Wonder giant Stan Lee died at age 95

LOS ANGELES – Stan Lee, the creative dynamo that revolutionized comics and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human weaknesses into superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, died on Monday. He was 95 years old.

Lee was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Kirk Schenck, lawyer for Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee.

As the first writer of Marvel Comics and later his publisher, Lee was widely regarded as the architect of contemporary comics. He revived the industry in the 1960s by offering the costumes and actions sought by the youngest, while emphasizing sophisticated intrigues, academic dialogues, satire, science fiction and even philosophy.

Millions have reacted to the unlikely mix of realistic fantasy, and many of his characters, including Spider-Man, The Hulk and X-Men have become blockbuster stars. Recent projects that he has helped make possible range from "Black Panther" and "Doctor Strange" movies to television series such as "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" and "Guardians of the Galaxy". Lee was recognizable by his fans: he had cameos in Marvel movies and TV projects, gray hair and tinted glbades.

"I think everyone likes things that are bigger than life … I think of them as fairy tales for adults," he told the Associated Press in 2006. "We've all grown up with giants, ogres and witches, you're getting older and you're too old to read fairy tales, but I do not think you've ever gone beyond your love for that kind of thing. of things, are bigger than life and magical and very imaginative ".

Lee considered cartoon support as an art form and he was prolific: According to some, he created a new cartoon every day for 10 years.

"I have written so many things that I do not even know, I've written hundreds, if not thousands," he told AP in 2006.

It took off in the 1960s when it brought to life the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man and many others.

"It was like there was something in the air, I could not do anything wrong," he recalls.

His heroes, meanwhile, were far from virtuous benefactors such as his rival Superman, DC Comics.

The Fantastic Four fought. Spider-Man was seduced by his alter ego, Peter Parker, in the work of the superheroes. He suffered from an uncrisp crush, financial problems and dandruff. The Silver Surfer, an extraterrestrial sentenced to wander the earth 's atmosphere, is moved by the lamentable nature of man. Hulk was marked by self-hatred. Daredevil was blind and Iron Man had a weak heart.

"The beauty of Stan Lee's characters is that they were characters first and then superheroes," said Jeff Kline, executive producer of the animated TV series "Men in Black" at The Newspaper. Blade of Toledo (Ohio) in 1998.

Some of Lee's creations became symbols of social change – the inner turmoil of Spider-Man represented America's 60s, for example, while The Black Panther and The Savage She-Hulk reflected the sufferings of minorities and women.

Lee himself wrote most Marvel comic book comics in the 1960s, including the Avengers and X-Men, two of the most enduring. In 1972, he became the editor and editorial director of Marvel. Four years later, Spider-Man was sold to 72 million copies.

"He became our Mickey Mouse," he said one day about the masked crusader, crawling on the Web.

Lee has also published several books, including "The Superhero Women" in 1977 and "How to draw comics in the manner of wonders" the following year, when he was named editor of the year by the Periodical and Book Association of America.

CBS turned the Hulk into a hit television series, with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno describing the doomed scientist from 1978 to 1982. A series of Spider-Man appeared briefly in 1978. Both characters also appeared in animated television series .

Lee's first big-budget movie, "X-Men", was a hit in 2000, bringing in more than $ 130 million in North American theaters. "Spider-Man" did even better, raising more than $ 400 million in 2002.

Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922 in New York. He grew up as a fan of "Hardy Boys" adventure films and Errol Flynn movies, and got a job at Timely Comics after graduating high school.

A few months later, the publisher and art director resigned, leaving Lee, 17, creative control of the company, which grew up and was renamed Atlas Comics and finally Marvel. Lieber changed his name, thinking that Lee would be used for "ridiculous little comics" and that his real name would be reserved for novels.

His early work largely reflected popular films – westerns, crime dramas, novels, all that was raging at the time. He worked for about 50 cents per page.

After a stint in the army during the Second World War, where he was writing for film training, he was back in Marvel to begin a long and certainly boring comic book production.

The comics of the 1950s were the subject of Senate hearings pushed by the authority of the Comic Book Code, which disapproved of gore and characters who questioned authority. Large comic companies have adopted the code as a form of self-regulation aimed at avoiding sanctions.

Lee said that he also worked for a publisher who considered comics as a child-only fare.

"One day, I said," It's crazy, "Lee told The Guardian in 1979." I'm just doing the same kind of stories as everyone else. I'm not proud of my job and I wanted to stop. But my wife said, "Listen, why are not you doing the kind of comics you want to change?"

The result was the first issue of "The Fantastic Four" in 1960, with Lee's characters, plot and text and illustrations by famed Marvel artist Jack Kirby.

The characters were normal people turned into reluctant superheroes without their fault.

Writing in "Origins of Marvel Comics", Lee described the quartet as follows: "The characters would be the kind of characters that I could personally tell, they would be in the flesh, they would have their flaws and their weaknesses, they "d be fallible and energetic and – most important of all – in their colorful and costumed booties, they would still have clay feet. "

"The Amazing Spider-Man" followed in 1962 and, soon, Marvel Comics was a real monster of the industry.

Lee knew that his work was different, noting with pride that stories had been written on many topics, not to earn money, but to develop characters, situations, and themes. He did not neglect his bad guys either. One, the Moleman, went wrong when he was ostracized because of his appearance, Lee wrote, adding that he was "almost unheard of in a cartoon" to explain why a character was what he was.

Lee's direct influence was blurred in the 1970s when he dropped some of his editorial duties at Marvel. But with his white mustache and tinted sunglbades, he was the most recognizable figure in the industry. He has given many lectures on popular culture.

Lee moved to Los Angeles in 1981 to direct Marvel Productions, an animation studio that was later purchased with Marvel Comics for $ 50 million by New World Entertainment.

As comic book sales declined, Marvel was forced into bankruptcy proceedings, which forced her to cancel a life contract prohibiting Lee from working for anyone else. Lee then sued Marvel for $ 10 million, claiming that the company had cheated on him millions of profits made by movies based on his characters.

In 2000, Lee agreed to write stories for DC Comics, reinventing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other iconic Marvel rival characters. DC's vice president and publisher, Paul Levitz, had only praise to make when the deal was struck.

"With his artistic collaborators at Marvel, Stan co-created the richest imaginary universe ever created by a single comic author," he said.

The comic book genius, friendly and friendly, continued working until his 90th birthday on many projects, including comics, movies and DVDs.

In the late 1990s, he sought to capitalize on the Internet madness, offering "Webisodes" animated by comic activities. Stan Lee Media also sought to build relationships with young people who knew the Web through contracts with pop artists such as Backstreet Boys and Mary J. Blige.

The company went bankrupt and three men were charged with allegedly defrauding the company under a check scam. Lee was not involved.

After this initial failure, Lee formed the Pow! An entertainment company will launch animated projects based on the Internet.

Lee is survived by his daughter, Joanie. His 70 year old wife died last year.

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Associated Press Editors Dave Zelio and John Rogers contributed to this story