Stan Lee's POW! to focus more on Asia after acquisition by Chinese firm

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After being acquired by a Chinese company, POW! Entertainment will focus more on the Chinese and Asian market, said Stan Lee, legendary comic creator of the American media and entertainment company.

"Now we will have the ability to do more movies, we will have more money to spend to make our projects better and to accomplish more than we have been able to accomplish," Lee told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Lee, 94, is a heroic figure whose super heroes propelled Marvel to its preeminent position in the comic book industry. His co-creations include Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, and hundreds of others which are responsible for over 40 billion US dollars in box office success.

Stan Lee arrives at Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on November 18, 2016 in Las Vegas, US. /VCG Photo

Camsing International Holding Ltd acquired POW! Entertainment in early May. Under the new structure, Lee will continue to serve as the chief creative officer. POW! Entertainment will continue to grow its North American market, as well as develop in the Chinese and Asian markets. Camsing said it wants to create "another 'Marvel'" in the Asian market.

"I love what I do. To me, it is not like working, it is like playing, when I can dream about ideas, characters, who they are, what they do, who they fight, and how they fight them, that is fun and I enjoy doing that," said Lee.

He added that POW! will feature more Chinese elements in the future, but the key to making a character popular is not about him being American or Chinese. "If you get the right kind of character, he will be popular all over the world."

A Chinese comic fan dressed as Spider-Man poses for a photo at 2016's Shanghai Comic Convention. /VCG Photo

POW! creates, develops, and licenses intellectual properties for traditional entertainment media. It currently has over 270 projects with more than 1,000 characters.

"We may be developing directly out of China or just for the Chinese market, from the educational level all the way through full feature films," said Shane Duffy, vice president at Camsing US and the new CEO at POW! Entertainment.

Lee's partner Gill Champion, president of POW! Entertainment, believes that combining Stan Lee's brand with Camsing's expertise in licensing, merchandising and marketing "seems to be the ideal opportunity for the cooperation."

(Source: Xinhua)