The NHL and the creator of Spider-Man seem like an unlikely duo, but the league and Spider-Man creator Stan Lee announced a new partnership to form Guardian Media Entertainment LLC. Lee will create 30 Guardians, one to represent each NHL team, as a series of superheroes.

Executive Vice President of Marketing for the NHL Brian Jennings said via NHL.com that working with Lee can help reach a new audience, "To be in business with Stan Lee and to be able to bring his latest superheroes to our fans is incredibly exciting to all of us at the NHL," said Jennings. "We are in constant pursuit of new ways to engage our fans and to introduce new fans to hockey, and the business of Guardian Media Entertainment does exactly that."

Motion-capture technology will be used by Vicon House of Moves, who also worked on Ironman 2. A teaser package will be unveiled during the Oct. 8, 2010 panel presentation of The Guardian Project at New York's Comic Con, the entire project will be unveiled Jan. 30, 2011. Watch the NHL.com video

Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter

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