Stan Lee, the comic book writer and editor who co-created many of the most popular superheroes of the modern era and changed pop culture with the force of a gamma bomb blast in the process, has died.
He was 95.
Lee died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling a number of health issues over recent years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But he leaves behind a legacy of characters that will outlive the rest of us.
Lee was responsible for a spurt of creativity in the early to mid-60s that included the introduction of Black Panther, Spider-Man, X-Men, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Ant-Man and other characters. His impact on pop culture has been so great that as these super heroes made their way to the big screen, Lee’s cameos continued to make him as recognizable as the A-list actors who played the heroes on the marquee.
His last few years, however, were not the feel-good stories for which his comic books were famous. After his wife of 69 years, Joan, died in July 2017, he was mired on both ends of lawsuits, including against his ex-business manager, his own production company and a man who had been handling his affairs. The LAPD had recently been investigating reports of elder abuse against him.
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