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Marvel's Stan Lee Passes Away at 95

American comics pioneer Stan Lee passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday. He was 95.

During his career, Lee created or co-created some of the most famous Marvel Comics franchises, including X-Men, Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and Ant-Man.

Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922. He began working at Marvel Comics' predecessor Timely Comics as a gofer in 1939, and was later named interim editor. In 1942, he enlisted in the army, where he wrote manuals and training films, but returned to the company and served as editor until 1972, when he was named publisher.

Many of the Marvel Comics franchises Lee helped create have been adapted for television and film, including some anime. Madhouse produced anime adaptations of X-Men, Iron Man, Wolverine, and Blade. Toei Animation produced the Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers anime for the Japanese market. Spider-Man and X-Men manga have also inspired manga adaptations, and Spider-Man inspired a 1978 Toei tokusatsu series.

Famously, Lee had cameo appearances in many screen adaptations of Marvel comics.

Lee founded Pow! Entertainment alongside Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman in 2001. The company has collaborated with Japanese and American publishers, as well as anime studios to produce content. It has collaborated with Shueisha and Viz Media to produce Hiroyuki Takei's Ultimo manga that ended in 2015. It collaborated with Bones and Wowmax Media to develop the Heroman anime and manga in 2010. Most recently, it collaborated with Studio DEEN to develop The Reflection anime project, which premiered last summer and Crunchyroll is streaming.

Lee is survived by his daughter J.C. and younger brother Larry Lieber, who is a Marvel writer and artist.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Mike Barnes)