Heroman is a Japanese manga series created by the legendary American comic book writer Stan Lee in collaboration with the acclaimed Japanese animation studio Bones. Serialized in Square Enix's Monthly ShΕnen Gangan magazine from August 2009 to October 2011, the series was a unique cross-cultural project that blended Eastern and Western storytelling sensibilities. The manga was collected into five tankΕbon volumes.
The story follows Joey Jones, an orphaned American boy living with his grandmother in the West Coast city of Center City. Yearning for a way to protect his friends and family, Joey discovers a discarded toy robot called a Heybo. After he repairs it and names it Heroman, a mysterious bolt of lightning strikes the toy, transforming it into a giant, powerful robot. Together, Joey and Heroman face alien threats and other dangers.
Stan Lee conceived the basic plot, describing Heroman as "a new hero for the 21st century." The manga served as the foundational text for a simultaneous multimedia project, with the anime adaptation airing shortly after the manga began publication. The series is notable for its classic superhero origin story structure, a hallmark of Lee's work at Marvel, filtered through the visual and narrative style of modern anime.
