Anime News: Stan Lee Co-creates HEROMAN

Stan Lee is no stranger to the comic business in the US; co-created several of comic icons we know today such as Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, Avengers and Iron Man (with an upcoming movie sequel in May). But did you know that he also co-created a Japanese manga series?


Titled HEROMAN is a Japanese manga series co-created by Lee in collaboration with Japanese Animation studio BONES, making it the first manga made by the said company. Though Stan Lee wrote the story, Tamon Ota provides the illustations of the characters. It started serializing in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan in September of last year. It eventually turned into Anime series which was aired last April 1 which BONES is also doing the animation production as well.

HEROMAN tells the story of Joey, a poor boy living with his grandmother working in a restuarant in the West Coast. When he heard of a new toy robot called the Heybo, he believes that getting one will make his life better, turning it into a hero to protect his loved ones. Unfortunately, he cannot afford to buy one because of his small salary. His luck changed when he found a broken down Heybo; tried to fix it even naming it Heroman, haven't any luck in getting the toy to work.

However, fate came when Heybo gets struck by a bolt of lightning, it transformed into a giant robot and just in time to save his friend Lina and her father from a near-fatal car crash. With his newfound power, Joey and Heroman became the Earth's protectors against the invasion of the evil insectoid Skrugg aliens, which accidentally summoned to Earth by Joey's science teacher as making contact with other beings from the galaxy.

Aside from BONES, Lee's Pow! entertainment and Wowmax Media collaborated in the Anime production of HEROMAN. So far, it already aired 2 episodes in Japan, though you can watch it online through Crunchyroll. I haven't watched the series yet, I think it might be a must watch Anime series since Stan Lee created the story. We'll see how the story goes well

Summary information of HEROMAN courtesy of Wikipedia. You can also visit HEROMAN's official Anime homepage