The Four Color Media Monitor

I thought about this after watching this video about Stan the Man falling victim in his twilight years to defamation and financial swindling, and decided I'd have to respond as well, because it's clear he's been exploited for more time than thought, starting with the Marvel staffers who took advantage of him as a shield against the opposition to their social justice machinations, and extending to any of the house-related staff who tried to frame him for groping nurses and stole money from his accounts. And all this after his beloved wife passed away, which just shows how much they really care for him. From the Daily Beast, here's something that makes me feel terrible for him:

You might expect Stan Lee, at age 95, to be enjoying the fruits of his many labors: Marvel Comics, the company he served as the former president and chairman of, dominates popular culture. Characters he co-created — among them Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, and the Avengers — are household names. He’s a comics legend, with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When Marvel sold to Disney in 2010 for $4 billion, he personally pocketed a cool $10 million, and tours the world as its ambassador emeritus. And midway through his tenth decade, Black Panther, based on a character he and Jack Kirby first envisioned in 1966, currently sits atop the global box office charts, and carries a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%.

Instead, seven months after the death of Joan, his wife of almost 70 years, beset with pneumonia, the apparent victim of gross financial malfeasance and surrounded by a panoply of Hollywood charlatans and mountebanks, he may be facing his greatest challenge, every bit the equal of any of the psychologically flawed superheroes he helped shepherd into being. According to one insider with working knowledge of Lee’s current situation, “It’s a real fucking mess over there. I think his money will be gone in a few weeks… Stan and [his daughter] JC are literally being picked apart by vultures.”

Some of those vultures - and scorpions - include the decidedly notorious Bleeding Cool, which, after trying to further the defamatory news that he supposedly groped nurses (news that might've been concocted by their employment company in revenge for JC having them fired), later tried to make his former aide Max Anderson look like he'd been unfairly dismissed, when for all we know, he could be guilty of allowing Lee to be exploited by a horde of ingrates, and let's not forget, as some of the reports stated, Anderson reportedly has a criminal record. I realize the UK Mail cannot be trusted 100 percent with what they're saying even now, but what they later reported, where it appears Lee was the real victim of anything, appears to make more sense than the tabloid trash they published earlier. Before I get to more on that, however, there appears to be some most unfortunate, questionable propaganda that made its way into this piece:

As reported by the Daily Mail on February 28, one of Stan Lee’s nurses was approached by Anderson and “offered a $50,000 cash bribe to make false claims against JC and one of her associates.” When I contact JC’s spokesperson for corroboration, I am summoned to a nondescript office somewhere in Los Angeles, where I am shown a brief phone-cam video. Filmed at Stan’s home, with multiple people in and out of frame (of which only JC is identifiable), it depicts a young Muslim woman — short, with brown hair, in a nurse’s smock. This is one of Stan’s nurses, known to them by her nickname, “Sheba,” and she is out of breath and sporadically crying hysterically as she tries to recount what has transpired. Over several minutes of shaky, hand-held video, I witness the woman, through intermittent sobs, and with those present trying to get her to remain calm, tell them that she had recently been contacted by Anderson, who told her he would pay her a substantial amount of money if she would sign a declaration against JC.

Then, she says, walking down the hill after finished her night shift that morning, Anderson had pulled up alongside her in a car different than the one she remembered him driving. He rolled down the window and told her that he had the documents he wanted her to sign. He emphasized that she would be saving his job, and that he would be very grateful. He also said he would pay her $50,000 in cash, which was in a bag on the front seat next to him, and that he “would take care of her for a year.” She told him that she was a Muslim and could not lie, as it was against her religion. As quickly as she could, she extricated herself from the conversation and continued on her way home. Now, later that same day, as her next shift is beginning, and having had time to let it sink in, the incident has clearly rattled her, and she's near panic.

