Pictured here is The Ranger, the latest superhero to be unveiled as part of the Guardian Project, Stan Lee’s line of NHL superheroes that will be batting an evil villain during this weekend’s All-Star Game telecast. (Presumably, The Ranger’s arch nemesis would look something like this.) We’re not sure that “NHL superheroes” is a genre that needed to be invented, but we also recall Brendan Shanahan telling us how adult fans can grow cynical and how hockey purists sometimes turn their noses up at things that kids (or in this case, kids and/or comic-book fans) might love. So perhaps we’re just not the audience for this. In any case, what superpowers does The Ranger possess? Well, he’s a “futuristic crimefighter” and a “skilled machinist” who “controls a variety of destructive weapons.” Also, he never sleeps. And like Rangers fans clinging to memories from the mid-nineties (admit it: It’s true), he’s apparently clinging to a license plate from that same era.
