POW Entertainment
Encyclopedia
POW! Entertainment is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 media production company formed by Gill Champion, Arthur Lieberman and former Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 editor and publisher Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....

 in 2001. POW! is made up of primarily two companies, POW! Entertainment, Inc. (POW! Inc.), a holding corporation so as to have publicly traded stock, and the operating company, POW! Entertainment, LLC (POW! LLC), the primary operating company.

POW! productions include the 2006 Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

's TV-movie Stan Lee's Lightspeed and that network's reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

 series Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
Who Wants to Be a Superhero? is a reality show hosted by Stan Lee. Contestants dress up as comic book superheroes of their own invention. Each week, Lee challenges the contestants to represent what "superheroes are all about." One or more of the superheroes deemed the least deserving is eliminated...

. Other productions include the direct-to-DVD animated features Stan Lee's Mosaic
Mosaic (film)
Mosaic is an animated superhero film about a new character created by Stan Lee. It features the voices of Anna Paquin, Kirby Morrow, and Cam Clarke. It was released under the Stan Lee Presents banner, which is a series of direct-to-DVD animated films distributed by POW Entertainment with Anchor Bay...

and Stan Lee Presents: The Condor.

History

In November 2001, Stan Lee formed POW! Entertainment, LLC, a Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

 limited liability company
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...

.

The separate corporation POW! Entertainment, Inc., is a holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

 created so as to have publicly traded stock. This originated as the Delaware corporation Megatek Legacy Systems, Inc., formed August 17, 1998; this became Alta Pacific Minerals, Inc. in 1999, and Arturion Entertainment, Inc. in 2002. By 2004, Arturion was a public shell corporation that was used to acquire POW! on May 5, 2004, with POW! members receiving Arturion shares to take it public on the over-the-counter market "Pink Sheets"
OTC Markets Group, Inc.
OTC Markets Group, Inc., informally known as "Pink Sheets", is a private company that provides services to the U.S. over-the-counter securities market including electronic quotations, trading, messaging, and information platforms. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, OTC...

. Arturion changed its name to POW! Entertainment, Inc.
Lee created the risqué animated superhero series Stripperella
Stripperella
Stripperella was an American animated series created by Stan Lee. The main character, voiced by and based on Pamela Anderson, is a stripper named Erotica Jones who is also the superheroine/secret agent Stripperella. The series was produced by The Firm and Spike Animation Studios...

for Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...

. In 2004 he announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

, the former Beatle, as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee's Sunday Comics,

In May 2004, IDT Entertainment purchased a minority share in POW Entertainment in an agreement for exclusive distribution rights to POW's animated DVD properties and joint development of 6 cartoon films.
In 2005, the company announced that another animated film that would feature the voice of Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

. Also in early 2005, the company formed a strategic partnership to develop a new mobile channel with mobile-streaming pioneer Vidiator
Vidiator
Vidiator provides video and audio streaming, encoding and transcoding, for the delivery of 3G multimedia content to the mobile devices.Vidiator's customer network reaches over 60 million 3G subscribers on four continents....

, through Vidiator's mobile streaming technology. In 2006, this resulted in an agreement with Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...

 Corp. where the Stan Lee's POW! Mobile Channel is officially listed as Sprint's Channel 70. The channel includes mobisodes with Stripperella
Stripperella
Stripperella was an American animated series created by Stan Lee. The main character, voiced by and based on Pamela Anderson, is a stripper named Erotica Jones who is also the superheroine/secret agent Stripperella. The series was produced by The Firm and Spike Animation Studios...

, The Accuser and The Drifter.

In 2004, an agreement with Andrew Stevens Entertainment Group and Jeff Franklin of FWE Inc., POW! and Lee planned to produce three action movies for the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

 to be aired in 2005-2006. Only the movie, Lightspeed
Lightspeed (film)
Lightspeed, is a 2006 superhero film directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, starring Jason Connery as the title role Lightspeed. It also stars Nicole Eggert, Daniel Goddard, and Lee Majors...

