Butler 13-year-old in national Stan Lee’s Super Kid contest
If he could choose to have any superpower, Gunner Mainhart would choose super speed so he could get to people faster when they are in danger and help them before it’s too late.
Although he doesn’t actually have superpowers, Gunner still helps people in other ways.
The eighth-grade student at Butler Intermediate High School has swept up hair at the Butler Stand Down event, passed out food through Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank distributions and handed out Narcan and care kits for the Butler County Opioid Overdose Coalition.
So, when his mom found out about the contest, she immediately thought of her son.
“I got an email and I thought it looked cool and it asked, ‘How is your kid a superhero?’” said Alyssa Forte, of Butler, Gunner’s mom. “He did a 5k. He helped with the pancake dinner. At the Jeep Fest he hands out Narcan.”
The Stan Lee’s Super Kid competition is a vote-based online contest where one child will transform into their own superhero identity, star in a new Stan Lee Universe comic book and take home $25,000. The winner will also earn four VIP passes to the 2027 L.A. Comic Con, a pop culture convention in Los Angeles.
Forte said Gunner made it through the first few rounds of voting and he was even number one in his group through several of those rounds.
Forte herself is involved in a few organizations that have helped her get her son into community service at a young age. Gunner said he doesn’t even know how old he was when he first started helping his mom at some of these initiatives.
“I'm happy to help and honestly it's normal to me because I've just always done it,” Gunner said.
Gunner said Spider-Man is his favorite superhero because he uses his abilities to help others, not just himself. In his Super Kid profile, Gunner said he tries to mimic Spider-Man by volunteering: helping feed people who need food, making blankets for people who have cancer and helping his mom with her own community services.
He said working with the overdose coalition at the Jeep Invasion was one of his favorite memories of service.
“People overdosing is a serious thing and it's more common than people think,” Gunner said.
While Gunner has some “goofy” items on his wish list that he would buy if he wins the $25,000 grand prize, his main wish for the money would be to give it back to the community he continues to serve. Gunner said he would like to give donations to the organizations he has already helped with, and the ones his mom continues to work with alongside him.
“I would donate some of the money I earned to VOICE, you could call it a company that raises awareness about domestic violence,” Gunner said.
Gunner is in the top five still in the running to be the Stan Lee’s Super Kid. Votes for him can be submitted online at https://thesuperkid.org/2026/gunner-78bf. Voting for this round concludes Thursday, Oct. 22.
