The Guardian Project is a fictional superhero squad created by

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

for Guardian Media Entertainment, in conjunction with the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. Each NHL Franchise is represented by one of the 30 heroes, titled "Guardians". They are all named in accordance with the name of the team (e.g. The Flame for the

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...

Plot

Mike Mason is a 15-year-old hockey fan, who sketched 30 different characters for the NHL teams, designing their powers and personalities, giving them alter-egos and writing about grand adventures they would embark on. Once the evil Devin Dark and his military machines attack Earth, Mason's characters come to life as the Guardians.

Marketing

The Guardian characters were revealed sequentially according to a bracket pairing Guardians and encouraging fans to vote via

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

on which character they would like to see first. The superheroes were revealed every day from January 1, 2011, until January 30, in time for the

2011 NHL All-Star Game The 2011 National Hockey League All-Star Game (also known as the ''2011 National Hockey League All-Star Game presented by Discover'') was played on January 30, 2011. The game took place at the RBC Center in Raleigh, home of the Carolina Hurrica ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

. By June,

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

had signed a multimillion-dollar deal with GME, hoping to exploit the Guardian franchise in various media. But by December 2011, the project had failed to develop momentumStan Lee’s NHL Guardian Project failure cost tech firm millions - Yahoo! Sports
/ref> and was dropped without further fanfare.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Guardian Project Characters created by Stan Lee National Hockey League