Stan Lee, the man who dreamed up Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk and other Marvel Comics superheroes has died at the age of 95, his daughter said on Monday.
As a writer and editor, Lee was key to the ascension of Marvel into a comic book titan in the 1960s.
He then, in collaboration with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, created superheroes who would enthral generations of young readers.
“He felt an obligation to his fans to keep creating.
“He loved his life and he loved what he did for a living. His family loved him and his fans loved him. He was irreplaceable,” his daughter, J.C. Lee, said in a statement to the media.
She did not mention Lee’s cause of death but the TMZ celebrity news website said an ambulance was called to Lee’s Hollywood Hills home early Monday and that he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Americans were familiar with superheroes before Lee, thanks to the 1938 launch of Superman by Detective Comics, the company that would become DC Comics, Marvel’s arch-rival.
Lee was widely credited with adding a new layer of complexity and humanity to superheroes.
Dozens of Marvel Comic movies, with nearly all the major characters Lee created, were produced in the first decades of the 21st century.
They grossed over 20 billion dollars at cinemas worldwide, according to box office analysts.
In 2008, Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest government award for creative artistes.
Lee was born as Stanley Martin Lieber in New York on December 28, 1922 to Jewish immigrants from Romania.
