Comic-book legend Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man and other Marvel heroes, dies at 95
Stan Lee, who helped create Spider-Man and other comic book superheroes that transformed the industry and raked in billions at movie box offices, has died. He was 95.
The Associated Press reports that Lee died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Kirk Schenck, an attorney for Lee’s daughter, J.C. Lee.
Stan Lee started working as a comics writer in the 1940s and helped guide the rise of Marvel Comics into a powerhouse in the 1960s.
In recent years, he was credited as associate producer for many of the blockbuster movies — including multiple sequels — starring Marvel characters Iron Man, X-Men and Captain America, in addition to Spider-Man.
Lee was also a staple at fan conventions, including ComicCon in San Diego, where new generations of fans paid homage to his work.
Though ultimately showered with adulation and praised as a cultural transformer, Lee said he was often embarrassed by his profession when he started in the 1940s.
“I would meet someone at a party, and they would ask what I did and I would say, ‘I’m a writer,’ then start to walk away,” Lee said. Pressed for details, he would say he wrote for magazines. And if pressed further?
“Finally I would say, ‘Comic books,’” Lee said. “And they would walk away from me.”
But half a century later, Lee was considered a superhero to fans who mobbed him at conventions and to Hollywood
producers whose films based on his characters made billions at the box office.
As the guiding force behind the spectacular rise of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Lee — and his artistic collaborators — devised characters that broke the mold of conventional comic book superheroes: No longer were they one-dimensional costumed crusaders who were all good and struggled against villains who were all bad.
Marvel’s superheroes, which Lee developed with Marvel artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, not only battled complex villains but also their own personal demons in stories that have been praised for their “wit and subtleties” — ingredients that greatly expanded the appeal and readership of comic books.
Lee and Kirby launched the new era of humanized comicbook superheroes in 1961 with the debut of the Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing.
The crime-fighting quartet — scientist Reed Richards; his fiancee, Sue Storm; her teenage brother, Johnny; and test pilot Ben Grimm — obtained their superpowers after their experimental rocket ship passed through cosmic rays that altered their atomic structures.
Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber to Romanian immigrant parents in New York City on Dec. 28, 1922. While in high school, his flair for writing landed him a part-time job turning out advance obituaries of famous people for
The Associated Press, a job he quit after growing “tired of writing about living people in the past tense.”
After graduating in 1939, Lee landed an $8-a-week job as an editorial assistant at a small publishing company in Manhattan owned by Martin Goodman, the husband of Lee’s cousin.
One of the earliest publishers of pulp magazines, Goodman published comic books under the name Timely Comics.
In 1941, Lee, not yet 19, was asked to fill in as editor and art director. By then, he was writing many of the company’s comic book scripts, finding that his longtime love of reading and going to the movies helped him come up with simple plot ideas.
After Pearl Harbor, Lee enlisted in the Army but remained stateside during World War II, writing instructional manuals and scripts for Signal Corps training films. In his spare time, he freelanced comic book scripts for Timely. After the war, he returned to his old job.
Lee was listed as executive producer on numerous, hugely successful films starring Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man. In 2015, he published “Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir,” an illustrated memoir.
Lee is survived by a daughter, Joan Celia Lee, and a brother, Larry Lieber. Joan, his wife of nearly 70 years, died in July 2017 and a second daughter died shortly after birth in 1953.