We've learned that Showtime is developing a new hour-long project hat follows the adventures of a gay super-hero. Based on the book Hero by Perry Moore, the proposed new series was announced during a gay comic panel at last summer's San Diego Comic Con International and it became official this week.

  Hero will be executive produced by Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee and his Pow! Entertainment company.  Lee's Marvel Comics heroes have been adapted for the screen ad he also produced and starred in the Sci-Fi Channel's reality-series Who Wants To Be A Super-Hero? (which incidentally featured a gay super-hero among the contestants). Author Perry Moore will also write the script and serve as executive producer along with Hunter Hill and Lee. 

 Hero is about Thom Creed, a young athlete who is coming to grips with developing super-powers and his sexual identity. The son of a disgraced former super-hero time, Thom tries out for a famous super-hero group and struggles to make the grade while struggling with his own secrets. Against the backdrop of super-heroic action, the story is also a personal one about love, self-acceptance and the other trials of life.

 Below is a link to the book plus another link to Watchmen, the graphic novel which revolutionized the genre in 1985 and remains one of the best ever written. We couldn't recommend it more. As you probably know it's been adapted for the screen and will be released next year. Alongside the graphic novel is a newly released companion book which gives lots of background and art on this milestone book.