“J.L., eh?”*
If you were getting the sense that Justice League of America could be a bit more calm and cooperative, then grab your thermal underwear and head up towards the top of the map.
All we know is that today, fittingly, at Toronto’s FanExpo, DC will announce that Jeff Lemire will relaunch Justice League of America as Justice League Canada. Jeff Lemire is, of course, famously Canadian, if such a ridiculous thing were possible.
The group will be based out of a rural, Northern Ontario HQ, and much of the action happen in Toronto, which is still really close to the US, when you look at a map.
Will it be better than Alpha Flight for a proud Canadian?
“It’s not really like Alpha Flight, as we’re not creating a bunch of very Canadian characters,” Lemire says. “Like those characters are all almost clichéd Canadian archetypes. This is still very much set in the regular Justice League universe and the team will still have some of the bigger named superheroes, but they will actually be located in Canada now, and there will be a couple of new members who are Canadian. So obviously as a Canadian, and as a Canadian storyteller, it’s something I’m very proud of.”
We don’t know much more, other than there will be a new Canadian character created, next to some known Leaguers. Look for it in the spring of 2014. Presumably an artist will be announced by then as well.
There you go. I made it through the whole thing without making terrible Canada jokes. That was tough, but I think we’re all better off for it.
*copyright Paul Montgomery 2013
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“Oh, attacking the city, eh? We’ll just grab our things and move oot of your way then. Wouldn’t want to start any trouble then, eh?”
This is nearly impossible but what it he used the kid fro Essex County as one of the Super Heros?
As a Quebeccer, I’m all in for this but only because Jeff Lemire is writing it! 😉
And we don’t say “eh” that much you bunch of ‘Mericans! 😛
You know what’s great about this? Lemire.
He should name the new kid superhero “Poutine-Boy”!
It actually makes sense given what’s going on in JLA now. Looking foward to it
And just when I thought the Affleck thing would be most head-scratching item of the day . . .
I don’t really see the need for another League book (especially seeing as I’m dropping two if not all three of them after Trinity War), but what the hey. If it’s $2.99 with some good characters, I might give it a try on the strength of Lemire. Or not. We’ll see. I’m guessing this will be something launching out of the wake of the Evil Forever (or whatever it’s called) event?
I am curious why not revive a Justice League Europe team. Does North America really need two Leagues? Is this all about Lemire’s pull with editorial?
This replaces JLA
OK, that makes more sense then . . .
Of course, now that I think of it, doesn’t this pretty much confirm that Justice League America only existed for the sake of Trinity War?
Actually it only confirms there were 3 JL teams for the sake of trinity war. And that Lemire has been entrusted (IE ripped off) JLD and put on a real League book.
You probably haven’t seen LOBO’s retcon yet.
Interesting…
Who are the known Canadian Superheroes? I know there has been speculation that Booster Gold is Canadian in the New 52 universe.
If this news leads to a series featuring Booster Gold written by Lemire, then I will be a happy comic book buyer.
I would love to see Booster in a prominent League book again. If we could also resurrect Ted Kord and put them together again, I would be willing to sell a small piece of my soul. 🙂
There’s no crime in Canada.
We have no guns. But crime? I wouldn’t say so… Guy Turcotte killed his two children with a kitchen knife (stabbed them about 60 times) and oh, he got away with a non-criminal responsability (guy was a brilliant surgeon by the way!) and have you heard of Luka Rocco Magnotta? Those two violent crimes happened in recent years.
And worst thing is our criminals are mostly elected and wear suits and ties instead of balaclavas and masks…
I think you should revise your views about Canada being Candyland… 😉
It was a joke.
Chill oot.
Sounds actually great. I like Lamire and if at the end of Forever Evil the Justice League is accepted by the US and Waller there would be no more need for a JLA to counter them. I guess it makes sense.
Thumbs up on that copyrighted material, Paul. Thumbs all the way up.
Are they changing JLA to JLC or is a new book all together?
“All we know is that today, fittingly, at Toronto’s FanExpo, DC will announce that Jeff Lemire will relaunch Justice League of America as Justice League Canada.”
I’ve been trying to guess his new project for a week now. This was not something I saw coming.
my only issue with this is what’s the conflict gonna be? Everyone loves Canada…even giant bad guy monsters from space. =)
This is just getting silly….Essex County, Sweet Tooth, The Underwater Welder….Justice League Canada? Loved his relaunch of Frankenstein but not digging the rest of his DC work….well, except Trillium. Im seeing a pattern here.
