Face front, true believers: Stan Lee’s The Excelsiors, one of the visionary Marvel creator’s largest initial superhero ensembles, is being developed as a graphic novel with plans for TV and film adaptations from Kartoon Studios. The studio, which is the controlling partner of Stan Lee Universe, also announced Monday that Batman franchise executive producer Michael Uslan — who collaborated with Lee on the DC Comics series Just Imagine… — is co-developing and will produce the projects.
The Excelsiors, about a team of 10 original superheroes inspired by Lee’s signature “Excelsior” catchphrase, will launch as a graphic novel through online book streaming platform Legible Comics, with concurrent development for television and film adaptations.
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Kartoon announced its partnership with Legible in 2023 when the company formed Stan Lee Comics, a line of digital and print comic books based on never-before-released stories and characters created by Lee, who died at age 95 in 2018.
“Stan was incredibly proud of The Excelsiors, and he was proud to have his eponymous ‘namesake’ signature, developed by his friend and collaborator, Michael Uslan,” said Andy Heyward, Kartoon Studios CEO. “Stan took all his storytelling and character development skills, which he developed over the years at Marvel Comics, and incorporated them into The Excelsiors.”
Added Uslan, “Stan always told me that the most exciting superheroes could only meet their potential if matched by equally worthy and interesting supervillains. We expect to do Stan justice by not only having extraordinary superheroes but extraordinarily interesting supervillains. This was Stan’s baby, and I fully understand the gravity of overseeing this team to carry forth his vision. My son David, who also worked closely with Stan and myself, will help create this universe. Our north star is to write these books like Stan is looking over our shoulders.”
The Excelsiors features a team of ten original superheroes working for Amaz-Ing Tech LLC, a giant multi-national corporation in the near future, where global corporations, not governments, rule the world. They range from X-Otic, a doctor who extracted super powers from roots and plants she cultivated as a naturalist, to X-T: The only member of The Excelsiors, who is an actual extraterrestrial. (He is the great-grandson of the aliens who crash-landed near Roswell’s Area 57 in the 1960’s. He is an alien by birth, raised in utter secrecy by America’s scientists and psychologists who have tried to bring a human element to his nurturing and upbringing.)
Among the others are X-Change, a shapeshifter, X-Hale, X-Tricate, X-Isle, and X-Ecutioner, an almost uncontrollable force of human nature gone amok, controlling wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, only unleashed in last resort emergencies, and otherwise, kept in a titanium self-containment unit.
Lee co-created many of Marvel’s most famous characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the superhero teams the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men. Kartoon Studios’ portfolio includes original animated content like the Arnold Schwarzenegger-voiced Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten on Kartoon Channel!, the Shaq’s Garage animated series starring Shaquille O’Neal, Rainbow Rangers, and the Netflix original animated series Llama Llama, featuring the voice of Jennifer Garner.
