Joan Lee, Wife Of Marvel's Stan Lee, Dead At 93: They Fell In Love At First Sight

Joan Lee, the wife of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, died Thursday in Los Angeles, according to reports. A spokesman for the family was quoted saying the 93-year-old passed away quietly, while she was surrounded by her family. He added: “The family asks that you please give them time to grieve and respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

Marvel also issued a statement Thursday evening saying they were deeply “saddened” to hear about her demise. “We are so saddened to hear about the loss of Joan Lee. We lost a member of the Marvel family today and our thoughts and prayers go out to Stan and his daughter Joan in this difficult time,” the statement read.

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The former hat-model married Stan Lee (co-creator of major popular Marvel comics like Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four) in 1947 and the couple was often admired for their long and successful marriage. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, the comic book legend recounted how he met Joan for the first time in New York where she had moved to from Britain after World War II.

She was already married to a U.S. soldier after the boy she had liked as a young girl had married someone else. However, she was unhappy with the situation she was in. Meanwhile, Stan’s cousin was trying to send him on a date with a friend of his.

"When I was young, there was one girl I drew; one body and face and hair. It was my idea of what a girl should be. The perfect woman. And when I got out of the Army, somebody, a cousin of mine, knew a model, a hat model at a place called Laden Hats. He said, 'Stan, there's this really pretty girl named Betty. I think you’d like her. She might like you. Why don’t you go over and ask her to lunch,” said Stan in the interview.

But he met Joan at the door instead of Betty and was immediately sure she was the girl he had been drawing his entire life. “I took a look at her, and I think I said something crazy like, 'I love you.' I don’t remember exactly. But anyway, I took her to lunch. I never met Betty, the other girl. I think I proposed to [Joan] at lunch,” he said.

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Joan divorced her then husband after staying in Nevada to establish residency — as the state was lenient in granting divorces. Joan and Stan married in an adjacent courtroom an hour after the divorce was finalized. They then moved to New York where he worked with Timely/Atlas Comics, now known as Marvel Comics. Stan credits his wife with giving him the motivation to write Fantastic Four when he was almost determined to quit the business. He said she had asked him to write one comic he could be proud of before quitting.

Joan continued to support her husband in his work, and even gave her voice to some characters — Miss Forbes in “Fantastic Four” and Madame Web in “Spider-Man” for the 1990’s animated Marvel shows. She also had a role in 2016 film “X-Men: Apocalypse.” Joan Lee also authored a novel, “The Pleasure Palace.”

The comic community offered their condolences on Twitter after her passing.