Stan Lee Media

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Stan Lee Media
Type	Public Delisted
Founded	October 1998
Founder	Stan Lee, Peter F. Paul
Headquarters	Engelhard, North Carolina, USA
Key people	Jim Nesfield, President
Industry	Entertainment
Services	internet animation studio
Website	http://www.stanleemedia.net/

Stan Lee Media (SLM) was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that created branded super hero franchises for applications in all media. Its 165-man animation production studio was based in Los Angeles, California from 1998-2001.

Contents 1 Evolution 1.1 Bankruptcy 2 Productions 2.1 The 7th Portal 2.1.1 Main plot 2.1.2 Characters 2.2 The Drifter 2.3 The Accuser 2.4 Others 3 Lawsuits 4 References

[edit] Evolution

The company was founded by Stan Lee (Spider Man, X-Men, The Hulk, and Fantastic Four co-creator) with his friend, Peter F. Paul (Hollywood entrepreneur) in 1998 as Stan Lee Entertainment. Stan Lee Entertainment merged with Stan Lee Media, Inc. of Delaware in April 1999. In July 1999, SLM of Delaware reverse acquisite of Boulder Capital Opportunities, Inc., a public company, allowed the corporation to go public trading under the symbol SLEE. ^[1]

SLM used $4.3 million in stock to purchase Conan Properties Inc., owner of Conan the Barbarian. Plans for a third Conan movie and webisodes were made.^[2] With SLM stock price falling below the sale agreement level, Conan Properties, Inc. stock reverted to their previous owners, Baums, LSDC, Arthur Lieberman and the de Camps.^[3]

[edit] Bankruptcy

The company subsequently failed, closing operations entirely by December 19, 2000.^[4] SLM bankruptcy dismissed on Dec 6, 2006 on application of US Trustee for cause. The company was taken back by the shareholders after its dismissal from bankruptcy and hired a legal and accounting forensic consultant to review all transactions that occurred during bankruptcy.

The company remained under bankruptcy protection until the US Trustee for the Central District of California moved to dismiss the bankruptcy for failure of the company as Debtor in Possession to comply with basic requirements of filing monthly reports and paying quarterly fees to the Trustee. As of November 1, 2006, all of the officers and directors of the company had resigned or abandoned their positions and the company's lawyers for the Debtors in Possession attempted to obtain court authorization to destroy or dispose of the company's books and records.

[edit] Productions

Some of Stan Lee Media's most important projects included the animated Web series The 7th Portal (where Stan Lee himself voiced the character Izayus), The Drifter, and The Accuser. The 7th Portal characters were licensed to an interactive 3-D movie attraction in four Paramount theme parks.^[5]

[edit] The 7th Portal

The 7th Portal, which came out in the year 2000,^[6] was the most successful of their animated series, being picked up by Fox in mid run, who translated it into other languages.^[7] Twenty-two episodes were made,^[8] of which the first twenty were shown on-line before the website went bankrupt. The final two episodes were only visible on television.

[edit] Main plot

The 7th Portal told the story of Izayus when he approaches a group of young beta testers. He claims to have a game that will let them fight real monsters, which he projects holographically using the CD-ROM he claims contains the game. The game's premise is that there are six other dimensions, all of which have been conquered by the evil Lord Mongorr, and the players need to take the form of a superhero in order to stop him from opening the portal to the seventh universe, their own.

After they have chosen their form, half of them are sucked into the computer screen, where in time they learn that they've been transported for real into a parallel universe. However, their forms are still subject to the rules of the game, such as spending Life Points to use their superpowers. They are eventually captured and brought to The Bloodzone, a gladiator-like arena consisting of floating platforms over a bottomless pit.

Meanwhile, the other half of the beta testers are mystified by their friends' disappearance. Suddenly, they are transported into cyberspace to meet Izayus. He reveals to them that the CD was actually a device called The Artifact^[9], which allows for transportation into Darkmoor, the realm of Lord Mongorr.

The first group discover that they must fight some Nullifiers (as Mongorr's select group of minion's call themselves) to the death if they want to leave the Bloodzone. When Peter (one of the heroes) loses all his Life Points, transforming back into a regular human being, Izayus appears and allows himself to be captured so that they can escape with The Artifact. The Nullifiers try to stop them, when the heroes are saved by the second group of beta testers, now in their superhero forms.

