Todd McFarlane first met Stan Lee when the former was just 16 years old and just happened to be staying at a hotel where Lee was appearing at a convention. As McFarlane, who desired to break into the comic book industry, recalled, Lee spent seven hours with the youth, sharing his wisdom.
McFarlane would later make good, drawing ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ titles for Marvel, two books, which featured characters created by Lee himself. McFarlane’s later, adjective-free ‘Spider-Man’ book set records for sales, and McFarlane maintained a relationship with Lee even after leaving Marvel Comics behind.
Concerned with recent reports about Lee’s legal struggles, McFarlane visited the legend a month ago, prior to Lee’s death this past Monday and recalls Lee’s perceived state of mind.
“A couple times [during my visit] he would say, ‘Todd, I just want to go see Joanie.’ Near the end a little bit, he [said], ‘I just want to see Joanie.’ So hopefully ― depending on everybody’s spirituality, whatever people believe ― hopefully he got that wish.”
Joan B. Lee, Stan’s wife of 70 years, passed away in July of 2017 and many noticed that after her passing, Lee’s own health began to deteriorate. The couple had one child, a daughter also named Joan, who goes by JC. They had another daughter, Jan, who died at birth.
Joanie was seen with Stan in the 2016 movie ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ and she had previously lent her voice to the ’90s animated series ‘Iron Man’, ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Spider-Man’ and appeared in person in three documentaries about comic books.
One famous anecdote is that Lee was not interested in creating a superhero book, which his editor Martin Goodman requested after DC Comics has experienced success with reviving the genre after it had all but died out in the 1950s. It was Joanie who encouraged Stan to make a superhero comic book that he liked, leading to the creation of the ‘Fantastic Four’, super beings with human personalities and flaws, which completely revolutionized the idea of what constituted a superhero comic.
Reaction to Lee’s death continues to surface as those in the comic industry, Hollywood and most of all, the fans share memories and tales of the impact of Lee’s creations on their lives. And as McFarlane said, “depending on everybody’s spirituality, whatever people believe” hopefully Stan and Joanie are together again.
Source: The Huffington Post
