If you have a soft spot for ridiculous comic book concepts, you may remember the NHL’s failed superhero tie-in from a few years ago. (If not, never fear, the full set of team-themed heroes is still available here and includes such glorious taglines as “underworld maverick of the Garden State” for the New Jersey Devil and “rebel with a trust fund” for the Anaheim Duck.)
Though the collaboration with Stan Lee was quickly deemed a flop, it’s still taking losses in court. This week, a judge awarded $500,000 to Filmula Entertainment on the grounds that the group had been lied to in order to convince them to invest in the project after it was already failing. The lawsuit was filed last year against producer Aldo LaPietra, who reportedly persuaded Filmula representatives to back the project in 2012 by falsely telling them that millions of dollars of investments were behind an NBC Universal animated film involving the NHL superheroes. However, by that point—a year after the characters had debuted—the outside company set up to market the superheroes had stopped operating and shut down.
The project may be dead, but the idea of the Columbus Blue Jacket as a “serious minded union soldier” will live forever in our hearts.
[Variety]