, was completed for SciFi and aired July 26, 2006. POW! president and CEO Champion said in 2005 that Lee was creating a new superhero, Foreverman, for a Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 movie, in tandem with producer Robert Evans
Robert Evans (film producer)
Robert Evans is an American film producer, best known for his work on Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, and Chinatown.-Early life and acting career:...

 and Idiom Films, with Peter Briggs
Peter Briggs
Peter Briggs is a British born and based director, producer, screenwriter, and concept artist; hired generally by overseas Hollywood motion picture studios. Although having worked in the motion picture industry for close to 20 years, he is best known for his work on the acclaimed film Hellboy...

 hired to collaborate with Lee on the screenplay.

In 2007, POW! started a series of direct-to-DVD
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

 animated films under the Stan Lee Presents banner. Each film focuses on a new superhero, created by Stan Lee for the series. The first two releases were Mosaic
Mosaic (film)
Mosaic is an animated superhero film about a new character created by Stan Lee. It features the voices of Anna Paquin, Kirby Morrow, and Cam Clarke. It was released under the Stan Lee Presents banner, which is a series of direct-to-DVD animated films distributed by POW Entertainment with Anchor Bay...

and The Condor
The Condor (film)
The Condor is an animated superhero film about a new character created by Stan Lee. It features the voices of Wilmer Valderrama, Michael Dobson, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Cusse Mankuma. Originally titled El Lobo, it was released under the Stan Lee Presents banner, which is a series of...

. POW! and Walt Disney Studios agree to a first-look deal in June 2007. The following year, the first three titles under that deal were announced: Nick Ratchet, Blaze and Tigress.

On June 9, 2007, suit was brought against Lee, POW!, subsidiary QED Entertainment, and former Stan Lee Media staff at POW!
On January 20, 2009, Judge Stephen Wilson, in Los Angeles Federal Court, ruled that POW! had illegally transferred assets of Stan Lee Media
Stan Lee Media
Stan Lee Media was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that was founded in 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000, and ultimately dismissed from bankruptcy in November, 2006. In its early years, the company created Stan Lee branded super hero franchises...

, including the Drifter and the Accuser, to POW! in violation of a bankruptcy court order.

Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced in April 2008 a partnership with POW! to produce a CGI film series, "Legion of 5". That same month, Virgin Comics announced Lee would create a line of superhero comics for that company.

On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

's Catalyst Investments acquired a 10% stake in POW! for $2.5 million, coinciding with its full acquisition of Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC , formerly Marvel Enterprises and Toy Biz, Inc., is an American entertainment company formed from the merger of Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and Toy Biz, Inc....

. Also, Disney's Silver Creek Pictures entered into another agreement with POW! for first-look and consulting services.

In 2010, POW started reporting to OTC Markets Group and was moved to the Over-The-Counter QB (OTCQB) tier market from the pink sheets. In February of that year, POW! partnered with A Squared Entertainment (A2) and Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...

 to create the Stan Lee Comics print and digital line. On August 5, 2010, the reality-television series Stan Lee's Superhumans
Stan Lee's Superhumans
Stan Lee's Superhumans is a documentary television series that debuted August 5, 2010 on History. It is hosted by comic book superhero creator Stan Lee and follows contortionist Daniel Browning Smith, "the most flexible man in the world", as he searches the globe for real-life superhumans – people...

show premiered on the cable channel History. Also that month, Super7, a toy manufacturer, sued POW! and partners over Stan Lee Comics' Super Seven. Late in the year, POW! and Boom! Studios
Boom! Studios
BOOM! Studios is an American comic book company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. The "BOOM!" in BOOM! Studios is always capitalized by the company.-History:BOOM! was founded June 22, 2005 with Zombie Tales #1....

 began publishing three new comic-book series: Soldier Zero, Starborn, and The Traveler. In October 2010, Guardian Media Entertainment
Guardian Media Entertainment
Guardian Media Entertainment, LLC is media joint venture of the SLG Entertainment, NHL Enterprises and NBCUniversal.-History:In October 2010, Guardian Media Entertainment, was formed by SLG Entertainment and NHL Enterprises, created hockey-themed superheroes called "Guardians" for each of the 30...

, a partnership of Lee, SLG Entertainment and NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 Enterprises, created hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

-themed superheroes called "Guardians" for each of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League. The venture includes a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

.

