CREATOR OF SPIDER-MAN, IRON MAN & OTHER MARVEL SUPERHEROES NO MORE

Stan Lee, co-creator of iconic superheroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and others, has died at the age of 95.

As a comic writer, Lee teamed up with artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, revitalised the comics industry with his superheroes, giving them complex emotional lives to colour their all-action adventures.

"He felt an obligation to his fans to keep creating," his daughter JC Lee said in a statement to Reuters. "He loved his life and he loved what he did for a living. His family loved him and his fans loved him. He was irreplaceable."

She did not mention Lee’s cause of death but the TMZ celebrity news website said an ambulance was called to Lee’s Hollywood Hills home early on Monday, and that he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Lee was widely credited with adding a new layer of complexity and humanity to superheroes. His characters were not made of stone - even if they appeared to have been chiselled from granite. They had love and money worries and endured tragic flaws or feelings of insecurity.

Some of his most iconic creations include the web-slinging teenager Spider-Man, the muscle-bound Hulk, mutant outsiders The X-Men, the close-knit Fantastic Four and the playboy-inventor Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man. Lee was also well known for his cameos in almost all superhero movies.