Stan Lee

Stan Lee was an American comics writer, editor and publisher who helped build Marvel’s interconnected superhero universe. Working with artists including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck and John Romita, he co-created characters whose personal difficulties accompanied their extraordinary powers, among them the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-Men.

He began writing at Timely Comics in 1941 and became Marvel’s publisher in 1972. His editorial columns, public appearances and later screen cameos made him an unusually visible advocate for comics. He died in 2018.