Comics legend Stan Lee dead at 95

The legendary comic-book author, publisher, and film producer Stan Lee has died.

He co-created Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, and many more characters and imaginary worlds we've come to know through comic books, games, and movies.

He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The news of his death was first reported by TMZ, and came from Stan's daughter.

Stan Lee, who began in the business in 1939 and created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, X-Men, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Ant-Man and others, died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center https://t.co/fEYNEJdzGR pic.twitter.com/Ih8FIgUvFr

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 12, 2018

Stan Lee may be known as a creator, but I think people forget how good he was as a superhero hype man. He talked with the excited energy of someone running into a diner after seeing Spider-Man swing by overhead. He sounded like he had all the secrets and couldn't wait to share.

— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) November 12, 2018

If you haven't seen it, this is Stan Lee addressing racism in a 1968 edition of Stan's Soapbox, after the assassinations of JFK and MLK.

What an utter shame this advice holds up, word for word, 50 years later. pic.twitter.com/2zRg83QImt

— Andray (@andraydomise) November 12, 2018

RIP Stan Lee. I don't claim to be a comics expert, but Marvel's notion that heroes could also be people with neuroses and mundane, messy problems made a big difference in the American conception of heroism generally.