LOS ANGELES: Stan Lee, who dreamed up Spider Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and a cavalcade of other Marvel Comics superheroes that became mythic figures in pop culture with soaring success at the movie box office, died on Monday.

He was 95.

As a writer and editor, Lee was key to the ascension of Marvel into a comic book titan in the 1960s when, in collaboration with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he created superheroes who would enthrall generations of young readers.

“He felt an obligation to his fans to keep creating,” his daughter J.C. Lee said in a statement. “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.” She did not mention the cause of death, but the TMZ celebrity news website said an ambulance was called to Lee’s Hollywood Hills home early morning tnd that he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Americans were familiar with superheroes before Lee, in part thanks to the 1938 launch of Superman by Detective Comics, the company that would become DC Comics, Marvel’s archrival.

Lee was widely credited with adding a new layer of complexity and humanity to superheroes. His characters were not made of stone _ even if they appeared to have been chiseled from granite. They had love and money worries and endured tragic flaws or feelings of insecurity.

He had help in designing the superheroes, but he took full ownership of promoting them.

His creations included web-slinging teenager Spider Man, the muscle-bound Hulk, mutant outsiders The X-Men, the close-knit Fantastic Four and the playboy-inventor Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man.

Dozens of Marvel Comics movies, with nearly all the major characters Lee created, were produced in the first decades of the 21st century, grossing over $20 billion at theatres worldwide, according to box office analysts.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018