If we had to give comic books a face, it would only be of the always chirpy, energetic icon called Stan Lee. The ex Marvel Comics boss is not only an icon, hobut, he is a representative, a living Marvel Comics legend and a writer who has been instrumental in creating the silver age of superheroes. However, the way things appear right now, he might also be a hostage trapped in his own house.
This scary news has been doing the rounds in recent days, after Bleeding Cool’s report about Lee being distanced from his support staff completely. His long-term manager and caretaker Max Anderson, was fired after having served for 14 years, and Lee on his own has been suffering from a terrible bout of Pneumonia at home. Rather than being taken to a specialized facility such as a hospital where he could be better treated for such life-endangering illness. It is quite obvious that things are really fishy in the Lee household, and being orchestrated by unknown new members of his support team.
“I wanted to strongly echo the words Neal Adams expressed regarding his concern about Stan Lee’s wellbeing, and this bizarre smear campaign against his friend and manager of the past years Max Anderson, apparently instigated by these new mysterious “caretakers” of his,” said J. Scott Campbell to Bleeding Cool.
I’ve known Max for years and I completely agree with Neal, Max always looked after Stan and his wife Joan like the doting son they never had. He adores Stan and Stan adores Max.
Besides almost single-handedly architecting Stan’s tremendous financial turnaround this past decade through aggressively negotiating appearances all around the world, I happen to have personal knowledge that Max has also quietly looked after him by accompanying him to the sets for all his cameos in the Marvel films, regularly took him to his medical appointments, would often just visit Stan when he’d get lonely, the list goes on and on. In fact, Max and Stan have been very visible and regularly in public together for a decade, practically inseparable.
Forcibly cutting Max out of Stan’s life, and so soon after his wife Joanie has passed seems particularly cruel to the both of them and has caused a lot of us in our industry to talk, much of it about our collective concern about the mystery of who exactly is taking care of Stan now and why is he being kept out of sight and in his home, especially given these reports that he’s been battling pneumonia. I mean, think about it, instead of being taken to a hospital, this ill 95-year-old man is being kept hidden away in his house, the only glimpse of him filmed for exploitive TMZ videos?
Max took much better care of Stan than this. I have great concern for Stan and I do hope more in our industry start speaking up, start asking more questions and start shining more of a bright light on this situation to find out what’s exactly going on here before it’s too late.
It is not as if Campbell is the only leading industry voice who has voiced concern of late. Also in conversation with Bleeding Cool, writer Mark Waid had his own thoughts about the whole thing.
As others have attested, Max cares for Stan just as deeply as a son cares for his father.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that someone, alone or in concert–perhaps someone connected to the $300K nearly embezzled from Stan back in December in the form of a check written by one of only a few who have access to Stan’s bank account? Who can say?–is framing Max for misdeeds and is isolating Stan and shutting out his other friends and loved ones as Stan’s years grow short and his health continues to flag. This is abominable; this sort of stress and drama can only accelerate Stan’s decline.
Artist Humberto Ramos was quite direct with his words:
That’s why all the recent news about Stan’s health and wellness worries me even more, because he doesn’t have his partner next to him, the guy he laughs and talks to is no longer around. From where I sit, and what I know, I can say they miss each other and I’m sure they need each other’s love, as you need your family especially during all the rainy days, and right now it hasn’t stopped pouring. My prayers and best wishes are with both of them, they are like family to me and my family because they’ve always treated us like one of them.
We wonder what exactly is happening there? To sum it, we think some scheming people have got control of the veteran Stan Lee’s life, and have been able to remove Lee’s long time friend and assistant Max Anderson by making him the victim of an evil plot to steal Lee’s money. In case that is true, it is not only absolutely disgusting but it becomes clearer when you realize that there was a misappropriation of $3,00,000 from Stan Lee’s account.
We just hope that whatever wrong is taking place there, gets resolved before time runs out. There is no way for one of the greatest legends of pop culture to be in his twilight days.
