Return of the NHL Guardians. Ugh.

I thought this Stan Lee/NHL Superhero thing was a one-shot for the 2010-2011 All-Star Game.  Turns out I was wrong: NBCUniversal getting into superhero biz.  And unfortunately for everyone involved, it's this superhero biz:

The media giant has entered into a venture with Guardian Media Entertainment, parent of the Guardian Project, a new franchise of superheroes created by Stan Lee and done in partnership with the National Hockey League.

The Guardian Project was unveiled earlier this year during the NHL All-Star game, which was carried by NBCUniversal's Versus cable channel. The characters are named for the 30 hockey teams in the league and will be used as a promotional tool for the sport.

When the Guardians were announced, they were a resounding flop with hockey fans and I really thought they would go the way of the glow puck.  Looks like they're here to stay.  They have a website and everything.

It's important to know your audience.  I can see where the Guardians would appeal to comic aficianados.  I can also see where this project might have sounded good in theory.  But as it turned out there didn't seem to be a lot of overlap between Lee's audience and a bunch of big, loud beefy guys up in the 300's in Staples Center, working on their third $11 beer of the night and screaming at the refs to get off their knees and stop blowing calls.

I blame Gary Bettman.  Of course I pretty much blame Bettman for everything and I'm not alone in that among NHL fans.  Forget superheroes, you know what would save the day for hockey fans?  A commissioner who is actually a hockey guy.  If you're getting booed when you show up to present the Stanley Cup, you're doing it wrong.

Dear Mr. Lee: It's Los Angeles Kings, not West Hollywood Kings.  Please change the lavender to royal purple.  Evil Commish will back us up on this.  Love, Kings fans.