My thoughts on the NHL Guardian Project.

I must admit, when I heard that the legendary Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame was going to be creating a superhero for all 30 NHL teams, I was pretty excited. I grew up reading comics, I still have rather large Spider-Man collection under my bed collecting dust (and value I hope).

When you attach Stan Lee’s name to something, you automatically expect nothing but the best. You expect amazing. Let’s look at just some of the famous characters he helped create.

Spider-Man, Angel, The Avengers, Beast, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Cyclops, DareDevil, Doctor Doom, Electro, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Jean Grey, The Hulk, Ice Man, Iron Man, King Pin, Kraven, Lizard, Scorpion, Magneto, Mysterio, Doctor Octopus, Punisher, Rhino, Sandman, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Thor, X-Men and Professor X … just to name a few. 

I admit it’s hard to create a unique superhero today, believe me I’ve tried. Just as Hollywood seems to be running out of unique story ideas, the human imagination seems to be running out of new and cool superheros. 

For example, many of the NHL Guardian Project heros jump out as Marvel or DC “knock-offs”.

• The Penguin look exactly like Cyclops in a Penguins uniform. 
• The Hurricane clearly has the powers of Storm. 
• The Blackhawk just screams Iron Man to me. 
• The Sabre is a combo of Hydro Man and Silver Surfer. 
• The Flyer is obviously Angel / Arch Angel.
• The Lightning is a combo of Electro and Silver Surfer. 
• The Shark is possible the coolest idea, with only a hint of DareDevil. 
• The Canuck is also fairly unique, if not a little silly looking. Along with the Shark, he rates highly on the unique chart.  
• The Canadien is odd. He got the powers of Rogue, the Iron Man suit, and lost an arm for some reason. 
• The Oiler is simply Juggernaut with an oil filled super soaker.
• The Devil is cool and looks bad-ass. The actually worked off a local legend, rather than just re-hashing Marvel heros. 
• The giant, shape shifting Eagle known as The Capital also ranks highly on the uniqueness scale. 
• The Red Wing and The Blue Jacket look like some Japanese mech-warrior or Transformer wanna-bes. 
• I suppose it was tough to anything other than the Human Torch ripoff for the Calgary Flame. 
• The Star has not only the powers of Electro, but also the same colours. 
• While the powers may differ, could The Coyote look anymore like Wolverine? The Coyote is even a loner and drifter as well.  
• The Avalanche just screams Mister Freeze, you can’t deny it. 
• The Maple Leaf is some sort of Swamp Thing meets an Ent from Lord of the Rings. I don’t know why the mask is there, he’s a giant tree. 
• The Senator and The King are just so generic it’s boring. 
• The Panther is almost an exact copy of the Black Panther from Marvel. It gets the lowest marks for creativity. 
• I suppose The Ranger was an obvious choice for a Captain America clone. The New York uniforms are very Americana. 
• The Duck isn’t too bad, kind of an underwater Iron Man. Not bad. 
• Finally, is it just me, or is The Wild, The Bruin and The Predator all the same character? One look! 

Furthermore, the art for this project was disappointing. The art is equally as important as good writing. While the character bios were lacking in creativity, great art could have really propped this project up. Instead the art was good, but not great or exceptional. 

I would like to take a moment to compare the art of the NHL Guardian Project with a couple artists who I think are the best in the biz today. 

The NHL Guardian Project



J. Scott Campbell

 
 

Todd McFarlane 
 
 
 

Jim Lee  
 
 

You can see the difference can’t you? That’s the kind of art work I was hoping for and expecting. Todd McFarlane would be a great fit for the project. Born in Calgary is a noted Hockey and Sports fan. The one time co-owner of the Edmonton Oilers also produces the popular line of Hockey figures from McFarlane Toys. I may actually have bought the graphic novel if someone of his calibre was involved.

But I guess at the end of the day, this is all for the little kids - the fans of tomorrow, not fans my age who have grown up with comics and super heros.  

MY TOP 5 NHL GUARDIANS (Based on appearance, creativity and uniqueness).  

1. The Shark
2. The Devil
3. The Canuck
4. The Duck 
5. The Capital 

Summers Would Never Be The Same …

Do you remember the dawn of the Super Soaker water gun? I sure do. It was the summer of 1990, and friends and I had gathered in the Cul-De-Sac for another water fight. We had the usual arsenal of hydro-weapons: the traditional squirt gun, buckets, water balloons and the garden hose.

Our screams and laughter must have attracted some boys from just down the street, and they came running. Their arrival, however, would change the summer water fight in our neighbourhood forever.

They came armed with the latest in H20 pumping technology. The size of the weapon and it’s neon glow struck us with awe. Surely it was from the future, or at least from a really expensive toy store.

I’m speaking of course, about the original Super Soaker 50. It held more water, and utilized manually pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt guns. It immediately made everything else obsolete. Never again would a dollar store water gun be good enough.

As the sun began to set, we all scrambled home to tell our amazing tale to our parents, and beg them to buy us one. I remember I finally convinced my grandmother to buy me one. She didn’t understand it’s significance, but none-the-less took me to several different malls before we found one (they were all sold out).

Some weeks later of course some rich, spoiled kid, traded up for the Super Soaker 100 - and the water fight arms race was born. Kids today just don’t understand the kind of power that they wield. They don’t remember the way it used to be; tiny little streams in short bursts, traveling only a few feet. Remember kids, with great power, comes great responsibility.

The traditional, puny squirt gun.

The Super Soaker 50

The King: The Super Soaker 100