OBITUARY: Stan Lee, 95, comic book creator who headed Marvel Entertainment · 10:05pm Nov 12th, 2018
(New York Daily News)—Marvel mogul Stan Lee, the comic book genius whose frailty-fraught superheroes elevated a children’s genre to a pop culture phenomenon minting billions for Hollywood, died Monday in Los Angeles.
He was 95.
“It’s true. He passed away,” a member of Mr. Lee’s staff told the Daily News. “It’s sad news for the family. I'm sorry but I have to go. We have a lot to deal with right now.”
A cause of death was not immediately revealed for Lee, who had suffered from a number of medical issues in recent years.
Paramedics rushed to an address on Lee's block in the Hollywood Hills at 8:34 a.m. Monday, Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart told The News.
The famed comic book writer was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he died, a lawyer for his daughter J.C. Lee, confirmed.
Lee served as a co-creator for a long list of fan-favorite superheros, including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
Born as Stanley Lieber in 1928, Lee first broke into the comic book industry in 1939 as an employee for Timely Comics—a company that would ultimately turn into Marvel during the 1960s.
Lee was renowned for taking comic book heroes and villains to new levels of complexity, introducing characters often ingrained with humanistic shortcomings in addition to their superhuman physical capabilities.
“The one thing that I think really separated the Marvel characters from the rest of the superheroes out there, from DC and other publishers, was that they were all very relatable,” said Vincent Zurzolo, the COO of MetropolisComics.com. “They were all great characters before even they were great superheroes in the sense that they all had a tragic flaw that people could relate to.”
In addition to his enormous contributions as a writer and character creator, Lee served as Marvel’s editor from 1945 to 1972 and as its publisher from 1972 to 1996.
“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created. A super hero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain, and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement released by Marvel.
Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion.
Lee further endeared himself to fans with his comedic cameos in a wave of Marvel movies—including the ones produced by Disney, as well as others such as “Deadpool” and “Venom.”
During his on-screen turn in the 2015 flick “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Lee delighted audiences by invoking his longstanding, distinctive catchphrase “Excelsior!” as he was carried out of party.
“There will never be another Stan Lee,” tweeted Chris Evans, who portrays Captain America in Marvel’s cinematic universe. “For decades he provided both young and old with adventure, escape, comfort, confidence, inspiration, strength, friendship and joy. He exuded love and kindness and will leave an indelible mark on so, so, so many lives. Excelsior!!”
Lee’s wife Joan, whom he was married to for more than 69 years, passed away in July 2017 at the age of 93. He and Joan had two daughters. He is survived by his eldest daughter, J.C. His second child passed away as an infant in 1953.
Lee’s career was also commemorated by Marvel’s longtime competitor, DC Comics, which praised his contributions to the industry.
“He changed the way we look at heroes, and modern comics will always bear his indelible mark,” read a tweet from DC on Monday.
“He was a wonderful P.T. Barnum-type showman for the comics industry. He told people comics were for bright people, grown people, smart people,” friend Paul Levitz, who was president of DC Comics from 2002 to 2009, told The News.
Levitz called the stable of Marvel characters spawned by Lee “the most impactful group created by any single person.”
“Walt Disney had a much less direct hand by the time the whole Disney universe was developed,” Levitz said.
He called Lee an “incredible force not just on comics but on how popular culture exists today.”
“The idea of TV crossovers and a cohesive universe of stories that spill from one character and medium to another really have very strong roots in his work in the 60s,” Levitz said.
Longtime friend Clifford Meth, a writer and publisher who worked with Lee over the decades, said “comics were for children before Stan helped bring them up many, many levels.”
“By the mid ‘60s, he changed the demographics of the industry. He was lecturing on college campuses,” he said.
Lee had dealt with a number of medical concerns ahead of his death. He was hospitalized in February with an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath.
He was released after a night in the hospital, telling ABC Los Angeles shortly afterward that he was eager to connect with his fans again.
"It's nice to know that somewhere in the world there are still people who care about what I say or do," Lee said at the time.
He revealed later that month that he was battling pneumonia.
Lee filed a lawsuit accusing the entertainment company he started in 2001, Pow! Entertainment, of fraud in May, but dropped the case less than two months later.
It was revealed in June, meanwhile, that Los Angeles law enforcement officials were investigating reported elder abuse against Lee, two months after the comic book legend insisted he was not being abused and threatened to sue anyone who suggested otherwise.
Excelsior forever, Stan Lee.
RIP.