They take the name Data Raiders for themselves and hide in a basement. A fight breaks out among them because Peter had transfered Roberto's Life Points to his own, leaving Roberto at zero points. Peter is knocked out and Roberto leaves. The others, however, notice that Peter's Life Potins are increasing, and hypothesize that if they get something to eat they'll be able to increase their Life Points even faster. When they return with the food, they discover an ambush, and are forced to surrender.

Mongorr sends them back to Earth since he now has The Artifact, and proceeds to send an army to destroy several of the world's landmarks. However, Izayus sends some energy through the portal, returning the Data Raiders' powers to full strength, and they return through the portal. They combine forces and defeat all the Nullifiers, and Izayus assures them that now he will fix all seven dimensions to be as if Mongorr had never existed. As a reward, the Data Raiders get to keep their powers.

[edit] Characters

Data Raiders
Name	Country of origin	Superhero form	Superpower	Voice actor
Ozubo Monduma	South Africa	Conjure Man	Psychokinesis	Joseph Motiki
Greta Brecht	Germany	Gossamer	floating, traspassing walls and becoming invisible	Christina Gordon
Anna Nehue	India	Imitatia	changing shape	Ellora Patniak
Roberto Diaz	Brazil	Oxblood	superhuman strength	Carlos Diaz
Rikio Minamoto	Japan	The Streak	speed	Jovanni Sy
Peter Littlecloud	United States	Thunderer	a voice powerfull enough to literally blow people away	Gordon Wolvett
Izayus			Psychokinesis	Stan Lee
Note: the final episode reveals Izayus to be Mongorr's brother (a fact already hinted by Mongorr when he captured Izayus in The Bloodzone), suggesting Izayus may in fact be from one of the parallel universes.

Nullifiers
Name	Description	Voice actor
Bearhug	Dwarfish-looking man with enough strength to suffocate someone by embracing them	Lawrence Bayne
Krog	A huge, indestructible, blue monster made of rock	Tony Daniels
Lord Mongorr	The human-looking emperor of six dimensions, possesses psychokinetic powers	Richard Eden
Slyme	A man that can control a bunch of green slime he carries around on a shovel, and a "bag of souls"	Tony Daniels
Vendetta	Mongorr's daughter, who dresses like a snake and also possesses psychokinetic powers	Julie Lemieux
Vultura	A woman with a webbing between her arms and feet, which enables her to fly	Shannon Lowsan
Whipsaw	A man with a scarred face that can has a great control of his green whip even with his mind. The whip has a sharp point at the end.	Peter Wildman

[edit] The Drifter

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The Drifter was about a character called "The Drifter" who can travel through time with the aid of a device called the decoder, which resembled a black semisphere with colored buttons. Viewers of the series were called true believers.^[10]

[edit] The Accuser

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The Accuser starred a character who took justice into his own hands. At the first chapter starts, we see a recently hospitalized Dan Mason recalling his past as the best criminal defense attorney money could buy. He usually didn't care about whose money was buying him and taught himself not to know what his clients do after being acquitted. At the cost of his own wife, Lucia, Dan learns the underworld's gratitude isn't long-lasting. One of his clients, upset that he agreed to defend Lucas Cortex, tried to have him killed. As a result, Dan is now a wheelchair-bound widower. In the hospital, Dan said he'd give his soul in exchange for a chance to bring justice. A mysterious entity accepts the deal and gives Dan a special wheelchair that can be converted into a special armor that will move his legs for him. What Dan doesn't know is that his mysterious benefactor is evaluating him for some unknown agenda.

[edit] Others

Other productions included the Evil Clone --a purported attempt to clone Stan Lee as a cartoon that wackily criticized many aspects of the media, including happy endings and the StanLeeMedia.net website--, and The Backstreet Project --a pitched (but never realized) project including the Backstreet Boys.

[edit] Lawsuits

Near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon.^[11] Stan Lee Media filed for bankruptcy in February 2001, and Paul fled to São Paulo, Brazil.^[12][13] He was extradited back to the U.S., and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading of his stock in Stan Lee Media.^[14][15] Lee was never implicated in the scheme.

On March 15, 2007, Stan Lee Media's new President Jim Nesfield filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming that the company is co-owner of the characters that Lee created for Marvel.^[16]

On June 9, 2007, SLM filed suite against POW Entertainment, Stan Lee, and other former staff members of Stan Lee Media now working at POW. ^[17]

[edit] References