Is this a belated April Fools joke?
Hell, if they made a Justice League Detroit book, there should be no reason why Justice League Canada shouldn’t exist.
Which place need s Justice League more… Detroit or Canada?
I’ll give this a shot, but I’m beginning to think team books are not Jeff Lemire’s wheelhouse.
This is a thing?
DC has been revealing a lot details way in advance, lately. Part of that is just how things are nowadays, but spring of 2014? It’s late summer 2013. Forever Evil hasn’t started yet, but they’re already telling us (what I assume is) a big piece of the ending. It makes sense to announce this at Fan Expo Canada; I’m just saying, it’s gonna be a while ’til we get our hands on this book.
That being said, the last two books DC has announced, the other being Harley Quinn, have actually piqued my interest. Hopefully, they find a strong artist for each book, and start to win back some love. I mean, If JLC is allowed to be fun, and not dark and gritty, how great would that be?
I’m pretty ok with this, although I feel this confirms that Lemire is off JLD. Which is sad, but I feel this is an example of how far Lemire has come up in DC. So if this is an achievement for him, I say congrats. I don’t mind the Canada thing, heck, I may even pick this up just because of Lemire and it being in Canada! Hopefully there’s a price drop with the other changes…
He is off JLD he said Wednesday it was his last issue.
I’m really sad about that, in spite of the title I thought Lemire’s JLD was a surpisingly fun title (before Trinity War). Hopefully the last issue was a good one.
Villains Month?
With this and Ben Affleck as Batman I think DC might just be messing with us…
Guys, Superheroes need superior healthcare too.
Haha! It’s true. I guarantee you Waller’s not dishing out good benefits.
Ha! Fucking hilarious. There’s not an insurance company in America that would cover a superhero. 🙂
“Ootsourcing”.
Genius.
“Like those characters are all almost cliched Canadian archetypes.” I have to wonder if one John Byrne might take offense to this statement.
This could be good. I’ll check it out.
I’ve dropped JLA and JLD with their last part of trinity war anyway, ill maybe give this a try but whenever I try a Lemire book I tend to lose interest and I always have to re-read the previous issue before I read the new one. I think Lemire is a great writer but his books just aren’t for me I guess.
Can we get a variant cover featuring Drake for the first issue?
Holy shit. I live in Northern Ontario! If their base is in my hometown i’m sold for life!!!
LOL
Is Catherine O’Hara in it? That I would read.
Damn! Beat me to it with the copyright Paul.
A co worker of mine came by my desk earlier and said “I heard on the radio they are taking the Justice League out of America and putting them into Canada, kind of messed up…all because the the writer is Canadian”.
God the media is already putting an uneducated “DC is anti American” spin on this whole thing.
O Canada!
I wonder who are going to be the Canadian heroes joining them?
It’s both interesting and disturbing the amount of prejudice and hatred being expelled toward Canada and its citizens. The use of stereotypes from both the author of this article and the many comments here and other places is a hefty display of ignorance on their part, and disregards not only Canadian fans and Canada itself but Jeff Lemire’s abilities. I would hope that the readers/ fanboys/ customers of the past were not as intolerant when “Justice League America” became “Justice League International,” nor when “Justice League Europe” was announced. While the recent “JLI” may have fizzled, it is not because of an international group of heroes being portrayed in the DC mainstream universe; the whole Batman Inc. certainly shows that the idea of international heroes is a fun way to look at DC’s fictional world.
I’m a Canadian. I don’t say “eh,” and I don’t know anyone who does. I don’t play hockey nor like it. Where I live is not perpetually underneath snow, and in fact, it’s like 100 degrees Fahrenheit here, as I type this. I’m also a long time comic book reader, collector, fan, and I’m ashamed by the attitudes and ignorance on display here. Comic book fans should be embracing of different concepts and ideas and supportive of their fellow fans, whatever country they are in, and yet here we are witnessing contempt and hatred; it’s sad.
For my part, I will sincerely apologize. Though, speaking for only myself, there is not one iota of hatred or contempt in my heart towards a country I greatly admire. I can say that my intent is more from a place of ill-advised ribbing, much in the same way I’ll gladly be the first to contribute to any gun-toting, obese, entitled and ignorant American stereotype. Canada is great and has often times, deservedly so, been referred to as “America except with all of our ideals applied properly”. I’d also argue it’s the greatest national anthem. So, while some of the above comments may have seemed to be in jest, to actually participate in an activity that hurts someone is always something we can do without. Anyway, I like comics, you like comics, let’s all just raise a glass of our favorite beverage to good times.
