video featured at the top of this post for our entire list.

Thanks in large part to the volume of their entries and creativity, the MCU's great use of Stan Lee is evident in our ranking. Fifteen of the twenty-five entries come from Marvel Studios' shared universe. Not only is the saga responsible for most of them, but the recent confirmation of the theory that all of them are actually connected makes them even better. His cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which placed third in our ranking, confirmed that Stan is actually playing the same character in all of these appearances - and that his guy reports directly to The Watchers.

As great as the MCU cameos are, the other franchise to best use him (according to our list) is actually Sony's multiple Spider-Man franchises. They make up some of his earliest appearances, but Stan's close connection to Peter Parker makes them a little more special. Even though he didn't have a hand in creating Miles Morales, it is actually Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that gave him his best cameo in our opinion. Stan did create the original Spider-Man though, and his message in Spider-Verse that anyone can wear the mask is just too good not to put at the top.

More: Secret Stan Lee Cameos You Definitely Missed In Spider-Verse

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