DC have announced that their best-selling team book Justice League of America will be relocated north of the border and renamed as Justice League of Canada in Spring 2014. The new series will be scripted by Canadian writer/artist Jeff Lemire, one of DC's top writing talents who has worked on numerous titles in the New 52. Lemire is tight lipped about the series details but says that the current DC Event, Trinity War, and the forthcoming series, Forever Evil, will dictate the direction of the title.
"As a result of that, without spoiling any of that story, there will be major changes in the Justice Leagues, and in the spring, the current Justice League of America team goes through a dramatic change and some of the pieces that are left behind will evolve into this new Justice League Canada team."
The classic JLA has featured Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but the current line-up is made up of Hawkman, Katana, Vibe, Star Girl, Green Arrow, J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter, Simon Baz/Green Lantern, and Catwoman. Lemire has also said that Adam Strange will be introduced into the New 52 via this series as a team member and that he's also working on a new Canadian superhero to join the new JLC.
"I'm 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."
The series will take place in the parts of Canada Lemire knows well like Northern Ontario and Toronto and as for a headquarters, he jokes that he did consider a hockey rink briefly before dismissing it. Fans of Lemire's early work will recall Northern Ontario as the setting for his superb Essex County Trilogy.
"This is like my ultimate dream job," said Lemire. "It sounds like a joke and something like this would never happen, but it is actually happening, and I couldn't be happier."
Justice League of Canada is expected to be published in Spring 2014. Lemire is currently writing Green Arrow for DC and has recently launched a new series that he both writes and draws called Trillium with Vertigo, DC's non-superhero comics division.