Stan Lee’s Daughter Defends Her Father’s Marvel Legacy
Here's what she said of her famous dad.
In the wake of Stan Lee’s death on Monday, reactions to his legacy have been overwhelmingly positive, but also, slightly mixed. While stars, friends, and admirers of the Marvel comics legend have all praised Stan Lee, some critics and pundits have pointed out his legacy was slightly tarnished. Before Lee’s death, there were allegations from his nurses of sexual harassment, not to mention huge business failures with ventures like POW!, a concept which spawned the ill-conceived Pamela Anderson vehicle, Striperella! The point is, despite being a genius and a visionary when it came to shared universes in comic books, not everything about Stan Lee was golden.
His daughter, however, is not interested in revisiting any of her father’s failings; real or alleged. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Joan Celia Lee said this: “My father loved all of his fans. He was the greatest, most decent man.”
It’s a short statement, but it speaks volumes, specifically the word “decent,” a sentiment which seems to imply that Stan Lee’s daughter thinks of her father as someone who would never have knowingly done anything wrong. Whether or not this means Stan did harass his nurses late in life isn’t clear. But it does suggest his family thinks he wasn’t capable of it.
Joan Celia Lee was born in 1950 and is the only living child of Stan Lee. He and his wife Joan Lee had another child but that daughter sadly died three days after she was born. Joan Lee (Stan’s wife) passed away just last year, in July of 2017. She was a popular actress and model.
Watch this great 1977 interview in which Stan Lee talks about creating a unified canon for Marvel Comics, specifically the creation of the Fantastic Four.
