Stan Lee, the creator of comic book publisher Marvel, died on Monday morning (local time) at the age of 95. The author had been struggling with deteriorating health for some time.
Lee reportedly died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Hollywood, TMZ writes. The lawyer of Lee’s daughter Joan Celia confirms the news to several American media. “My father loved all his fans”, she says in a comment. “He was a great, civilized man.”
The author, born in 1922 as Stanley Martin Lieber, had been in poor health for some time. He was admitted to the hospital earlier this year with heart problems, but shortly afterward he was discharged again. He also got pneumonia, but shortly after it became known he let it know that he was on the mend.
Lee also suffered from a considerably worsened view. Because of this he could no longer read his own comic books and did not write anymore. He, therefore, told new story ideas to his assistant, who then put them down on paper. The author called this “the greatest loss in his life”.
Lee conceived, among other things, Spider-Man and X-Men
Lee started the Marvel series with The Fantastic Four in the sixties with his business partner Jack Kirby. Then followed include Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man and The Avengers.
The Marvel comic strips were almost all filmed in the past ten years. This series turned out to be one of the most successful film series in the history of Hollywood.
Lee had a cameo in all Marvel films so far, a little bit of extra. The writer can also be seen as an animation in the new Disney movie Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to the hit Wreck it Ralph.
However, the relationship between Lee and Marvel began to falter when Hollywood films were made of the comics. In 2002 he complained to the company because he thought he had received too few royalties for the first Spider-Man film. Three years later, 10 million dollars (almost 9 million euros) were eligible for the case.