WEB SLINGER; COMIC BOOK TITAN STAN LEE TURNS HIS CREATIVE POWERS TO THE INTERNET.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

The creator of Spider-Man is about to become a Web master himself.

Legendary comic book author Stan Lee has formed an Internet venture that will serve as a ``virtual clubhouse'' and marketing machine on the Web. The site, www.stanlee.net, will debut on Tuesday and swing into full operation in about two months.

``When I started in comic books, it was an infant art form and we got in on the ground floor,'' said the 76-year-old Lee, whose credits include co-creating Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four. ``Now the Internet is in its infancy just like TV was like 50 years ago. I can't wait to get started. I get here in the mornings before everyone else.''

The site will offer features typical of ``community'' sites on the Internet - free Web pages and the tools to build them, e-mail, games and an electronic marketplace for buying and selling comic books. The master plan by Lee's 2-month-old company is to use the site, built by online marketing specialist Organic, to launch alliances all over the world and draw visitors who will, in turn, attract advertisers.

That's a tough task amid the contemporary distractions of cable TV, video games and the rest of the Net, plus the glut of comic book titles on the market. But Lee and his associates at Encino-based Stan Lee Media Inc. say they aren't intimidated.

``Stan's name has appeared on 2 billion comic books,'' said Peter Paul, a marketing veteran who co-founded Stan Lee Media. ``He has a global audience and we'll have a new global team of superheroes. He has a unique ability to harness partners and be a micro-hub.''

``That's always what I wanted to be when I was growing up,'' Lee quipped, ``a

micro-hub.''

Despite having withdrawn from Marvel Comics' day-to-day operations in recent years, Lee remains a powerful attraction in the comic book genre. ``I needed six bodyguards at a convention in Mexico two years ago because there were 5,000 people outside yelling, `Ole, Stan,' '' he said.

Alliances will come from South America, Europe and Asia, Paul predicted. ``Stan Lee is a global brand without being affiliated with a global conglomerate, so he has the luxury of experimentation,'' he said. ``Stay tuned.''

The site will be aimed first at the 10- to 20-year-old crowd, which Lee believes has been overlooked in recent years as many comic books became darker and grittier.

``Maybe I'm a bit to blame because I pushed the characters toward appealing to an older audience,'' Lee said. ``I see this as a chance to reinvigorate our core audience.''

What's particularly attractive for Lee, though, is that the site will let loose a dozen new characters, half through new comic strips and the other as part of an interactive multiplayer game. He won't reveal their names or attributes until Tuesday, only saying that two are female and that all use the Web to achieve their feats of superheroism. ``I've always tried to contemporize my characters,'' he said.

Observers say Lee is likely onto something potentially powerful by venturing onto the Internet.

``Stan Lee is a living icon for the industry,'' observed Jamie Montana, manager of the Dream World comic-book store in Camarillo. ``The Marvel titles which he created like `X-Men' still sell well even though there's a lot more competition. Stan still looks the same and he's such a recognizable force.''

Lee is generally credited with elevating the comic book industry into a worldwide business. He modernized Marvel's characters by giving them complex personalities and everyday problems, as opposed to the uncomplicated goodness and selflessness of someone like DC Comics' Superman. A running gag about Spider-Man, for example, is that he constantly faces the problem of being short of cash despite his powers.

Chroniclers of the comic world point to 1961 as the turning point, when writer Lee created the Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing), with each retaining their human faults even when acting as superheroes. Spider-Man, a high school student who gained his powers after being being bitten by a radioactive spider, arrived the following year.

``I was an avid reader of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man was the real breakthrough,'' said Joe Butt, an Internet analyst with Forrester Research in Boston. ``The comic business was sort of dying until Stan Lee came along with these superheroes with angst.''

Lee had spent two decades in the comic business, starting in 1939 as an editorial assistant at Timely Comics, before he came up with the Fantastic Four as a response to DC Comics' Justice League of America.

``We had been mainly attracting 6- to 12-year-old boys, so the only way to expand was to go for an older audience,'' he said. ``That's why we decided to make the characters more realistic. It was a fine line between keeping the characters intelligent enough for an older audience and accessible enough for a younger crowd.''

Lee also had a hand in creating classic Marvel characters such as the Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, She-Hulk, Daredevil, Thor and Silver Surfer. He also began appearing in Marvel comics as a recognizable personality, commenting on trends with a catchy ``Nuff said'' signature line.

As Marvel's sales rose, Lee became publisher and started touring the world as an ambassador for the industry.

``Working on comics was never like work to me,'' he said. ``I had grown up during the Depression and my father was always unemployed and it always stayed with me. So my goal was just to have a steady job and a car and an apartment facing the street.''

Lee left New York in the early 1980s for Los Angeles to oversee Marvel's animation studios, which have managed to consistently turn out fairly successful cartoon adaptations. But Marvel's properties have been hampered in attempts to jump to the big screen, although ``Titanic'' director James Cameron remains interested in making a Spider-Man movie.

Additionally, Marvel Entertainment Group became mired in financial problems in recent years as it expanded far beyond comic books; the company finally had to enter into bankruptcy protection so it could sort out its finances.

The company's new management reached a deal with Lee in November allowing him to form his own company while keeping the title of chairman emeritus of Marvel Media and remaining on the editorial board of Marvel Comics.

``I've never been very involved with the business side of things, but Marvel's always treated me well,'' he said. ``But now I'm really able to do my own thing.''

Butt believes Lee may be able to tap into a gold mine of goodwill as a result, particularly if his online project seems fresh and different from the hundreds of comic book sites already on the Web. ``If the site can actually address the creative side of the business, it makes a ton a sense,'' he added.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) ``When I started in comic books, it was an infant art form and we got in on the ground floor. Now the Internet is in its infancy . . . I can't wait to get started.'' (Stan Lee)

(2--Color) Veteran comic book creator Stan Lee will launch a Web site designed for comics fans Tuesday.

Evan Yee/Daily News

(3--Color) Stan Lee made his mark at Marvel Comics in the early 1960s with the creation of flawed superheroes such as Spider-Man, right.