Sudbury boy competes to become Stan Lee comic book character 

If he could have any superpower, Daniel Antonovich would choose the power to create new creatures.

His mother, Maxime Tessier, says her 12-year-old son “would love the power to create new species, giving him the ability to imagine and bring entirely new creatures to life. It would be a superpower limited only by his imagination.”

Antonovich has spent a lot of time considering superheroes, superpowers and the work they do to help humankind. These days, he is hoping to share his vision with comic book lovers from all corners of the world.

Antonovich, who is autistic and non-verbal, is competing in the Stan Lee SuperKid competition (thesuperkid.org). The top prize includes the opportunity to become a comic book character.

It sounds like ideal recognition for the budding author and storyteller.

“Despite having autism and what-not, he is an extremely creative person,” Tessier told The Star. “He loves anything like drawing, especially doing things like creating his own video games or storybooks. With the help of AI, he’ll use that as a tool to input information — about characters he wants to be featured in the story, about how he wants the story to go — and he’ll use AI as a tool to create new stories and then have it read it back to him.”

Tessier said her son is also naturally curious about the world around him.

“He’s super, super interested in animals and things like interesting facts,” she commented, adding her family includes two cats and a golden retriever.

Antonovich does not communicate with words, but he knows how to make a point. He started with a speech device, “but he’s really learned how to make himself understood by using his phone, by spelling out words, doing things like that.”

Despite the fact that he is non-verbal, Tessier said the 12-year-old is no wallflower. In fact, he loves the spotlight.

“Daniel loves the idea of being on stage or a star. He loves the attention,” she laughed. “He’s really willing to try anything; loves his animals, even though he terrorizes them.”

Stan Lee, who passed away in 2018, was a legendary author and creator. He is credited with co-creating a number of iconic characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Panther, the Black Widow, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four.

The Stan Lee Foundation (stanlee.foundation), which was founded after Lee’s death and is based in Beverly Hills, aims to increase literacy amongst children, while putting a spotlight on the narrative arts.

“The foundation promotes literacy and the narrative arts, with a special focus on storytelling in all its forms — from traditional literature to the vibrant worlds of comic books and pop culture,” the website notes. “We believe that stories have the power to inspire, educate and connect us, and we advance those values by supporting other charities and developing programs of our own.”

The foundation is also developing a number of scholarships for young writers. Tessier believes her son would be a great fit.

“Daniel loves storytelling; he loves creating stories or fictitious situations and anything like that, it’s just really aligned with what he enjoys doing,” she said.

A consummate good guy, Tessier says Antonovich loves the superheroes with empathetic hearts and a hearty sense of adventure.

“Daniel’s love of superheroes comes from his excitement for fighting crime, defeating the bad guys and going on amazing adventures,” his profile reads. “He loves the action, the excitement and imagining all the incredible things a superhero can do.”

His favourite superhero is Spider-Man, in part because he is a bit of an arachnophile, his mother says online.

“He loves spiders and all things insect,” she notes on his profile. “He also loves that Spider-Man is unique, funny and proves that being different can be a superpower on its own.”

Antonovich is an only child and his mom admits he has struggled to make friends. She said winning the SuperKid competition would be validating for the young man.

“I think the biggest thing it would mean to Daniel would be knowing that he won something, knowing that he’s been recognized for who and how he is,” she said. “If he knew he won this, he would be ecstatic. I think that would be the most meaningful thing to him.”

If victorious, Tessier said she would make a significant donation to a local charity working with autistic kids.

But she has no expectations. Tessier said her family is “just excited to have him be part of it and have him be recognized. We would really love the support of community members because every little vote counts, you know what I mean?”

She admits it was a difficult diagnosis to receive — there were early days wrought with confusion — but Tessier is smitten with her son.

“I didn’t know what it entailed because every child who has autism is so different from the next, so I didn’t know what to expect. And the world can be a really cruel place,” she said. “So it was a frightening diagnosis to receive, but honestly, he’s awesome. He’s got a great sense of humour, as well.”

Tessier said more than 100 children entered the SuperKid competition. Several rounds of voting has been held already. The pack has been whittled down to 10 competitors in each group. Antonovich is currently sitting in the seventh position in his group, with two days left to vote. There is no indication of where children are located.

Once group winners have been selected, they will move on to quarterfinal, semifinal and final voting rounds. The winner will be announced by Dec. 17.

Voting closes Thursday, and the top five advance into the next round of voting. To vote, go to tinyurl.com/yc787zez. Ballots can be cast for free, once every 24 hours. There is also an option to pay for more votes. Proceeds are returned to the Stan Lee Foundation through a registered charity, and are then used to support programming.

The prizes are sure to make a kid smile. They include four tickets to the LA ComicCon next year (valued at $1,000) and the chance to be featured in a Stan Lee comic book, where their origin story will be revealed (in-kind value of approximately $5,000). There is also a cash prize of $25,000 for the top SuperKid.

“Two kids will have their real-world heroics transformed into superhero identities. One will be voted as our champion, take home $25,000 and star in their own limited-edition comic book. The other will be hand-selected by the Stan Lee Universe team to appear in the comic book alongside the champion,” the contest website states. “A team of elite comic book writers and artists will transform the champion’s real-world strengths into a larger-than-life superhero identity, immortalizing their story in a limited-edition Stan Lee Universe comic book.”