From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business. I just, I miss him. And it was the worst time

of my life, not because I'd had a heart attack, but because here was a guy who wrote every

story about some, you know, crazy, a colorful costume, saving somebody at the last minute.

And nobody could save him.

Now it can be told how filmmaker and geek Kevin Smith

set out to rescue his hero, the legendary Stan Lee.

Last year, Smith began to fear that the elderly co-creator of Spider-Man,

Iron Man, and the X-Men was being abused.

Smith acted, though he felt strongly that there could be no good outcome.

This week, we bring you part two of our interview with Kevin Smith.

He tells us about his friendship with Lee and explains why he called me to share his concern

about what was happening to Lee following the death of his beloved wife, Joan.

What did I do? I pulled in my colleague Gary Baum, who went on to write an award-winning expose.

Baum also joins us to talk about that. For Kevin Smith, as you'll hear, the whole story was absolutely heartbreaking.

But first, we banter. Stay tuned. It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my associate and banter, Matt Bellany of the Hollywood reporter.

Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So, Joker is poised.

We don't know the numbers, but clearly Joker is going to open very big.

However, this is a controversial film. It is a film that I think there was hesitation about making at Warner Brothers. Hard R. Dark, dark, dark. You've seen it. I haven't. I feel kind of squeamish about it.

Yeah, I've seen it, and it's really, really dark. It's violent. I haven't. I feel kind of squeamish about it. Yeah, I've seen it and it's really,

...