Stan Lee, the legend created Marvel Comics, has passed away at the age of 95. The artist, writer, producer, actor, and neither more nor less than “a person who made comics cool” – that is how the millions will remember Stan Lee. People will love his worlds and heroes as much as they loved him. However, there are characters which were not as popular as Spider-Man and X-Men.
Stripperella
One of the most famous not-popular characters is Strippella – a stripper named Erotica Jones who is also a secret agent.
Besides the enhanced reflexes and senses, superhuman strength, and an astonishing intelligence, Erotica can boast “sexy” martial arts and the arsenal of high-technological devices of questionable usefulness.
In 2003, debuted the eponymous TV-series where the main character was played by Pamela Anderson who gave Strippella her appearance and voice. These superhero series created for adults were rather comic making fun of genre cliches and conditionalities.
Despite the overall success of the series, it was closed down after 13 episodes because of the dispute between Stan Lee and Pamela Anderson. Another reason for this cancellation was that the ex-stripper Janet Clover claimed that Stan Lee stole her idea of this character when she discussed it during a lap dance.
Lightspeed
The next superhero on our list is another secret agent Daniel Light, also known as Lightspeed.
Daniel Light is a government agent who has the ability of super-speed, but this superpower puts him under a risk of getting fatal metabolic damage. Lightspeed gained his powers after surviving a building collapse triggered by the half-man, half-snake terrorist, called Python.
The movie about Lightspeed was released in 2006, and, to put it mildly, it hardly got any responses. Neither the Stan Lee’s status nor Jason Connery starring as Daniel Light helped the motion picture to stand out.
Mosaic
The next superhero appearing under the Stan Lee Presents banner is Mosaic, also known as Maggie Nelson, aspiring young actress, who gained chameleon-like powers after some supernatural circumstances.
Maggie was exposed to an electrical storm and a magic rune which her father, an Interpol agent, had planned to study. After getting under this ancient spell, she possessed the ability to change her appearance, to merge with the environment, and to speak the language of an ancient race Chameliel, the owners of the magic rune. Using her new powers, Maggie investigates series of murders with Chameliel’s involvement and the origin of ancient artifacts.
The eponymous cartoon film was released in January 2007. This time the audience’s reaction was way better than in case of Lightspeed movie.
The Condor
After less than four months, another animated film with an original superhero The Condor saw the light. This movie tells the story of Tony Valdez, a professional skateboarder by day and an avenger in mask by night.
During a dangerous zombie attack, caused by nano-technologies invented by Valdez family, Tony gets severely injured and loses both of his parents. However, his friend Sammi returns him the mobility with similar nano-technology. The action has its side effect which gives Tony superhuman abilities. After gaining his capability to walk, The Condor starts the investigation of his family’s murder, hoping to revenge the killer.
The Condor film was accepted better than Lightspeed, but comparably worse the Mosaic one. Overall, the audience took the film relatively well.
Chakra The Invincible
One of the most interesting characters is Chakra – an Indian superhero created in collaboration with Graphic India studio.
Raju Rai, Chakra The Invincible, is an ordinary boy from Mumbai conducting a research on chakra energy with the scientist Dr. Singh. Together they develop a technological suit that weaponizes all the Chakras in the body. Raju can fly, emit the energy beams and has superpowers. Using his superhuman abilities, he protects Mumbai from different scourges and dangerous villains.
Chakra The Invincible is one of the most successful Stan Lee’s original projects. The story turned into three animation films which were released in English and Hindi, series of comics, video games and toys.
Karakuridouji Ultimo
You would not expect the Stan Lee’s authorship behind the next story referring to Karakuridouji Ultimo. This character was created by Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei, a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of Shaman King.
This manga is about two robots, Ultimo and Vice, created in feudal Japan by Dr. Dunstan to be “perfect good” and “perfect evil”. Ultimo possesses the ability to transform into animal-like shapes, such as lions and cranes, and to manipulate time and space.
The pilot of Karakuridouji Ultimo was published in 2008, and it was positively met by the audience intrigued by a new shift in Stan Lee’s works.
Heroman
Another product of collaboration with Japanese manga artists is Heroman created by Stan Lee and Tamon Ohta.
Heroman, to be more precise, is actually two characters in one. On one hand, it is orphaned American boy Joey, from another — a robot Heroman which Joey fixed himself. Together they resist the alien attack caused by Joey’s school teacher.
Originally, Heroman was a broken toy that Joey repaired, but could not make work. However, a strange bolt of lightning brought Heroman to life, turned it into a giant robot, and gave Joey a special gauntlet. With its help, Joey could control Heroman.
For the first time Heroman was released as a manga in 2009 and has been publishing until 2012. Then, in 2010, the Bones studio produced an anime adaptation consisted of 26 episodes
By author Daniel Grigorenko