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DC Comics launches Justice League of Canada

Superman and Batman could soon be swooping to Toronto’s rescue — with the help of a Canadian counterpart.

DC Comics announced today that the Justice League of America series will soon be bringing its team of superheroes across the border. The Justice League of Canada, a new comic to be released in the spring of 2014, will be written by Jeff Lemire, an award-winning Toronto cartoonist best known for his Essex County Trilogy. The comic will include a number of  DC Comics’ A-list characters, according to the Toronto Star — the exact superhero roster hasn’t yet been revealed — as well as a new Canadian hero.

While Lemire wouldn’t share any specific details about the new protagonist, he did tell the Star he would be “trying to make a character that reflects a real part of our cultural identity, who could be a real Canadian teenager. That’s what I’m really after with that.”

Lemire says most of the action will take place in Toronto, with the team being based around James Bay and the northern Ontario town of Moosonee. “I do want to create a cool, rural northern Ontario headquarters for Justice League Canada, and I don’t want to spoil it yet. And it’s not a hockey rink, I promise. Although, of course, it did cross my mind.”

In addition to creating new Canadian Justice League members, Lemire has also said that he will be bringing back Adam Strange, a Silver Age DC character, incarnated as a Canadian.

The announcement was made Friday afternoon at Toronto’s Fan Expo, a four-day event dedicated to everything sci-fi, horror, anime, and comic.

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