Legendary Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee dies at 95

Born Stanley Martin Lieber, the New York City native co-created Spider-Man, Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and a host more heroes while working as a writer and then editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in the 1960s. 

From the 1970s (when he became publisher) until the ’90s, Lee was the face of Marvel and a frequent staple at comic and pop-culture conventions, entertaining fans and “true believers” with his stories and signature catchphrase “Excelsior!” He created his own POW! Entertainment in 2001 to develop film, TV and comic properties, but always stayed connected to his original superhero roots as geek culture rose in Hollywood.

While Lee’s infectious enthusiasm for his heroes – and his devotees – lasted late into a legendary life, recent years were marked by ill health and legal wrangling involving those closest to him. Following the death of his wife of 69 years, Joan, in 2017, Lee was hospitalized in February 2018 for an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath, and also struggled with pneumonia. In March of that year, Lee reported $1.4 million stolen from his bank account, and in April he sued former business manager Jerardo Olivarez for fraud and elder abuse and then a month later filed a $1 billion fraud suit against POW!.

In addition, Lee denied signing a document in April 2018 stating that daughter J.C. Lee and friend/business manager Keya Morgan were trying to gain control of his assets and property, though Morgan was revealed to have a restraining order on him during the Los Angeles police’s investigations of elder abuse against Lee.

Remembering Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee

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Lee was a progressive force in his chosen medium. He tackled prejudice and intolerance in his "Stan's Soapbox," challenged the obsolete Comics Code Authority with a 1970s anti-drug story line in "The Amazing Spider-Man," and introduced Black Panther, an African king and great scientist, the first major black superhero in comics.

"I wanted to go against type," Lee said. "Even though he had a little thatched-hut village in Africa, that was only to fool people. Underneath that, he had this modern civilization.

"I always felt at Marvel we had to do things different. The reader had to be surprised and had to be meeting characters the likes of which he or she hadn't met before."

When fans asked, Lee would say that Spider-Man was his favorite heroic creation, mainly because of his Everyman nature.

"You feel you know him. He's not just a cardboard figure with a lot of muscles," he said.

For Lee, his heroes always were meant for much more than being on the comic-book page. He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1981 to develop Marvel movies and TV shows, and while he'd narrate cartoons such as "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," Lee and fans would have to wait nearly 20 years to see the big-screen potential of these characters.

Yet Lee was also able to see them up close – he had a cameo in nearly every Marvel movie, beginning with Bryan Singer's "X-Men" in 2000.

There was nothing more fun for him than stealing a scene in a blockbuster movie, Lee said in 2014. "It doesn't require a lot of rehearsal, you get there, you do it, you get the hell out of there in a few minutes, and you're on the screen forever."

Contributing: The Associated Press.