A new documentary by Jon Bolerjack looks to delve into the last years of the most loved comic book artist and Marvel legend Stan Lee. He also aims to shed light on the emotional abuse he is said to have endured from those closest to him. Stan Lee: The Final Years is the title for the documentary that Bolerjack is working on, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, he has hundreds of hours of footage from comic book conventions and other events that need to be compiled. Bolerjack is looking to crowdfund the project so he can animate and edit the footage.
“ He had seen everything I had done, heard every story I had to tell, and every screen I had to sit through, looking at him with admiration… I was his assistant, his confidant, but most importantly, his friend,” says Bolerjack. He walks us through the emotional rollercoaster that was Lee’s last years and states “ Stan spent his last years enduring mistreatment, manipulation, and betrayal at the hands of a few very bad actors.” To try and aid this situation, Bolerjack states he has the footage to prove it. “This isn’t speculation, it’s all on camera, undeniable, irrefutable, without ambiguity,” he states.
Lee passed away in 2018. Reports of possible mistreatment and abuse as Lee grew older have been noted as early as 2018, particularly when the Hollywood Reporter made claims in their investigation that after Lee’s wife died, his daughter J.C. Lee was spending lavishly and emotionally abusing him when he tried to control the spending. While it was his daughter who abused him, the report also included his manager and caretakers who are said to have exploited his assets. In 2019, J.C. also lashed out at Marvel and Disney stating that none of the executives who “commoditized my father’s work and never shown him or his legacy... decency” treated her father with such disrespect. To put it simply, a lot of people looked like they acted improperly. With any luck, Bolerjack’s documentary can do what it claims to do and clarify what, by all accounts, sounds like a tragic situation.
