Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, is updating his pantheon of superheroes with--what else?--an Internet twist and a new stock listing.
Lee, who originated some of the most profitable comic book characters, took his new company, Stan Lee Media, public on Monday in a move to gather support for a flashy assault on the Net and the printed-comics industry.
On Tuesday, the Encino-based company launched a Web site that the 76-year-old honorary chairman of Marvel Comics plans to build into a network of fresh superhero content in cyberspace.
Lee's earlier creations will not be an official part of the site (http://www.stanlee.net). Instead, he is overseeing the creation of an online comic called "The Seventh Portal," about seven youths from different countries, who . . . well, as he explains:
"Because of the Internet, in some mystical way, they get transported into some other dimension and they find the warlord of that dimension is planning to attack our dimension," Lee said.
Stan Lee Media didn't go public via a new stock offering. Instead, on Monday it merged with a shell company, Boulder Capital Opportunities, which already had a stock listing on the Nasdaq Bulletin Board.
As Stan Lee Media, the stock (ticker symbol: SLEE) surged to $9 Monday from $6.38 on Friday, on volume of 271,200 shares. On Tuesday it pulled back to $8.13 as 71,300 shares traded.
Many investors understandably won't go near Bulletin Board stocks, which often are thinly traded and are generally considered high risk.
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Spider-Man on the Web
The thinly traded, volatile shares of Internet comic book company Stan Lee Media, which blasted to a record Monday, backed off Tuesday as the firm launched its Web site. Daily closes and latest on the Nasdaq Bulletin Board:
Tuesday: $8.13
Source: Bloomberg News
