By Rookie, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — I was intrigued when the Guardian Project was announced. I may not have been as excited about the idea as its target audience of preteen boys, but I thought it would be a creative tie-in to All-Star Game festivities. After all, comic book king Stan Lee has been in the superhero business for about as long as there have been NHL All-Star Games.

One Guardian, a superhero created to represent each NHL city, is revealed every day for the first thirty days of January. As such, there have been ten reveals so far, ranked by the number of votes each Guardian received online from fans. So far we’ve been introduced to:

The Penguin, Guardian of Pittsburgh
The King, Guardian of Los Angeles
The Hurricane, Guardian of Carolina, who’ll likely be working overtime during All-Star weekend
The  Blackhawk, Guardian of Chicago
The Sabre, Guardian of Buffalo
The Flyer, Guardian of Philadelphia
The Oiler, Guardian of Edmonton
The Wild, Guardian of Minnesota
The Devil, Guardian of New Jersey
The Lightning, Guardian of Tampa Bay

Their attitudes and abilities will be presented in full during All-Star weekend. Right now, all we have are the teasers and portraits on the Guardian Project website and Facebook application. It may not seem like much, but I don’t need much to pass judgment on a hockey-based superhero.

Anyone familiar with major comic book superheroes (and with all the superhero movies that have been released in the last ten years, who isn’t?) will want to draw parallels between the Guardians and pre-existing comic book heroes. For instance, more than one of the Guardians we’ve seen so far can control weather elements, like Storm from the X-Men. In fact, a few of them have close ties to the climates of the cities they guard.

I know many hockey fans who aren’t impressed with the Guardians thus far but there are a few interesting ones. I really like the regal appearance of The King; so far he’s the Guardian who appears to be most in tune with his team’s brand. The Lightning looks pretty cool as well, eyes glowing, surrounded by the lightning bolts that make up his mohawk. As far as powers go, The Devil shows some promise. He has “infrared vision, flaming breath, and is a master matter manipulator.” I like where this is going, and there’s a chance it may bear some similaries to the folk legend “Jersey Devil” where the team got their name.

Overall, The Flyer seems pretty interesting, with massive wings, and a capacity for telekinesis and mind control. I’m not sure why he has a “granite chin,” but I’ll just take it as an explanation of his pasty white face.

The Canadien will be revealed on January 15th. He’ll probably have a power related to Montreal weather, but he’d be a much better Guardian if he were any good at snow removal.

**Don’t forget to enter the Guardian Project contest presented by All Habs Hockey Magazine.**