Madame Moira

Joan B. Lee: The Woman Who Saved the Marvel Universe

Joan Boocock was born on August 3, 1924, in Gosforth, Newcastle, England. In the 1940s she moved to New York City, where she married an American GI and worked as a hat model. Working at the agency, she met a young comics editor named Stanley Lieber, who worked under the pen name Stan Lee. The two fell in love instantly and she left her husband for him.

In the early 1960s, Stan Lee was feeling depressed and unhappy with his job and was seriously considering quitting the comics industry. Joan told him "Before you quit, why don’t you write one comic you are proud of?” Lee obliged and together with Jack Kirby, he created the Fantastic Four, the flawed, dysfunctional family of heroes that Lee always wanted to make. The comic was an instant success, reinvigorating Lee and convincing him to stay on at Marvel. He even went on to give his favorite hero, Spider-Man, a love interest based off his wife: Gwen Stacy. In later years, after the couple’s two children were grown-up, Joan would have a short career as a voice actress, voicing the recurring character of Madame Web in the Spider-Man animated series, as well as having small parts in the Iron Man and Fantastic Four series. In 2016 she had a cameo with her husband in X-Men: Apocalypse. 

The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange, Black Panther. While these heroes were created or co-created by Stan Lee, we may never have had them or the Marvel Universe without Joan. Thank you.

Joan B. Lee: The Woman Who Saved the Marvel Universe

Joan Boocock was born on August 3, 1924, in Gosforth, Newcastle, England. In the 1940s she moved to New York City, where she married an American GI and worked as a hat model. Working at the agency, she met a young comics editor named Stanley Lieber, who worked under the pen name Stan Lee. The two fell in love instantly and she left her husband for him.

In the early 1960s, Stan Lee was feeling depressed and unhappy with his job and was seriously considering quitting the comics industry. Joan told him "Before you quit, why don’t you write one comic you are proud of?” Lee obliged and together with Jack Kirby, he created the Fantastic Four, the flawed, dysfunctional family of heroes that Lee always wanted to make. The comic was an instant success, reinvigorating Lee and convincing him to stay on at Marvel. He even went on to give his favorite hero, Spider-Man, a love interest based off his wife: Gwen Stacy. In later years, after the couple’s two children were grown-up, Joan would have a short career as a voice actress, voicing the recurring character of Madame Web in the Spider-Man animated series, as well as having small parts in the Iron Man and Fantastic Four series. In 2016 she had a cameo with her husband in X-Men: Apocalypse. 

The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange, Black Panther. While these heroes were created or co-created by Stan Lee, we may never have had them or the Marvel Universe without Joan. Thank you.

“In terms of my character, Grace… I mean, here’s a woman who’s in her 70s who when Frankie says ‘what do you want out of life?’, can’t answer the question. She has so lived to please other people, men, that she just doesn’t know; she can’t even make a wish. And that’s a heavy thing to deal with, and it’s not uncommon. The other thing is that she has a real hard time with intimacy, scares her to death. … So, as a woman, you can be old and still not have found yourself, and so the question going forward is ‘can you, in your 70s, find yourself?’ My belief is it’s never too late if you… especially if you’re lucky enough to live with someone like Frankie, who nudges her all the time to move in the direction of self-discovery. You know, for all the differences between us, and the way we aggravate each other, the fact is you’re the perfect person for me to end up with, because you’re what I’m lacking.”

Fossa

A relative of the mongoose, the fossa is unique to the forests of Madagascar, an African island in the Indian Ocean. Growing up to 6 feet long from nose to tail tip, and weighing up to 26 pounds, the fossa is a slender-bodied catlike creature with little resemblance to its mongoose cousins.

These are Australian Stingless bees. Amazing social creatures, much like Honey Bees, but without the stings! These Trigonia stingless bees make perfect pets, and you can even harvest honey from them. Click here to learn more about these special creatures. Only a handful of these species exist in the world.

A khanda broadsword from Rajasthan, Northern India, in the mid-1800s, with a couple of extras in the form of a katar punch-dagger and a single-shot percussion pistol. Decisions, decisions, which one to use first?

In fact given the Indian swordsmiths’ fondness for tucking away a hidden sting in the tail, there may even have been a version of this with a stiletto that screwed up inside the grip. Rather like these…

And the katar dagger could have been enhanced as well…