Stan Lee, the man who helped transform Marvel Comics from a pulp magazine publisher into a $4 billion Disney acquisition, turns 93 today.
The former president of Marvel Comics, Lee is credited with co-creating Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk and hundreds of other comic book characters Disney (DIS) will inevitably end up putting on celluloid. Lee told Fortune in 2014 he wants “every one of his comic book characters to get their own film.”
The Manhattan native got his start back in 1939 running errands for the precursor of Marvel Comics. Within three decades, Lee’s iconic creations were appearing in Saturday morning cartoons. The spry 93-year-old just published a graphical autobiography and has appeared in so many Marvel films that fans have begun to develop a bizarre theory that he is secretly playing the same character in every movie.
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Lee is also an avid video game enthusiast. He spoke to Fortune at his own annual convention earlier this year about working with Warner Bros. on the new Lego Marvel’s Avengers. Even at age 93, the legendary comic book writer is still overjoyed to appear in various Marvel media properties.
“I’m excited about it. I mean, I’m thrilled,” he said at the time. “Years ago, I never thought that people would be making figures of me in different versions, let alone video games.”
Happy birthday, Stan Lee.
