He brought order and profits to Marvel in the 1980s and helped establish the genre as a popular-culture tent pole for decades to come.

He led Marvel from 1978-87 and oversaw the publishing of classic stories from Frank Miller on 'Daredevil' and Chis Claremont and John Byrne on 'Uncanny X-Men.'

Jim Shooter, who began his career writing comics at age 14 and guided Marvel Comics through one of its most creatively and commercially successful eras as editor-in-chief in the 1980s, died today at age 73 after a long fight with esophageal cancer.