ABC 4 News

Barb Smith

Comic book legend Stan Lee, and Gene Simmons of KISS, made a stop in Park City Tuesday. The duo is there for a premiere of the documentary “With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story” about the Marvel creator’s life.

The two icons might seem like an unlikely pair, but Gene Simmons was the focus of two Marvel Comic books decades ago. The rocker says his relationship began with Stan Lee years before that, and long before the two met.

Simmons was an immigrant and says his early years in America were spent feeling like an outsider. “I had to empower myself and become my own superhero. I had to get my self esteem in order. By reading Stan Lee’s comic books I noticed there was a character called Peter Parker who was a pimply faced teenager that girls didn’t care about.”

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Genevieve LeBlanc | Nerd Reactor

Today, Stan Lee gave a live and global webcast with host Gene Simmons from the Sundance Film Festival to promote his biographical documentary which will be screening at the festival this year. Fans could submit questions in 53 languages while also getting live subtitles in any of those languages of the conversation, and Nerd Reactor tuned in to catch the action.

Lee, who will be turning 90 this year, was in good spirits and eager to speak with fans using the Ortsbo technology, the engine which translated the interview in real-time. The live interview attracted approximately 250 watchers throughout the hour and took questions from fans in several countries around the world. Despite the mass amount of questions submitted, Nerd Reactor managed to get a few to Stan “The Man” himself. Lee not only discussed future endeavors that will be released by his company, Pow Entertainment, but also expressed his opinion of the up-and-coming Spider-Man film as well as some of his favorite creations.

Q: Our first question is from Cecily in Denmark, and she asks you in dutch, “What was the first comic book you ever read?”

Lee: I think it was probably captain America. When I was a kid. And I couldn’t believe it, how exciting it was, and well drawn it was. And it really got me interested in comics.

Q: Fatso asked you in Finnish, “If you could have a super power, what would it be and why?”

Simmons: Well, I am proud to say that having been a marvel comic book myself, thanks to Mr. Lee in 1978, I fought Dr. Doom because I was able to fly, spit fire, and had super strength, thanks to the wonderful comic book that — I am just all heart. [Laughter] And then I found out that it was just one of Dr. Doom’s robots dressed as him, drat!

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