What comics fans are saying about Stan Lee’s final comic book project

November 13, 2018 - 5:02 PM
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Stan Lee Backchannel
Stan Lee was working on webcomic "Backchannel" before his death. (Screenshot from "Backchannel" on Webtoons)

As the world’s comic book and pop culture fans reel from the death of famed comic book creator Stan Lee, some avid readers are remembering his work by looking at his final comic “Backchannel.”

The famed Marvel Comics writer and editor was working on the free-to-read webcomic updated every Wednesday. Tom Akel and Andie Tong provided the art.

It had an average rating of 9.69. Its eighth chapter had just been released prior to Lee’s passing.

One of Lee’s final tweets before his death was promoting “Backchannel.”

The comic revolves around a gifted I.T expert who is recruited into a ‘hacktivist’ group. It has been compared to Lee’s earlier work for the X-Men.  It was produced by POW! Entertainment, the company founded by Lee, for the Webtoons platform, which streams both webcartoons and comics.

Avid fans of Lee’s work are zooming in on “Backchannel” in the hours after his passing.

While his name is attached to his more popular co-creations such as Daredevil, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Lee remained involved in various creative ventures and projects in and outside of Marvel long after he stepped away from writing comics to become Marvel’s publisher

He helped in the development of Marvel’s first venture into television and cinema in the 70’s and 80’s, and later collaborated with legendary artist Jack Kirby to write “The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience” and later with John Buscema to develop the character of Jennifer Walters or She-Hulk, the cousin of his earlier creation Bruce Banner or The Hulk.

In the 2000s, he produced “Who Wants to Become a Superhero,” a reality show contest where comic book afficionados competed for the chance to publicize the superhero concepts they created, all while acting out the part of their creations. He also created “Striperella,” a cartoon for mature audiences about a crime-fighting striper.

Lee also occasionally returned to writing comics. In 2001, he was tapped by former rival DC Comics for “Just Imagine,” a series where popular DC characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were re-imagined by Lee.

An adaptation of “God Woke,” a “poem-story” written by Lee was also later produced by POW! Entertainment into digital graphic novel form.