After suffering a stroke and being hospitalized earlier this week, Joan Lee has passed away at the age of 93. Before marrying Stan Lee, she was a British hat model and would eventually support Lee's project as a voice actor, having key roles in the Fantastic Four and '90s Spider-Man animated series.
She is survived by her husband and their daughter, Joan Celia (JC) .
Marvel has released the following statement:
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.
As some stories tell it, Stan Lee was on the verge of quitting the comic business due to his dissatisfaction with writing pulp and western stories was told by Joan to write one more story before he gave it up, one that he would be proud of. That story would go on to be the first issue of the Fantastic Four and the rest was history...