Stan Lee, who co-created the Marvel universe and many of its most popular superheroes, died on Monday at the age of 95. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Spider-man.

X-men.

The Fantastic Four.

The Hulk.

Captain America.

The list of superheroes Lee created or breathed new life into in collaboration with various artists is quite a long one. He is credited with creating the modern comic book and the Marvel world, which people will be familiar with even if they have never read a comic. He was born in 1922, yet his world and its characters appeal to all ages and people all over the world.

As he passed away, some media outlets described Lee as a “superhero”. In a sense they are right, because, just like Louis Cha Leung-yung, the Chinese martial arts writer who passed away earlier this month, Lee was a master of his own world, a world which people are happy to visit and spend time — and willing to pay money to do so.

A closer look will show their heroes, despite being drawn from the culture of the East and the culture of the West, share the same appeal: They are complex characters with flaws who do their best for the common good.

That heroic spirit will continue to inspire their fans.

Lee carefully designed the Marvel world so that the majority of the superheroes could appear in it together. And he even became a character in his stories – as he liked to appear in the films starring his comic book heroes. In the recent movie Venom, audiences could see him playing a passer-by, and he had cameo appearances in 35 other movies.

Lee has left, but his superheroes will continue to live on.