Ricco Capital and Panda Media Partners, a joint venture of POW! and Fidelis Entertainment, formed a partnership, Magic Storm Entertainment, in June 2011 to produce material for Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. In 2011, Lee was writing a live-action musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao. In October, Lee announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for children; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan.

Production

Title Year(s) Type Production
partner(s)
Distributor notes
Stan Lee’s Superhero Christmas October 2004
4th Qtr. 2005
Book
DTV
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

Harper Collins
Time Jumper 2009 Animated mobile series Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

Mosaic
Mosaic (film)
Mosaic is an animated superhero film about a new character created by Stan Lee. It features the voices of Anna Paquin, Kirby Morrow, and Cam Clarke. It was released under the Stan Lee Presents banner, which is a series of direct-to-DVD animated films distributed by POW Entertainment with Anchor Bay...

2007 DTV
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment
Manga Entertainment is a producer, licensor and distributor of Japanese animation in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand...

 (presents)

Film Roman
Film Roman
Film Roman is an animation studio founded by Phil Roman, best known for producing the animation for The Simpsons, King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox, as well as the Garfield and Peanuts animated TV specials....


Voice Box Productions
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

Lightspeed
Lightspeed (film)
Lightspeed, is a 2006 superhero film directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, starring Jason Connery as the title role Lightspeed. It also stars Nicole Eggert, Daniel Goddard, and Lee Majors...

2006 TV film FWE Picture Company Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

 (TV)
Nu Image Films
Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
Who Wants to Be a Superhero? is a reality show hosted by Stan Lee. Contestants dress up as comic book superheroes of their own invention. Each week, Lee challenges the contestants to represent what "superheroes are all about." One or more of the superheroes deemed the least deserving is eliminated...

2006-2007 Reality TV Series
2 seasons
Nash Entertainment
Nash Entertainment
Nash Entertainment is a reality television and feature film production company. Founded in 1994 by Bruce Nash, the first production under its name was Before They Were Stars. The company is located at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, California...

Sci Fi
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

Who Wants to Be a Superhero? (UK)
Who Wants To Be A Superhero? (UK TV series)
Who Wants to Be a Superhero? is a UK children's reality show hosted by Sam Nixon, Mark Rhodes and Stan Lee, based on the NBC Universal/Sci Fi Channel series of the same name...

2006-2007 Reality TV Series
1 season
BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

/CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

Stan Lee's Superhuman 2010 Reality TV Series
1 season
History Channel

Units

  • QED Productions, LLC - holds the intellectual property from the defunct Stan Lee Media
    Stan Lee Media
    Stan Lee Media was an Internet-based creation, production and marketing company that was founded in 1998, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000, and ultimately dismissed from bankruptcy in November, 2006. In its early years, the company created Stan Lee branded super hero franchises...

  • Panda Media Partners, a joint venture of POW! and Fidelis Entertainment
    • Magic Storm Entertainment - a partnership with Ricco Capital for the Asian markets
  • SLG Entertainment, LLC (SLGE) - owned with NHL Enterprises (NHLE), LP
    • Guardian Media Entertainment
      Guardian Media Entertainment
      Guardian Media Entertainment, LLC is media joint venture of the SLG Entertainment, NHL Enterprises and NBCUniversal.-History:In October 2010, Guardian Media Entertainment, was formed by SLG Entertainment and NHL Enterprises, created hockey-themed superheroes called "Guardians" for each of the 30...

      , LLC (GME) - The Guardian Project
      The Guardian Project
      The Guardian Project is a fictional superhero squad created by comic book mogul Stan Lee in conjunction with the NHL. Each NHL Franchise is represented by one of the 30 heroes, titled "Guardians". They are all named in accordance with the name of the team The Guardian Project is a fictional...

       with [NBCUniversal]]

Investors

  • The Walt Disney Company
    The Walt Disney Company
    The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

    's Catalyst Investments, LLC (10%)
  • Starz Media
    Starz Media
    Starz Media is the motion picture, animation, television, and home video subsidiary of Liberty Media.-Subsidiaries:Starz Media's subsidiaries include:*Anchor Bay Entertainment - distribution division for DVDs and videos....

    (formerly IDT Entertainment)
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