Excelsior! Stan Lee’s 2001 “Stripperella” Superhero Series Returns

After Marvel, the Comic Book Legend Introduced a Super-Duper Sex Worker

Stan Lee. Anyone who has ever read a Marvel comic book or seen one of the many Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies knows his name. With the help of Jack Kirby, he became a creative god, introducing the comic world to enduring superhero characters including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Hulk, and Thor. After leaving Marvel in 2001, Lee and two other men established POW! Entertainment. By 2003, Lee, as creative head of the new production company’s Entertainment branch, was ready to release an animated series with Pamela Anderson voicing the main character: Stripperella.

Intended by Lee to be a lighthearted animated prime-time comedic satire with a salacious twist, the plan was to use motion capture technology to replicate Anderson’s attributes. Unsurprisingly, Stripperella was controversial. Not just because its star delighted in displaying her body while wearing a minimum of clothing but also because exotic dancer Janet Clover promptly sued Lee, Viacom, and Anderson, claiming to be the true creator of the character.

According to Clover, she used the names “Stripperella” and “Jazz” while performing the bump and grind professionally. Further, she contended that Lee found out about her superhero idea while she chatted him up during a private dance. She, not Lee, deserved credit and financial gain from the only 13-episode Stripperella series.

The series was initially broadcast by Paramount’s TNN and then its hyper-masculine replacement, SpikeTV. The primarily male audience watched as the enviably busty stripper and secret agent got the bad guys. She used her superpowers, which included super strength, super reflexes, super agility, super intelligence, super lungs, and the ability to store things in her cleavage as well as use it to detect lies. She could also make her breasts as big or as small as the situation required. When she fell from a great height she could use her amazingly thick hair as a parachute.

Like many dancers, Stripperella had a brother. His name was Chipperella because of course it was. Jon Cryer voiced the handsome sibling, who just happened to also be a stripper whose secret identity was that of a secret agent superhero. Together, the two set upon such adventures as the time Stripperella removed a bomb and took it to an abandoned mine packed with orphaned children and puppies, where she defused it. Every other possible disposal site was plagued by distractingly hot men unrelated to her mission.

Alas, Stripperella was not explicit enough for her male fans despite its TV-MA rating. Likewise, there wasn’t enough superhero action to keep that genre’s fans happy. Regardless of voice talent from Anderson, Mark Hamill, and even Kid Rock combined with Lee’s famed imagination, the series was ahead of its time and has been largely forgotten.

Thanks to the wonders of social media, a new generation of devoted fans are meeting the stripper known as Erotica Jones. Or should I say, Stripperella, the superhero secret agent? Teaser clips have appeared on X accounts and the full season of Stripperella is available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video. The first episode is free.