Stan Lee, creator at and of Marvel Comics has passed away at the age of 95 years old in Los Angeles, California. Lee was battling several illnesses and pneumonia at the time of his death.
Stan Lee was born in New York, New York in 1922 to working class Jewish immigrants. He started out his endeavor into comic books working for Timely Comics as an assistant in 1939 and worked his way up to eventually writing how he wanted. Along the way he did proof-reading, was a text fill writer, erased pencils from finished pages, and even was the errand boy grabbing lunch for the workers. Lee's first comic book debut was in 1941 for text filling with the text filler: "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3. It was also in that comic book debut that Stan first used the pseudonym "Stan Lee" as his birth name was actually Stanley Martin Lieber. He would later change his name legally to "Stan Lee".
Timely Comics eventually became Atlas Comics, which then turned into Marvel Comics. As mentioned, Lee started off with Timely, which morphed and changed hands over time to eventually become Marvel, the company most associated with Lee and his creations. Lee worked his way up to being the Editor in Chief of Marvel and ultimately had his hand in every Marvel title. He worked with other great comic book collaborators such as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Gene Colan and John Romita. Kirby was the one who first created the Fantastic Four with Lee around 1961. The two of them went on to collaborator on many other superhero characters such as:
- The Hulk
- Iron Man
- Thor
- X-Men
Stan Lee would create Daredevil with Bill Everett. Then went on to create Doctor Strange and the beloved Spiderman with Steve Ditko.
Kirby & Lee would also go on to form the Avengers. This is a clip from the latest Avenger's movie just because it's one of my favorites!
Among other accomplishments, Stan Lee & Marvel Comics created the first mainstream black superhero with Black Panther. The movie adaptation shattered box offices everywhere.
Stan Lee went on to become the Publisher of Marvel in 1972 from his precious held position of Editor in Chief. As expected, he went on to essentially become the face of Marvel. The future would hold many film adaptations of Lee's beloved comics as shown above. Lee himself would made cameo's in most if not all of the Marvel films. He would show up in some random fashion. Here is a collaboration of all his cameos:
Stan Lee is survived by his daughter Joan Celia. Many celebrities and public figures who have played Lee's characters in film or on TV have sent out their condolences, respects, and tributes to Lee via Twitter. These are some:
Stan Lee was an incredible visionary and creator who will be forever remembered. His work will live on forever. Rest in peace, Stan Lee. As his catch phrase would become, Excelsior.
-Producer Lightning