Superman/Wonder Woman: Winner of the 2015 Stan Lee Excelsior Award!

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Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Wed, 07/01/2015 - 15:46

You can love it. You can hate it. But you can't deny it's success or sheer popularity among fans.

The first graphic novel covering Superman/Wonder Woman, sub-titled: Power Couple has received the distinction of being the winner of 2015's Stan Lee Excelsior Award!

The Stan Lee Excelsior Award was established in 2011 to "encourage reading for pleasure amongst children and teenagers". It also was intended to "raise the profile of graphic novels and manga amonst school librarians and teachers". With hopes of the awards bringing awareness to schools for graphic novels that deserve to be included in their libraries, it has brought graphic novels to over 77 schools just one year later.

This year's 3 finalists were (in order of placement):

Superman/Wonder Woman
Ms. Marvel: No Normal
All-New Ghost Rider: Engines of Vengeance

According to the Stan Lee Excelsior Award website, Stan Lee himself has endorsed the award and granted permission for his name to be attached.

Many people have criticized DC for breaking up the traditional Lois and Clark relationship for a more fantasized Superman and Wonder Woman pairing. However the title continues to make money for DC with a legion of devoted fans of the power couple. While it has divided the Superman fandom, one thing is clear...the relationship has been a success and it isn't going anywhere.

Thank you so much for selecting my work as the winner of the Stan Lee Excelsior Award! It's a tremendous honour. One of the beautiful things about making creative work (of any kind), is that it lets the creator make connections with people they might never meet in person. - Charles Soule (writer)

Tony Daniel also commented on Twitter:

So nice to see this! We're very proud of our #SupermanWonderWoman work and its great to get recognition! #StanLee http://t.co/e6fbamTfCl

— Tony S Daniel (@TonyDanielx2) July 1, 2015

This award is not only a testament to the great work done by Soule and Daniel during their year long run on the title, but a reminder of how important the success of this couple was to DC.

Many people assumed it was a gimmick, but it has proved to be much more than that. By placing such a talented creative team on the book that represented the most famous couple in comic books, it shows DC's dedication to the cause.