Stan Lee, the man who introduced the world to superheroes including Spiderman and the X-Men, has died. He was 95 years old. CGTN's Phil Lavelle looks back on the life of the father of Marvel.

Stan Lee was the creator of heroes. A man who's imagination brought us characters known and followed the world over. And a multi-billion dollar industry. Marvel was his baby. Its fans, HIS fans - now in mourning. Marvel was practically in Stan Lee's DNA. Starting at the bottom, he'd worked his way up. From writer, he soared upwards to eventually become publisher and Chairman of the comic book powerhouse. Co-creating some of the most well known and well loved characters of modern times. Here, in 2017, revealing how Spiderman came to be born:

STAN LEE MARVEL CHAIRMAN EMERITUS "So I thought I had a good idea and I walked into my publisher's office and I told him all about it. And my publisher said 'Stan, that is the worst idea I've ever heard.' A month later, after all the sales figures came in, my boss came running into my office and said 'Stan, Stan. You remember that character of yours, Spiderman, that we both liked so much?', he said 'let's make it a regular feature.'"

PHIL LAVELLE LOS ANGELES "Perhaps the best way to visualise Stan Lee's legacy is to just look at all of this. Without him, there'd have been no Hulk, no Doctor Strange or X-Men, Spiderman would not have existed. Nor Iron Man. And he didn't just have a huge impact across the world of comic books, but movies too. Hollywood owes him a lot."

Franchises like X-Men spawning more than a dozen movies alone. And that's before you take into account all the others he had a hand in. Like Captain America. These films - all best-sellers. Billions taken at the box office. Disney, buying the company for four billion dollars in 2009. Stan Lee very much the face though. Even making cameo appearances and claiming a first in the comic book-cum-Hollywood-movie category with this film, Black Panther.

KATHRYN ARNOLD MOVIE INDUSTRY EXPERT "What I find fascinating is that Black Panther came out. And that is the first, big, major Hollywood studio movie with a basically all-black cast. For that to come out of Stan Lee's arsenal is pretty powerful."

And that will be what Stan Lee leaves behind. An industry that he helped to define. An industry that he dominated. With characters that he loved - as will millions more for years to come.