New Stan Lee documentary aims to explore allegations of elder abuse in final years

“I was his assistant, his confidant, but most importantly, his friend,” Bolerjack says at the top of the clip, before taking us through the “incredible highs” and “heartbreaking lows” of Lee’s final years. “Stan spent his final years enduring mistreatment, manipulation, and betrayal at the hands of a few very bad actors,” he continues before explaining that while he didn’t have the power to change the situation, he documented it. “This isn’t speculation, it’s all on camera, undeniable, irrefutable, no ambiguity,” he adds before making a call for donations. 

Lee died in 2018. Allegations of mistreatment and abuse in Lee’s final years have been documented at least as far back as the same year, when The Hollywood Reporter published an investigation alleging that after Lee’s wife died, his daughter J.C. Lee was freely spending his money and allegedly emotionally manipulating and verbally abusing him when he tried to reign in the spending. It wasn’t just his daughter who was implicated in the report, however; his manager and caretakers were allegedly taking advantage of his assets too. In 2019, J.C. also blasted Marvel and Disney, claiming that no one treated her father worse than those executives who “commoditized my father’s work and never shown him or his legacy any respect or decency.” In short, it sounds like there were a lot of parties who behaved improperly. Hopefully, Bolerjack’s documentary can do what it promises and clarifies what, by all accounts, sounds like a tragic situation.