Stan Lee is dead at the age of 95, passing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. The legendary creator of your childhood had been in poor health in recent years; his frequent comic book convention appearances had been cancelled and word was that his time left on this mortal coil was shorter than one of his classic comics. He was predeceased by his wife, Joan, and is survived by his daughter, JC.
TMZ (of course) broke the news.
Lee was born Stanley Lieber and got into comics as a teenager, working here and there, before moving to Marvel Comics. Whilst at Marvel, Lee would team up with legendary artists like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby to remake pop culture as we know it. It has been argued by halfguarded.com’s very own, Mike Coughlin, who is definitely not writing this in the third person, that Lee’s influence on art in the 20th Century was on par with that of Shakespeare.
One would be hard pressed to find any other artist, ever, that created as many well-known characters: Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil, the Incredible Hulk, Black Panther – to name just a few; and he had a hand in also creating each of those books’ supporting cast and rogues gallery. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Lee helped create everything at Marvel Comics. Big Hollywood has turned those 20+ page pulp paper creations of his into multi-billion dollar franchises but they’re all from the mind of Stan Lee.
RIP, Stan.
