"Stan… do you know that you reed a stench of old man?"
Jihoon looked up from the paper and said this in pure annoyance, because he had found that this old guy Stan Lee was getting more and more childish these days.
Sometimes he would call Jihoon in the middle of the night just to brag that he had found a new investor for the MCU or have a great idea for his next film.
Maybe he had come to an age where bragging became a form of social call, or maybe it was just him trying to find a sense of friendship at his old age.
Because as the founder and establisher of Marvel Comics, he had worked all his life to get to where he was now — but even a great empire may crumble over time.
So did his Marvel.
Even with how hard he tried, Marvel's business didn't seem to get better even after he worked his ass off for it.
Many only see Marvel as the famous MCU studio in the present world of 2025.
But before Marvel Comics turned into the MCU we all know, it was founded as Timely Comics.
Stan Lee and his partner Jack Kirby worked together to launch the modern-day Marvel universe, creating the first established interconnected comic-style storytelling and shared worlds.
With them, one by one iconic superheroes were created — icons that inspired generations of kids of kids.
But as good things come to last, Marvel in the 90s faced bankruptcy due to extreme financial speculation, creative missteps, and corporate mismanagement that pushed Marvel Comics to the brink of extinction.
The late 1980s to early 1990s was a rare and spontaneous era — opportunity and economy boom everywhere — making everyone dive into business or investment, treating work not as necessity anymore but as optional lifestyle.
And in the comic business, that translated into comic books being seen as investment assets, like baseball cards.
Collectors bought multiple copies expecting rare issues to skyrocket in value.
Each comic book became a financial product, as if it was Bitcoin of their era.
Because of that circumstance, Marvel drew in a new investor named Ronald Perelman to finance the company's expansion.
But when a new person enters any self-guarded collective interest group, changes are bound to happen.
Board members get reshuffled to maintain the new guy's influence over his investment — that's how capitalism works.
After acquiring Marvel, Ronald decided to take the company public.
When we say public, we don't mean a walk in the park; we mean launching an IPO to generate capital from the stock market.
It was a clever and normal move, because companies like Facebook and Tesla did the same — raising capital from the market so they didn't need to use their own money to expand, reducing investment risk.
His strategy was fairly simple too: maximize short-term profit by increasing cover prices and print runs, while leveraging the company with significant debt to fund acquisitions.
But lady luck didn't side with him.
The mid-90s were destined to be a recession, an economic downturn that affected much of the corporate world.
Which is why by 1998 Marvel had to sell their character movie rights and shift their business model into licensing — focusing on being an IP licensor rather than just a comic publisher.
But maybe lady luck didn't fully give up on Stan Lee and his dedication.
By 2005, Marvel secured a 525-million loan from Merrill Lynch, but in return the character rights were used as collateral to finance its own films.
With that injection, Marvel turned from comic publisher to IP licensor to film production powerhouse by 2008.
And as for why Stan Lee kept bothering Jihoon ever since the Saw premiere when they first met — that was an easy question.
They were pointing at the same objective.
In other words, JH's HCU and Marvel's MCU were the only cinematic-universe film productions in the market.
So aside from wanting to pick ideas out of Jihoon's brain to polish his own MCU, Stan also treated Jihoon as a friend — a friend who could truly understand him.
Because technically, what they were doing for their films was practically the same.
Little did he know Jihoon was just a "Control C and Control V," because he had seen before how cinematic universe production and the future market were going to be in his previous life.
Stan's decision to put all his Marvel characters as collateral for a loan was cautious at first.
Because Marvel to it's fans maybe was just their hobby, but Marvel to Stan Lee was different — Marvel was his baby.
Something he didn't want to lose.
Which is why even on his deathbed, his only worry and regret was not being able to purchase back the sold IP licenses — like Spider-Man from Sony and X-Men from Fox.
That was his biggest frustration: his vision was to integrate those two powerhouse superhero groups into the MCU.
It wasn't until Disney bought the whole franchise that his dream finally lived — but by then it was too late. He had already passed away.
Now, getting back to the JH office where Jihoon and Stan were sitting across from each other…
And upon listening to Jihoon's hurtful comment, Stan Lee — although already an old guy in his 80s — was still fully capable of grabbing the nearest pen on the table and throwing it at Jihoon.
Jihoon instantly knew what Stan was about to do.
When the pen flew, he casually dodged and said, "Stan… careful with your blood pressure. I wouldn't want my office to be re-decorated into a morgue."
Stan, still frozen in his throwing posture — almost one breath away from his grandma kiss, almost kicking his bucket — suddenly coughed violently as if Jihoon's comment had damaged him. "Cgh… cgh…"
Jihoon panicked immediately.
This guy was too old for any heart-racing joke.
He jumped from his seat, rushed to Stan's side, patted his back and carefully asked, "Stan, are you okay? Do you need me to call medical help or anything?"
Little did he know, from the moment he stood up and walked to Stan's corner of the seat, he had already stepped into a trap.
Because just as his hand landed on Stan's back, the old man was already holding up his walking stick — swinging it at Jihoon with unimaginable agility for a man his age.
He moved like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"Ouch! Ouch! Old man!! I was just kidding with you! You don't have to wave your stick like a lightsaber, man!"
Jihoon barked as he was violently struck by the walking stick.
"Who told you to mock my age, you little brat!! Your mouth is stinkier than the breath of Darth Vader! So shut up and take my stick, you little bitch!"
Stan didn't stop.
Don't let his 80 years old age fool anyone — his voice was still loud and crispy, as if his lungs were functioning like his young days.
"Ouch!"
"Not there, Stan!!"
"No!"
"Don't put it in there!!"
"Slow down Stan, not that fast!! I can't take it all in at once..."
"No! Not there!!"
"It's dirty down there!!"
"Aww!"
"No! No! No! Don't touch it! It's dirty!!"
"Mmmmh…"
"It's coming, Stan!!!"
Sound after sound — a string of confusing, extremely misleading, and deeply uncomfortable noises — echoed throughout the room and across the entire floor.
Mara froze outside the door, her hand on the doorknob, debating whether she should enter or pretend she was never here at all.
Because from the way it sounded, she had just walked in on Jihoon's secret life… or his hidden fetish.
Her face was full of confusion, as if she were questioning her entire life, but her brain was already running like clockwork.
She had practically imagined a full episode of premium Brazzers content — the same kind she watched when she was lonely at night on her bed with her favorite pink carrot-shaped of 'you know what it is.' (Wink.)