Legendary comic book writer and editor Stan Lee was a pop culture icon, who pioneered the rise of Marvel Comics and played a major hand in the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In collaboration with his celebrated peers Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he created several fictional superheroes beloved by generations: Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man to name a few. Between the 1960s and the late 1970s, Lee revolutionized the comics by reinventing superheroes as more human, vulnerable and complex; breaking the mould of idealistic, perfect and rather simplistic superheroes. The conception of such flawed superheroes was path-breaking, and catapulted Marvel Comics to the top of the industry.
Following his retirement from Marvel Comics,Lee focused primarily on developing and executive producing tv shows and movies based on comics. While most of these adaptations failed to make the same impact as the comics, films like Blade (1998) and X-Men (2000) went on to become critical and commercial successes. However, the inception of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with the film Iron Man (2008) changed it all. A fitting tribute to Lee`s incredible repertoire as a writer, the sprawling cinematic universe featuring an array of superheroes captured the imagination of moviegoers around the world.
Between 2008 and 2019, Lee executive-produced and appeared in a cameo role in every single MCU film, starting with Iron Man (2008) and ending with Avengers: Endgame (2019). In November 2018, five months before the release of Avengers: Endgame, Lee passed away at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, at the age of 95. His legacy continues to live on through the characters he created and the lives he touched.