Stan Lee: The Final Chapter
A Discussion On The Tumultuous Last Years Of A Comic Book Icon – By Mike Lera
When one thinks of Stan Lee, a myriad of things can come to mind. Spider-Man, Hulk and Daredevil, for starters. Or larger-than-life movies like X-Men, The Fantastic Four and Captain America. Or simply that all-too-familiar logo – MARVEL. And being someone who helped build this extraordinary company and who has impacted the world for well over six decades, one would think the final few years of the late, great Stan Lee were filled with complete bliss and total serenity – almost like Steve Rogers’ happy ending in Avengers: Endgame.
However, according to Stan’s former assistant, Jonathan Bolerjack, the closing act to Lee’s life was anything but an idealistic comic book story or a fun Marvel movie.
In his 90-minute investigative documentary, Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, Bolerjack boldly unveils behind-the-scene videos of an elderly Stan Lee being mistreated at the hands of associates. Having developed a close bond with Stan during the four years he worked with him (beginning in 2014), Bolerjack had shot hours and hours of footage of the famous comic book writer’sprivate life before his passing at age 95 in 2018, entailing good things and… not so good things. From being taken advantage of by business-driven managers (i.e. shrewdly coerced into spending long exhausting hours signing autographs and taking photos with fans) to an alleged mishandling of his finances, Bolerjack captures an authentic, heartbreaking story of the manipulation and exploitation of a pop culture legend and elder abuse, sharing not only what he witnessed, but archival footage and honest accounts from others who worked closely with Stan.
I was able to meet with Bolerjack at the recent San Diego Comic Con, gathering insights not mentioned in the documentary in efforts to gain a better understanding of the director’s motives for his film, as well as learning more about Stan Lee’s final years.
Mike Lera: When you started working with Stan, you immediately began taking video
coverage of your experiences together, whether it was his tours at the cons or in everyday life.
What was your initial intention in all this?
Jonathan Bolerjack: I wanted to shoot something like a docu-series of “the day in the life of following Stan around”. It unfortunately didn’t pan out that way, because you could only watch him signing autographs for so long. So then I decided to just film and see what kind of a story we would come across.
As I was filming and getting to know him, the story that we see in Final Chapter presented itself. Of course, I was getting all of it in pieces, spanning over the course of four years and in multiple places, and so it became all about putting those pieces together.
Mike Lera: Your project took a while to make. Who or what would you say have been your biggest help in finally getting this documentary done?
JB: I’d say Rob Liefeld, the first guy I asked for an interview. He said yes immediately. Usually
a guy like that with that much prominence in both Marvel and Disney would have declined. But Rob – love him or hate him – doesn’t shy away, and says what he feels. And so it made gettingother interviews a lot easier, because once people heard that Rob was on board, they were more at ease.
Mike Lera: What is your overall goal for this film?
JB: I want as many people to see this as possible. Not for vanity’s sake, but because the truth is an important thing. I don’t want this part of Stan’s life to fall by the wayside and him becoming just a caricature you see in other documentaries. I want people to know what happened.
Mike Lera: Given the controversies surrounding the complex relationship between Stan Lee and legendary artist Jack Kirby, his former colleague, some may say that Lee “got what he deserved”. Has anyone ever approached you with this idea?
JB: No one has ever approached me directly with such statements, and I‘m not here to litigate
“Jack Kirby vs. Stan Lee” – save that for the internet. But for the sake of argument, let’s just say he was the worst to Jack Kirby. Does that make the bad things that happened to Stan any lesssad? If anything, this film should make the things that happened between Stan and Kirby and even Ditko even more important, because we get to see Stan’s mistreatment. It’s important to look at things as a whole.
Mike Lera: Are you worried or concerned that someone such as Max Anderson or Keya Morgan (Stan’s former business managers and the film’s main “antagonists”) will come after you once viewing the film?
JB: I mean, look – I’ve already been sued before in efforts to have this film not come out, and that was insanely scary. But now, it’s not something I sit around and think about too much,because things are gonna happen. It comes with the job. In the end, it’s not my problem if it ruffles feathers – I need to do what’s right and get this out.
Mike Lera: You spent a considerable amount of time with Stan forquite a number of years. Do you have a favorite memory?
JB: It was when I got to come back and see Stan again after he-regained his freedom. It was unexpected. Just entering the room he was sitting in and him looking at me and just catching up.That was the best.
Mike Lera: Would you take part in a Stan Lee biopic if one was ever in the works?
JB: I’m sure someone in Hollywood will make one, since they make one about everything else, and if so, I’d love to be a consultant and help keep it real. But who knows (laughs) – there just might be a scene with me with a gun shooting everybody up or something!
Stan Lee: The Final Chapter is available on VOD on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home and YouTube.
Important Note: Stan Lee: The Final Chapter is an independently produced documentary/ expose built on personal, firsthand footage and is not an officially sanctioned or authorized project commissioned by Stan Lee’s estate or by Marvel/Disney..