Stan Lee's daughter slaps Marvel legend's ex-assistant with $25M slander suit
Stan Lee’s daughter has slapped the Marvel Comics legend's former employee with a $25 million slander lawsuit for falsely claiming she was physically abusive to her father, according to a report.
Joan Celia Lee, who goes by JC, sued ex-assistant Bradley Herman for claiming in a podcast that she grabbed her father by the neck, TMZ reported. A representative for her did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
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"JC Lee took her father by the neck and grabbed his neck and slammed his head back into the wood portion of the chair,” Herman allegedly told host Alan Duke in “Scandal…Stan Lee’s World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains,” which aired shortly after the creator’s death in November 2018.
Stan Lee's daughter, Joan Celia Lee, with her father in San Jose, California. (Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Duke, who was also named in the lawsuit, declined to comment on the matter, noting that he had not been served with any court papers. Herman could not be reached.
JC Lee further argued she believed Herman was getting revenge for being fired in 2018, after he allegedly stole from the comic-book legend and forged his signature, according to the report.
She went on to claim her father had denied that she was physically abusive toward him, and Herman spewed the allegations despite knowing they were false.
The podcast, which ran through reVolver, “takes you inside Hollywood power struggles of money, betrayal and influence peddling,” according to its Apple Podcasts description.
It focused “on the passing of Stan Lee, one of the most influential writers and publishers in the comic book industry and creative tour de force behind Marvel’s Silver Age – the co-creator of beloved characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and the X-Men, where behind the scenes power struggles for Lee’s money, fame and fortune have just begun.”
Lee was the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, as well as its chairman and publisher. Marvel is now owned by Disney.
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Several of the podcast's 11 episodes discuss JC Lee’s alleged abuse of her parents, including one segment from Nov. 29, 2018, which details how in March 2014 she allegedly “erupted in anger after learning her 63rd birthday gift – a new Jaguar – was leased and not bought with cash,” according to a different Apple description.
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ReVolver Podcasts, which is not identified by TMZ as being named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request seeking comment.
Another episode explains how she allegedly “begged her parents to change [a] trust to give her a free flow of cash.”
Stan Lee pictured during a cameo in ABC show "Fresh Off the Boat" (Richard Cartwright/ABC via Getty Images)
A notarized “Declaration of Stan Lee,” which was signed by the legend, filed in February 2017 and later obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, dedicates a whole section to “JC’s Coercive Behavior.”
“[W]hen JC and I disagree, which is often, she typically yells and screams at me, and cries hysterically if I do not capitulate to her demands,” the papers state. “… The abusive behavior of my daughter JC directed to me has become unbearable. It is obvious to me that she behaves this way to try to intimidate, bully and coerce me.”
The section does not include any specific details of physical abuse.