User blog:ARTaylor/RIP Joan Lee

Joan Lee, wife of famed comic book creator Stan Lee has passed away today at the age of ninety-three. A spokesperson for Stan Lee and his family issued a statement saying, "I can confirm the sad news that Joan Lee passed away this morning quietly and surrounded by her family. The family ask that you please give them time to grieve and respect their privacy during this difficult time." She was hospitalized earlier this week after suffering a stroke.

Joan was a British had model who married a soldier during World War II. The two moved to New York where she became unhappy. Stan's cousin had tried to set him up with a friend of hers but Joan was the one to come to the door. The two fell hopelessly in love, she divorced, and they married on December 5th, 1947. They had two children, Joan Celia in 1950 and Jan, who tragically died three days after her birth in 1953.

They were together when Stan went to work at Marvel Comics, then called Timely, and he credits her with inspiring him to make the Fantastic Four. Joan would stay with Stan for sixty-three years. In that time she played Lavinia Forbes on Fantastic Four and Madame Web on Spider-Man. In the latter series, the two shared in one of the final scenes of the show and commented on how wonderful the other was. She even joined the King of Cameos in last year's X-Men: Apocalypse. Not one to stick to the sidelines, Joan wrote a novel in 1987 titled The Pleasure Palace and, according to her daughter, wrote three more novels that have yet to be published.