Take Pittsburgh’s Guardian, the Penguin. “The gritty younger savior of Metal Metropolis,” reads the copy connected to his image. “Can venture ice missiles from his fingers and travels on a frozen ice sheet.” Clearly, these are the identical powers as Iceman from the X-Males. However to prime it off, the Penguin wears a visor throughout his eyes, similar to fellow X-Males Cyclops. Put collectively, the Penguin looks like Frozone from The Incredibles, however as a white man in yellow and black.
Or perhaps you’d desire Montreal’s hero the Canadian, a man in a blue and purple energy go well with who shoots blasters from his fingers, similar to Iron Man. How about the Arizona Coyote, aka Wolverine in a trench coat, or the Panther, who imagines what it will be like if Black Panther got here not from the futuristic utopia Wakanda, however from Florida? At the least the Edmonton Oiler, with blocky costume and goo gun, had the decency to tear off a superb character, Paste-Pot Pete.
Sometimes, an unwieldily mascot compelled Lee to take some artistic leaps. Certain, the Columbus Blue Jacket appears to be like like a B-tier Go-Bot, however not usually do you see a revived Civil Warfare soldier with cannons in his robotic legs. Lee didn’t simply steal Falcon’s pet fowl for the Detroit Pink Wing, however embraced the staff’s Motor Metropolis roots by sticking awkward wheels and pedals on what in any other case appears to be like like Mach-1 of the Thunderbolts. And the St. Louis Blue could also be form of a rip-off of forgotten Ultraverse hero Night time Man (jazz musician by evening, superhero by later at evening), however he appears to be like form of cool.
Finally, the boring designs and generic energy units recall to mind not legends within the making, however the drawings of some random child who simply watched Hockey Night time in Canada. Which they’re, canonically-speaking.
Unguarded Hockey
In response to the shared universe lore revealed within the graphic novel The Guardian Challenge Particular Version, the Guardians truly got here from the thoughts of Mike Mason, a nondescript teenager who sketched out a collection of superheroes in his pocket book. One way or the other, the photographs got here to life, giving 30 North American cities their very own superheroes… at the very least till the Thrasher leaves Atlanta to change into the Jet and the Coyote decides Salt Lake Metropolis is good and renames himself the Mammoth.
The Guardian Challenge Particular Version boasts some supplemental paintings by the legendary Neal Adams and scripts by Chuck Dixon, then nonetheless nearer to his unbelievable work on Batman and Birds of Prey and never the right-wing nonsense he does lately. It accommodates six-page origin tales for every of the heroes, all illustrated effectively and handsomely put collectively, however lethal boring.
