The legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics passed away at the age of 95 earlier today. An ambulance was reportedly called to his Hollywood Hills home Monday morning, at which time he was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where he passed.

Lee who broke into the industry in 1939, started Marvel Comics alongside Jack Kirby in 1961 with The Fantastic Four, and went on to create such icons of page and screen as Spider-Man, The Mighty Thor, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Daredevil, Ant-Man, Iron Man, and The Avengers, making cameos in each of the many films based on his characters.

The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009, turning Lee’s creations into cinematic blockbusters and ultimately convincing him that they meant something significant to people. “His stories taught me that even superheroes like Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk have ego deficiencies and girl problems and do not live in their macho fantasies 24 hours a day,” Gene Simmons of KISS said in a 1979 interview. “Through the honesty of guys like Spider-Man, I learned about the shades of gray in human nature.”

Stan Lee will certainly be missed.

Filed under: Ant-Man, Black Panther, Daredevil, Iron Man, marvel, Spider-Man, stan lee, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, the-avengers, x-men