Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee dies at 95

LOS ANGELES - Stan Lee, the co-founder of Marvel Comics and the man behind Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Black Panther, died Monday, Nov. 12 after being rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from his Hollywood Hills home.

He was 95.

Lee's death was first reported by TMZ.com.

Paramedics where dispatched at 8:34 a.m. to a Hollywood Hills home in the 9100 block of West Oriole Way, on a medical response call for a 95-year-old man, said Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Lee had suffered several illnesses over the last year, which included a bout of pneumonia and vision issues, TMZ reported.

"I seem to be spending my life with ordinary people who are the best people in the world,'' Lee said at a 2017 ceremony in which he sank his hands and feet into cement in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre. "I've been the luckiest man in the world because I've had friends. And to have the right friends is everything. People you can depend on. People who tell you the truth if you ask for something. I've been lucky in that area.

"And lucky to have a wonderful wife,'' he added, referring to his wife of nearly 70 years, Joan, who died July 6, 2017 at age 93.

Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, in New York City, Lee began his career in 1939 as an assistant at Timely Comics with such duties as getting lunch, filling inkwells and proofreading.

His first published work was as a text filler for Captain America No. 3, published in 1941. He wrote under the name Stan Lee, which would later become his legal name, writing in his autobiography that he intended to save his given name for more literary work.

Lee was named interim editor of Timely Comics in 1941, and would be editor-in-chief for what would evolve into Marvel Comics in 1961 until 1972 when he became publisher.

More than 2 million of Lee's comic books have been published in 75 nations and in 25 languages. His characters have been featured in 24 animated television series and several live-action movies.