The headlines about Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee are getting more and more bizarre by the day. As you can see from the headline, we're about to go even further down the rabbit hole, so hold on to your hats.

TMZ is reporting that one of Stan Lee's former business associates allegedly enacted a scheme to take the Marvel creator's blood. As the report breaks it down, the unnamed businessman went to Lee's personal nurse in October, and provided a forged document to obtain several vials of Lee's blood - so much so it's said that Lee was left dizzy from the extraction. The reason for this macabre scheme? It's alleged that the blood will be used to sell high-priced custom pens connected to both Lee and Marvel - pens filled with Lee's blood, instead of ink!

Lee has reportedly hired an attorney, Jonathan Freund, to put a stop to the sale and file a police report for the alleged theft of Lee's plasma. It's also being alleged that this same former business associate may have been at the heart of previously-reported schemes to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from Lee, and buy expensive real estate in his name. With friends like that...

On top of all this, the last year has seen Lee lose his wife Joan, get accused of sexual misconduct by his live-in nurses, get rushed to the hospital with a serious health scare, and then battle pneumonia. At this rate, Marvel fans have every reason to be concerned about the icon - which is why news that he's once again planning to jump back into the convention circuit isn't being met with universal praise.

Meanwhile, the Marvel brand continues to expand into something bigger than Lee himself could've ever imagined. The Marvel Cinematic Universe just hit a new landmark with the billion-dollar success of Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War is already generating speculation of a possible two-billion-dollar run. All the while, Lee continues to pop up for fun cameos in these Marvel movies, figuratively (and maybe literally?) keeping him alive as an icon for entire new generations of fans.

Black Panther is now playing in theaters. Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27, 2018. It is followed by Ant-Man and The Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.