So I called Stan Lee up and gushed.

Earlier, I'd been talking with Perry Moore about HERO, the fateful decision on the show's future currently happening at Showtime, and walking Ben Barnes down Seasame Street, when Moore suggested I give Stan Lee a call about HERO.

I can do that?

"Sure," Perry said. He clicked through his extensive list of numbers -- and given how long he clicked, it's a big list -- then called out the digits. And I dialed.....

So, Stan Lee. I tried hard not to gush, to not tell him that he was one of those people that inspired me to write; for Cthulhu sakes, he inspired me to read. "Excelsior" was one of those words I raced to look up because Lee was always using it.

I suppose if I was real journalist -- and not a screenwriter pretending to be one -- I could have maintained the requisite "professional distance" reporters are supposed to have. But I didn't. I just gushed. And gushed more. I then I asked him if he ever gets tired of all that gushing.

"Never," Lee said. "I don't understand when celebrities say that they don't like it when people gush. It's a honor to be gushed over. More gushing. Gushing is good."

Right. Onto the matter at hand: HERO.

I told him I was there at Comic-Con when he and Perry Moore announced their partnership to bring HERO to the screen. "I remember you," he said. "You had shirt, pants and badge on, right?"

What attracted him to the book, to the effort of trying to create a TV series about a gay, teen superhero? What made him get behind the story?

"It's hard to find a new fresh and exciting take on a hero," Lee continued "Perry created something great with the novel, something I think audiences, gay or straight, are hungry to see."

Lee knows heroes, being either the direct or co-creator of numerous legends, from Spider-Man to The Fantastic Four.

"Forget the sex and sexuality of HERO for a moment," he said. "This is a good story. It's about a world very much like our own, with many of the same problems and situations, and then about a young, tortured but ultimately triumphant person taking their rightful place in that world. That's a hero."

I gushed again.

He, too, was happy and excited that Showtime was considering the series. But I don't think he was on pins and needles as Perry Moore currently is. I don't think anything phases Stan Lee.  He just stays perky and, well, cool.

Since I had him -- and, damn if I wasn't going to get another few minutes of his time - I asked him what else he and P.O.W. Entertainment, the company he launched in 2001 after his previous effort, Stan Lee Media, went into bankruptcy, were producing.

"So many things! We're so busy with movies and TV and related projects," he said.

What are they?

"I can't tell you!"

I swear the exclamation mark appeared in the air above me.

"Really, I'd love to tell you about everything," he continued. "It's all great stuff. I've just gotten in trouble in the past talking about things before I should have. If you give my partner Gil Champion a call back in the afternoon, he'll give you a run-down on the safe things."

Champion's office called a little later to let me know just what all those "safe things" were: an "Eco"-themed super hero,  an Indian themed hero,  as well as two other unnamed projects at Disney. They're also finishing up a kids version of Who Wants To Be A Super Hero for the BBC.

I thanked Lee for his time and gushed a little bit more. I also told him how much he reminded me of Kerry O'Quinn, another Gothamite and legend in The Geek Circles.  "Thank you. I always loved STARLOG magazine. Oh, and thank you for your, and the fan, support for HERO."

Gush.

The POW Entertainment corporate site is available at http://www.powentertainment.com/. They're currently at work revising the space and should re-launch on the site shortly.

In the meantime, people can keep up with Stan Lee at http://www.myspace.com/stanleemyspace