Legal | Stan Lee's Guardian Project, introduced last year at New York Comic Con, has sparked a lawsuit from a Hollywood manager who claims he was cut out of the venture, which transformed National Hockey League mascots into superheroes.

In the lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Adam Asherson contends the project, now co-owned by NBC Universal, dates back to 2003, when he was introduced to the idea by fellow manager Anthony Chargin and Chargin's client Jake Shapiro. Asherson, who had a relationship with Lee, says he suggested the legendary comics writer would be the "perfect" partner for the endeavor. They pitched Lee on the project, called Defenders, which focused on the National Football League, with plans to expand to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the NHL. For unspecified reasons, the NFL deal never came together. However, six years later The Guardian Project emerged with the involvement of Chargin, Shapiro and Lee -- but without Asherson.

Asherson claims Guardian Media Entertainment, SLG Entertainment, Chargin and Shapiro have breach an oral joint-venture agreement, committed promissory estoppel and fraud, and breach fiduciary duties by leaving him out of the NHL agreement. [Hollywood, Esq.]

Publishing | Time Warner is planning to launch an evaluation of its "office footprint in the New York metropolitan area and develop a long-range plan to meet our future needs," an undertaking that leads Glenn Hauman to wonder whether DC Entertainment's publishing division could end up following the rest of the company to the swanky new headquarters in Burbank, Calif. [Deadline, ComicMix]

Creators | Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks at length with Kevin O'Neill about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969, Marshall Law and much more. [The Forbidden Planet International Blog]

Creators | Kate Beaton continues her whirlwind media tour for the Hark! A Vagrant! collection with a stop at National Public Radio. [NPR]

Comics | Ethan Kaye looks at "10 Bizarre DC/Marvel Parallels," from the Doom Patrol and the X-Men to Winter Soldier and Red Hood to Millennium and Secret Invasion. [Topless Robot]