Living In Stan Lee's World – And Building A New One

"It's Stan Lee's World of Heroes, we're all just living in it." – Peter David

The programming of "World of Heroes"  seems designed to appeal to both hardcore fanboys and casual viewers without watering down the overall content, which is why this channel may actually succeed. Professional stuntwoman America Young and offers the "I'm OK, You're OK" approach with "Geek Therapy", doling out advice to characters attempting to adjust to the world of Geek culture. Bonnie Burton, author of "Star Wars Craft Book" uses her skills to demonstrate self-made Geek paraphernalia. We didn't get much actual content from Mark Hammil (other than his express desire to play the Joker in a "KIlling Joke" feature) or Peter David (other than him nearly reciting his entire first script). For those on the outside or fringes of Fanboy culture newly christened nerd Adrian Curry travels the country to expose extreme fans of genre on their home turf, while Stan himself co-hosts (with THE David Hasseloff) a more realized, though recycled version of his "Who Wants to be a Superhero" show with "Academy of Heroes". There were brief glimpses of other shows like the animated superhero comedy shorts called "Bad Days" and the obligatory cheesecake feature "Super. Model." (It's exactly what it sounds like), so it's obvious that ancillary content is still under construction.

Overall, "World of Heroes" is a more diverse and possibly more accessible channel than it's competitors "Geek and Sundry" and the "Nerdist Channel", but since it skirts the line between credibility and pandering, only time will tell which direction it goes. Stan's supporting cast will once again determine that.

Room 8 isn't spacious, nor is it often used for content announcements from one of the larger publishers. The Marvel All Winners Squad, however, managed to snag hot Geek commodity Morgan Spurlock as a moderator and with him, came cosplay. Much in the tone of Harvey Birdman, GLA: Disassembled or Dan Slott's She-Hulk, "All Winners Squad" is a short animated web series featuring collection of D-list Marvel characters such as The Unicorn, Squirrel Girl, Frogman, Walrus, Ruby Tuesday, the indomitable Howard the Duck and Hypno Hustler (think Blackslpoitation Dazzler).

The panel itself was an interesting approach to revealing an otherwise overlook-able announcement by having panelists dressed as these characters and acting out a scripted performance to pique interest on a personal level. The jokes were a bit cheesy and choosing a documentarian to host a staged performance seemed ironic, but for a late day panel and a topic that would usually be a side note in a larger panel, I must applaud the effort. (Even the audience questions were staged) Plus Squirrel Girl is exactly how I imagined she'd look in a film. Yes, I've imagined that.

The biggest laughs came from the technical difficulties while attempting to present the footage of the "All Winners Squad", but the shorts were entertaining and a fun way to deal with these properties without simply having them killed by The Punisher or made mysteriously ultra-powerful by Brian Michael Bendis. This seems the way Marvel is going to handle these kinds characters for the foreseeable future. Between this and the Deadpool video game, it seems that Marvel is using its cross-media marketing to appeal to specific audiences with specific properties, instead of using the same blanket material in every medium. It could end up a wise decision.