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Montrealers remember Stan Lee for creating heros out of outcasts

Montreal Stan Lee fans say they will miss him most as someone who turned outcasts into heroes.

Lee, who dreamed up Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and other Marvel Comics superheroes, died at the age of 95, his daughter said Monday.

Youth councillor Roen Higgins said that when she was growing up, Lee's work represented social change.

She describes herself as being a "hyper at-risk teen from foster care" and in the X-Men, one of Lee's creations, she saw her personal story.

She said that despite the band of mutants known as the X-Men being troubled outcasts, they were "amazing."

Now, she teaches the kids she works with that everyone has weaknesses, but also strengths.

Comic book artist and freelancer for Marvel, Marco Rudy, said Lee's character the Silver Surfer resonated with him most.

"You have this incredibly powerful creature having to deal with the prejudices that we have as humanity have and just question why is this like this," Rudy said.

Rudy has worked on many of Lee's characters including Spider Man, the X-Men and The Silver Surfer.

The owner of comic book store Librairie Z, Christian Viel, said Lee had a way of making his heroes relatable.

"What he did was, he gave them girl problems, money problems, all kinds of problems that anybody could identify with," Viel said.

Navneet Pall/CBC
Navneet Pall/CBC

As a writer and editor, Lee was key to the ascension of Marvel into a comic book titan in the 1960s.

Dozens of Marvel Comics movies, with nearly all the major characters Lee created, were produced in the first decades of the 21st century, grossing over $20 billion US at theatres worldwide, according to box office analysts.

With files from CBC's Navneet Pall, CBC Montreal's Daybreak and The Associated Press