Stan Lee, the single greatest contributor to comic book culture and creativity in the history of the format, has died at the age of 95.
According to TMZ, Lee was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles early Monday morning. He passed away a short time later.
Born Stanley Martin Lieber, Lee is responsible for most of the major Marvel Comics characters known the world over today, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and more. His comic career began in 1939 when the then-16-year-old was hired by his uncle, publisher Martin Goodman, as an assistant for what was at the time called Timely Comics. His first brush with superhero writing was for a story called “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” in May 1941’s Captain America Comics #3, in which the character’s trademark shield-throwing abilities were introduced.
When editor Joe Simon and Lee’s future close collaborator artist Jack Kirby departed Timely in 1941, the 19-year-old Lee was made interim editor. However, his career was halted by World War II, when he enlisted as a member of the Signal Corps. He later wrote training films and manuals, gaining the rare military classification “playwright.” When he returned in 1945, his editing job at Timely was waiting for him, where he remained editor-in-chief until 1972, when he took over as publisher.
Through much of the ’40s and ’50s (at which time Timely became Atlas), war, horror, westerns, romance comics were the big sellers, while the superhero stories were considered a dying breed. However, DC Comics revitalized the genre with a new take on the Flash and, shortly, the Justice League of America. Goodman tasked Lee with creating their own team, who, upon the advice of his wife, Joan, decided to go out on a limb with his stories. Instead of crafting characters in the ideal of the indestructible do-gooder, Lee created a team of flawed, bickering, complex heroes: The Fantastic Four. Co-created by Kirby, the group debuted in their own comic series in November 1961, launching Marvel Comics and what would become known as the Marvel Age.
(Read: Ranking: Every Marvel Movie and TV Show from Worst to Best)
Over the next decade, Kirby and Lee and Kirby would create iconic characters like Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men; Lee also is credited with coming up with Daredevil alongside artist Bill Everett, and both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with Steve Ditko. The Avengers, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Loki, the Falcon, Nick Fury, Ant-Man, Black Widow, the Inhumans, and dozens if not hundreds of other characters all owe their origins to Lee and his collaborators during the superhero revival of the 1960s.
Not only was Lee revolutionizing the type of heroes that wore capes and cowls, but the nature of the stories in which they were featured. His naturalistic approach to character extended to plot, with his heroes battling communism, political turmoil, and bigotry instead of just mad scientists attempting world domination. The X-Men, a group of genetic misfits hated and feared by the world at large, were essentially a metaphor for homophobia and racism. Lee created the first black character to maintain an integral supporting role with The Amazing Spider-Man’s Robbie Robertson; he and Kirby introduced what many consider comics’ first African superhero, Black Panther, in July 1966’s Fantastic Four #52.
With so many projects under his control, Lee invented what’s come to be called the Marvel Method of comic writing. He would pen an outline — often no more than a few sentences for close collaborators like Kirby and Ditko — off of which an artist would create an entire book. Lee would then go back and add the dialogue and other text, but the method allowed for greater creativity in the way artists formatted a comic’s panels. Ditko famously broke the edge of panels in Doctor Strange, while Kirby explored psychedelic layouts in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. They would even at times draw themselves into cameos in the books. Lee also was the first to include a credits splash page that gave recognition to inkers and letterers.
His influence extended beyond the page, as well, as Lee fostered a community of fans and creators with his Stan’s Soapbox and Bullpen Bulletin pages. He would write in a friendly, humorous style that connected with his readership on a congenial level. As he would in his stories, he’d address activism and political issues of the day. He also coined his own nicknames like Stan “The Man” Lee and Jack “King” Kirby, as well as catchphrases like “Excelsior!,” “‘Nuff said,” “True Believer,” and the “No-Prize,” all phrases that any comic fan is still familiar with even 50 years later.
In a 1971 three-issue subplot featured in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, Lee challenged the long-standing Comics Code Authority (comic books’ now defunct self-regulation board). At the request of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the story saw Peter Parker struggling to help a friend who’d become addicted to pills. The CCA refused to give its seal of approval to the issues because it depicted drug use, even though it did so in an anti-drug context. Goodman agree with Lee that they would publish the story without the seal, something unheard of at the time. When the numbers proved sales of the issues weren’t affected by the lack of CCA approval, the agency restructured its own guidelines, allowing for more freedom in how comic book creators addressed serious real-world issues.
Lee stopped writing comics on a monthly basis in 1972 as he took on the position of Marvel Comics’ publisher; he first was named president of the company but stepped down to remain more active in the creative process. In ’75, he narrated the Fantastic Four radio series and the Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero record. He’d go on to launch the Spider-Man newspaper strip in 1977 alongside John Romita Sr.
In the 1980s, Lee spearheaded Marvel’s move to Hollywood. The live-action shows like The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man had seen some success prior to Lee’s handling of the properties; he was responsible for later entries like the animated Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends series, and the direct-to-video Captain America movie in 1990. That film would mark the first time Lee was given an executive producer credit, something he held for nearly every Marvel production from then until now. That includes most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe entries like Iron Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Netflix’s The Defenders shows, and more, as well as other companies’ productions like X-Men, Spider-Man, The Runaways, numerous animated shows and movies, and more. He’s also cameoed in nearly every live-action Marvel movie, whether in the MCU or otherwise.
In the later era of his career, he launched the Internet-based Stan Lee Media (which went under following illegal stock manipulation by co-founder Peter Paul) and POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment. He continued creating new characters, occasionally returning to Marvel for one-off stories or special releases. He even reimagined some of the biggest names in DC’s catalog in a series of one-shots called Just Imagine…
Lee founded The Stan Lee Foundation in 2010 to support programs addressed literacy, education, and the arts. He received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2011, The Life Career Award from the Saturn Award in 2002, and was inducted into The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
Throughout his life, Lee kept an approachable demeanor, always exuding a boyish wonder and appreciation for the fantastical. Simply by indulging his creative instincts and daring to go against the established norms, he co-created some of the most enduring and beloved characters in any form of entertainment. Few authors of any sort have an oeuvre as full of timeless works as Lee’s, the man who stoked wonder and adventure in the minds of readers over nearly six decades of writing, producing, and creating tales to astonish.
Lee had suffered a number of health issues in the later years of his life. In 2012, he underwent surgery to insert a pacemaker. Last year, he battled pneumonia. There were also troubling allegations of elder abuse directed at his daughter, Joan Celia “J.C.” Lee, as well as his hired caretaker over the last year.
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