Great Lakes Initiative

From HallsWiki

The Great Lakes Avengers were a group of also-rans who were introduced in the series West Coast Avengers in the 1980s. Encouraged by Hawkeye and Mockingbird, they formed their own team of Avengers. The team faded into obscurity until Dan Slott brought them back into the limelight in the miniseries G.L.A. in 2005. This miniseries won a McCrea Award for Best Miniseries, while two of the characters in it, Grasshopper and Monkey Joe also won their own McCreas. The team was served with papers at the end of the miniseries from the Tony Stark estate ordering them to quit using the name Avengers, and so they changed their name to Great Lakes X-Men upon discovering all members were mutants.

They then showed up in the one-shot G.L.X-Mas Special in 2005, and later again in the final issue of Dan Slott's Thing series, whereupon the X-Men made them quit using the name. After an attempt to name themselves the Great Lakes Defenders (which was stopped by Dr. Strange), they settled on being the Great Lakes Champions. After Civil War, they changed their name once again, to Great Lakes Initiative.