@SailorKrypton: Prejudice? Contempt? Hatred? C’mon, man. Lighten up. Most of these comments are innocent jabs. Josh’s are pretty creative if you ask me. Some of the comments may be a bit ignorant, but they’re hardly slurs. Hell, some of the jokes here are pointing out ways in which Canada is superior to the US. If you grew up in Canada, and you can’t shrug off the occasional “eh” joke, that’s not something I feel responsible for.
@SailorKrypton: While you are, of course, perfectly entitled to be offended, as a fellow Canadian I think you may be misinterpreting the article and the comments. Personally, and perhaps I am just naive, I take most of the jokes here as being pretty innocent, and certainly not indicative of contempt or hatred. Usually when Josh or someone else on the site makes a joke about Canada or Canadians it seems to me that they are poking fun at the stereotypes as opposed to seriously criticizing the country or its inhabitants.
As to people being upset about the JLA becoming the JLC I think most people, myself included, aren’t so much upset as a little baffled. A country like Canada which is generally considered to be in the mid range in terms economic, military, and political power and a population of only 33 million seems like an odd place for a team like the JLA to set up in (especially since most of the members are from the US). Other teams like the JLI or JLE have had much larger jurisdictions in terms of population. That being said I am interested to see how it turns out, and if it is really an accurate depiction of Canada or another Alpha Flight.
Finally as a Canadian I tend to observe my fellow countrymen and women mocking the United States on a regular basis, often characterizing them as ignorant gun nuts and hate mongers. Unlike jokes about hockey or saying “eh” I think these stereotypes are actually quiet offensive. Now obviously you didn’t make any of these jokes in your post and I don’t mean to imply that you do elsewhere, but in terms of mocking nationalities I think Canadians give as good as they get.
@SailorKrypton
Why so serious?
@SailorKrypton Bro, we’re just being playful. Sorry if it offended, though.
As an American citizen, I’m fine with all of the awful stereotypes we get placed with. They doesn’t really apply to me personally, but I do see them representing our major demographic.
At least Canadians are type-cast as friendly and intelligent.
@Nightwing97, are you familiar with Comic Book Syndicate? They’re a YouTube talk show focused on comics and filmed in Canada. One of the guys on the show said that Canada has solved Racism. Impressive stuff. Your comment just reminded me of that.
Boy, it’s a good thing you weren’t around when he had the Frappr map on the show.
I make jokes about dumb Americans too. And yes, that dude up there was right. The jokes are more about how dumb stereotypes are than me actually believing them.
Come ON!
In the nineties, I had a proto-blog on which I once poked some fun at Canadians. I got vitriolic hate mail about it for easily ten years. It was on an AOL homepage, and I got more responses to it than anything I ever wrote here. For the people who brought us Lorne Michaels and SCTV, they are shockingly humorless. At the risk of stereotyping.
I’m a Canadian too. Sorry bub, we DO say “eh”. We DO like hockey. We also use Celcius, 100 Farenheit doesn’t mean anything to me? Isn’t that boiling?
We also, generally, don’t take ourselves so seriously.
Interesting….
Not enough for me to want to buy it. But this definitely made JLA—I mean JLC go from a non-read to a trade wait.
I sure hope we get Hockey. Lemire would be crazy not to do it.
Soory to bad-mooth Lemire, but his work other than GA hasn’t been that great lately…
I don’t know why DC is all aboot having 12 JL titles. It’s kinda pointless, eh?
I’m part Canadian, so it’s ok. 😉
Are you not reading “Animal Man”? It’s been pretty awesome lately. And with JLC, JLD, and JL that’s only 3. It’s not like Marvel with a literal dozen Avengers books.
This team will be on the Oh-ffensive more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkOb1fDOOIk add this gjuy to the team hes canadian.
Fuck it, Im on board.
I went to see the DC panel at Fan Expo today. They were pretty tight lipped, but the did say that Adam Strange would be introduced to the New 52 as a resident of Toronto.
Also, the panel hinted that the reason the JL would be headed north had to do with the fallout of Trinity War and the upcoming Forever Evil. Some suggested possibilities were either the U.S. will be so devastated by the outcome of these events that a move to Canada will be warranted, or the relationship the JL has with the U.S. as a result of the events necessitates the change. But,nlike I said, they didn’t want to give much away. By the way, if you have never been to Fan Expo, I highly recommend it. Great people, and great time. This is my third trip across the border for Fan Expo and it just keeps getting bigger and better.