Last month, Stan Lee seemed like he was cutting ties with business manager Keya Morgan, a man who has been accused of squeezing money out of the iconic comic book creator and quietly taking control of every aspect of his life in order to keep away Lee’s friends and family members. Despite having spent the last few months posting on social media about how great Morgan is, Lee had filed for a restraining order against him in June and moved in with his daughter, J.C. Lee (who has also supposedly been vying for control of her father’s finances, because the story simply must be as tragic as possible). Now, Variety is reporting that Lee has dropped a $1 billion lawsuit against POW! Entertainment, a company he co-founded in 2001 and sued last year for allegedly tricking him into signing over the exclusive rights to his name.
In dropping the suit, Lee says that “the whole thing has been confusing to everyone,” but he’s now “happy to be surrounded by those who want the best for me” and is “thrilled” to get back to work developing new characters and telling new stories with POW! Entertainment. His phrasing there is particularly telling, since it implies that he wasn’t surrounded by those who wanted the best for him before, which seems like a not-so-subtle dig at Keya Morgan. Building off of that implication, it makes it sound like the initial lawsuit was Morgan’s idea, which lines up with the allegations about him trying to control Lee’s finances.