SDCC: “Stan Lee’s World of Heroes” YouTube Channel

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 just wouldn’t have been quite the same without a Stan Lee appearance, and he certainly wasn’t one to disappoint. With a video introduction laden with stars like Kevin Smith, Nic Cage and Tobey Maguire singing Stan idolatrous praises, you knew the utter adoration that was about to be heaped on Stan from the excited crowd was going to be volcanic. Finally, the lights went up and Stan “The Man” Lee descended on the SDCC stage to raucous applause from thousands of fanboys and girls who came to see him speak at a panel announcement about his new YouTube channel. As cantankerously funny as ever, 89-year-old Stan Lee promised the audience a YouTube channel that would be shamelessly dedicated to comic fandom and then made sure to add his trademark “Excelsior!” to top off the pledge. His new YouTube channel is “Stan Lee’s World of Heroes,” and Stan made sure no one forgot that it was literally all his. Don’t forget that it’s “Stan Lee’s,” he reminded the host and other panel members when they’d merely refer to it as“World of Heroes.”

The Rundown

Here are some of the shows and stars on Stan Lee’s World of Heroes:

“Cocktails with Stan”: Hosts Stan Lee and Jenna Busch interview notables like “The Guild’s” Felicia Day and “Amazing Spider-Man” director Marc Webb. Sometimes, they have cocktails, hence the name.

Mark Hamill’s untitled podcast: Introduced as “Luke Skywalker” to a surprised and jubilant crowd, Hamill said, “I’m happy to be here,” to which Stan Lee retorted, “I’m happy to be anywhere.” Hamill praised the podcast format as better than TV talk shows because they allow him to reach fans with a “leisurely approach.” He asked that fans tweet him @HamillHimself to suggest titles for his podcast show on Lee’s YouTube channel, so tweet the perfect title suggestion to him and you might be the one who titled his channel.

America Young’s “Geek Therapy”: Producer and actress America Young’s show is a comedic web series starring herself as a “geek therapist” counseling extreme geeks. Funny and well-acted, the series is headed to Stan Lee’s YouTube channel and should be considered a coup.

“Adrienne Curry’s Super Fans”: Reality TV celebrity Adrienne Curry crisscrosses the country to find the ultimate fans of geeky stuff. A beautiful woman trying to appeal to a geek audience, her professing to be really, truly one of them didn’t seem to particularly move most in attendance.

Bonnie Burton’s “Geek DIY”: Grrl.com founder Bonnie Burton is set to make DIY Ouija boards and “Admiral Sackbar” puppets on her new World of Heroes show. She teams up with Wil Wheaton in one episode for some crafts, and she described her channel as like if “Martha Stewart did really geeky and one of us did jail time.”

“Stan Lee’s Academy of Heroes”: In this show, Stan Lee puts real life wanna-be superheroes to the test. In one episode, the amateur superheroes are challenged by none other than “The Hoff,” David Hasshelhoff. Who else?

“Chatroom of Solitude”: A promising show that is stylistically reminiscent of Lisa Kudrow’s “Web Therapy.” “Chatroom of Solitude” revolves around several super villains having a video chat conference to determine who is the most evil supervillain. Phil LeMarr’s character, an old-timey paperboy, boasts in one scene that “If evil f*cked evil and had an evil baby, I’d f*ck that baby.”

Peter David’s “Head Cases”: A superhero sitcom about a “disaffected superhero” named “Ari Cooper” whose superpower is the ability to create seismic waves of noise by physically slamming his head against walls and other objects. The problem? His head isn’t invulnerable. Comic writer veteran David said part of the inspiration to pen the new series came from having watched “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and then saying to himself that “I could do better than that.”

“Mask & Cape”: Hosts Kevin McShane and America Young review comics, talk about comic news, and interview comic creators.

“Bad Days”: Funny animated shorts starring various superheroes and villains. The biggest laughs from the audience came during a short where Stan Lee pops up from behind some bushes and says, “Is it time for my cameo yet?” much to the surprise of Marvel oddball character MODOK.

“FanWars”: Serious geeks debate other serious geeks on issues like, “Would you rather rather have the Avengers or the Justice League defending the planet?”

“Super.Model”: Supposedly “Putting the ‘super’ back in ‘supermodel.’” A show that was kept mostly under wraps, but it’s basically about beautiful women with superpowers.