As more reports detailing Stan Lee’s recent financial woes and allegations of elder abuse have surfaced in past weeks, it’s become increasingly clear that the 95-year-old comics legend has been in desperate need of someone to protect him from those seeking to take advantage.
Stan Lee and Keya Morgan at the Avengers: infinity War premiere in Los Angeles. Photo: Jesse Grant (Getty)
In a surprising turn of events, it seems as if Lee’s stepping up to the plate to become his own hero. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee has filed for a restraining order against Keya Morgan, his current manager, who has been in control of Lee’s social media accounts.
Earlier this week, Morgan was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department under suspicion of having filed a false police report, though details about the filed report have not yet been released.
While Morgan would not be the first business partner that Lee distanced himself from in recent months, Lee’s restraining order is noteworthy considering the slew of video messages and photos he’s posted to Twitter recently expressing his faith in Morgan.
After months of general inactivity, Lee suddenly returned to Twitter earlier this year alleging that all of his other social media accounts had been “hacked” and that Morgan was his “only business partner” with the authority to speak on his behalf. (Note: The specific videos alleging the “hackings” have since been deleted from Lee’s Twitter page.)
Thanks to my friend @Jack who created Twitter, I am only on Twitter. No other social media. The rest like Facebook are hacked and people impersonating me. But I love Twitter. pic.twitter.com/zCZ0Pa4hxY
— stan lee (@TheRealStanLee) May 27, 2018
Though all of Lee’s most recent tweets have been written in the first person and the videos feature a seemingly lucid Lee, there has been no way of telling whether Lee was actually speaking for himself.
At the same time, however, Lee’s restraining order does gel with a report from earlier this year detailing Lee’s accusations that Morgan, along with others, was a person with “bad intentions” toward him and his daughter J.C..
In a notarised document dated February 13, Lee claimed that Morgan, J.C.’s attorney Kirk Schenck, and Lee’s former manager Jerry Olivarez had “insinuated themselves into relationships with J.C. for an ulterior motive and purpose: To take advantage of Lee and gain control over [Lee’s] assets, property and money.”
Olivarez, it should be noted, was connected to the company selling comic books signed with ink that was infused with blood stolen from Lee.
As strange and upsetting as it is to see Lee becoming even more embroiled in this kind of ugly, messy, public drama, it appears as though he might finally be getting ready to sort this whole mess out – and finally put some distance between himself and anyone who’s trying to get their pound of flesh from him.