On November 12th, the world lost an amazing man. Stan Lee, who created all the Marvel comics, died at the age of 95 from causes that have yet to be made public. What we do know is that Lee was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after ambulances were called to his Hollywood Hills home Monday morning.
Lee, whose real name was Stanley Martin Lieber, brought us characters such as Captain America, Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, and the Hulk. The comic legend was involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which saw all his characters come to life in what is now the most popular movie franchise.
Thomas was the first ever successor as Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief, takin the position in 1972. Since then, he and Lee worked closely to make sure the essence of Marvel was always captured. The two saw each other just days before Lee's passing, and Thomas said in a statement that they spoke about superheroes and comics.
I'm sadder than I can say that Stan has died... even though I know, from my recent phone conversations with him, that he was more than ready to leave this Earth. I'm so grateful that, by sheer circumstance, I got to spend a half hour or so with him this past Saturday, less than 48 hours before he passed away.At that time, it was obvious that he lacked much of the old Stan Lee energy that everybody had got to know at conventions and in movie cameos, but when I asked him about future cameos, he expressed a real interest in making them, if he could find a way to do it without their being too much trouble.
He asked me about Dann and all the animals on our place (Dann had, at his request, sent him a DVD we made for him a couple of years ago), and got fairly animated when talking about his battles with publisher Martin Goodman over doing Spider-Man. I opined as how maybe the one important creative decision Goodman ever made was when he commissioned Stan to create a super-hero group back in 1961. Stan seemed to get a kick out of that.
[...]But I wish I could look forward to seeing him and sparring around with him again. Still, I consider myself so very lucky to have known and worked with him for so many years... one of the most important myth-makers of the 20th century.
Seeing as Thomas and Lee were so close, it's only fitting that the Marvel legend's last words were about his successor. Thomas' manager is the one to have revealed the last thing Lee said.
"God bless. Take care of my boy, Roy."
It's not clear who Lee is talking about, but it's very likely that he's referring to the Marvel empire.