Yesterday, the world lost a real-life superhero. Stan Lee was a creative innovator of his time, who brought joy to many through the power of story-telling, and always worked towards what he believed in.

In his own words, “At Marvel, the only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry. That man next to you? He’s your brother. That woman over there? She’s your sister.”

Stan Lee died aged 95, after being rushed to the hospital following a medical emergency on November 12, 2018. Many creations such as Spider-Man, the Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Thor were only some of many brought to life by himself and Jack Kirby.

Born on December 28, 1922, Stan Lee was a man of many talents. He began a career at Timely Comics, a new division of Pulp Magazine in 1939 (which would be rebranded as Marvel comics in 1947). He was quickly promoted to editor only two years later in 1941, when he was only 19 years old. Lee would remain editor-in-chief of the comic books division until 1972, when he finally took over all publishing duties.

Beginning in the early 1950’s, the superhero comic genre had been greatly revived, and Lee was tasked with creating a superhero team to rival that of DC’s Justice League. He decided to take a more human approach to the superhero category, instead of the perfect characters that already existed with no flaws. This led to the creation of the Fantastic Four, where alongside Jack Kirby, Stan introduced a group of superheroes that were in fact very flawed, giving human characteristics such as anger and grief to beings that had previously not exhibited these things.

This led to great success for the duo of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, as they teamed up to create even more heroes such as The Hulk, Thor, Iron-Man, and the X-Men. The two would continue to collaborate together all the way until 1978, when they published their final project together, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience.

Lee at this point had become less hands on with writing, and moved to California in 1981 to head up television and film adaptations of his comics. Marvel oversaw the production of many successful television series such as Spider-Man and His Amazing friends, the live action Incredible Hulk series starring Lou Ferrigno, and the X-Men animated series.

In 1998, Lee oversaw the production of Blade, which began a venture of many successful movies for Marvel such as 2000’s X-Men, and 2002’s Spider-Man. This would be the beginning of Marvel’s extremely successful future in the film industry, and paved the way for later movies such as 2008’s Iron-Man, 2012’s The Avengers, or even 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.

Movie-goers were always pleased to see Stan Lee on the big screen, as he made a short cameo in every Marvel film ever produced. Leading up to his death, Lee filmed a bulk of cameos for future films, in the event he passed away and was not able to film them.

Stan Lee’s contributions to both the superhero industry and society itself will never be forgotten as we mourn the loss of a man whose legacy will live on forever through the joyful stories he brought to life. Rest in peace Stan.