Sigh. Her religion upholds the concept of taqqiya (deception), so she did lie by approval of her Religion of Peace anyway. Assuming she is what they claim, she probably figured she'd be found out and didn't want any part of it regardless, but honestly, this little matter is hard to swallow, including the part about Anderson driving a different car, and it's not because she may not wear a hijab, but because it sounds so forced. It's regrettable they just had to stuff that crap into this article, but hey, what can we expect from a site where one of the writers incited against Pamela Geller's daughters?

All that aside, from what I can tell, again, Anderson does seem to be a shady character, and if he had a criminal record in the past, it should be cause for concern. If he was exploiting Stan in any way and daughter JC wanted to stop it, then by all means, Anderson should be distanced from Lee.

Now about those who first turned against Lee himself, and then try to undermine him further by siding with this Anderson character - Bleeding Cool's been the main offender, running statements by veterans who shouldn't be associating with them, like Neal Adams, J. Scott Campbell, Peter David, and even Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos. ComicBook even quoted Kevin Smith siding with Anderson. I think it's a terrible shame Adams and Campbell, whom I respect more than Waid and Smith, if anyone, would be so quick to jump to Anderson's defense if he's guilty of assault as the prior reports stated.

Which brings us to the main point: any news sources, including but not limited to BC, have to stop with their atrocious assaults on Lee's personal life, because it's only making things worse. The poor guy's been suffering pneumonia, he's been framed and taken advantage of financially, his daughter hasn't been faring any better, and that's why they should grind their tabloid trash to a screeching halt. If CJ Lee feels her dad's been exploited and is trying to defend him, she has every right to do so. The exploitation must stop. So I think it's time for BC to quit their crap altogether, and the artists/writers who defended Anderson should distance themselves from him and not associate with BC either, given that this was a site that once tried to hurt Campbell's reputation, and possibly Adams' too. Sure, maybe they later apologized off-stage to the artists, but it's still scant compensation, and no artist or writer who believes in justice should do BC any favors.

Again, I honestly hope I won't have to deal with news like this anymore, though if Marvel's not defending Lee, I can say it just proves the modern staff betrayed him long ago. No wonder they stick to ghetto mentality today, rather than make the move to the paperback-only formats I've argued would benefit the medium a lot better than monthly pamphlets.

I hope Stan is able to get well soon and get the rest he needs. And that the scum in the entertainment industry who've been exploiting him for far too long will back off of him for good.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter's written up more about what Lee's been going through these days, and he's had to deny that there's any rift with his daughter. Before we get to that though, what drew my attention in this article was that it refuted an earlier one by the Daily Beast claiming that a housekeeper whom the former tour manager Max Anderson tried to bribe was supposedly a Muslim:

For example, in a video shared with THR, one of Lee's nurses tearfully informs J.C. and Morgan that Anderson flagged her down on the street and offered her $50,000 to sign a declaration saying that Lee was being held against his will. Anderson acknowledges that he asked her to make such a statement, believing it to represent the truth, but maintains, "I did not bribe her. I only promised her one simple thing — to protect her. I said the police will protect her. I said, 'You are mandated to report if you see something wrong.' She said, 'I am an immigrant, and I can't get involved in anything.'"

Interesting. This indicates the woman in question is an immigrant, but it doesn't say anything about her being a Muslim. And that's why I think the Daily Beast lied. Besides, when they coughed out their own piece, they implied the woman didn't wear a hijab (and had brown hair), and though there are some Muslim women who don't wear that awful concept, it still was cause for suspicion the leftist site was trying to pump up the volume for the sake of tabloid drama. Another reason it's angering these exploitive sites won't leave Stan alone for a change.

Anyway, Lee's denied claims that he has any fallouts with his daughter J.C, and again, it's about time the terrible press sources quit taking advantage of him. In fact, the latest reports suggest that, contrary to what was claimed earlier by the UK Mail, the housekeeper cited in the topic didn't harm him in any way. And if not, then that was just one more lie they marketed that makes them a disgrace.

Labels: good writers, islam and jihad, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics