DC trying to court CIBAWAG

[MetoxoTheLavaMan]

Early next year JLA becomes Justice League of Canada

[CIBAWAG]

[DarkKnightJared]

If they're kidding, then they're Jeff Lemire is writing, he's creating a new Canadian character as leader, and it'll apparently feature the return of Adam Strange in the New 52 continuity.

...I'm honestly still not convinced that it isn't a joke

EDIT: Lemire's just tweeted that Mike McKone will be the artist.

I mean, the creative team sounds good, I dig me some Adam Strange. I'll give the book a shot, but...yeah, I didn't see that coming.

[CIBAWAG]

Alright, well... after not knowing what to make of this, I looked into it.


First of all, this is a Fan Expo announcement and a deliberate dig at Marvel, for not delivering on their Alpha Flight promises 2 years ago. They think they can keep a Canadian team book afloat, where Marvel could not? Well, best of luck. We are still less than %10 of the North American market, so they're still going to need to sell this to Americans.

I don't know anything about Adam Strange, but from what I gather he is a ripoff of John Carter of Mars, and the fact that he is now Canadian sounds completely irrelevant. I don't know anything about the JLA other than being an offshoot of the JL. I don't know anything about A.R.G.U.S either, but it sounds akin to the Civil War registration act, and it makes this whole Trinity War thing sound like DC Civil war. For this story, the JLA sound like a group of draft dodgers. Marvel also did that after Civil War, with Omega Flight. None of this is sounding particularly original.

And while I can assure you all, that many Canadians love the idea of American soldiers fleeing to Canada for the feeling of our moral superiority, I for one am a lot more practical about that. For one thing, Canada is currently not a good place to go, if you were planning to escape from fighting a war you don't believe in. Stephen Harper wanted us to fight in Iraq, and got super-butthurt about it, that we didn't. He will most likely extradite you back to America, and then you're really fucked. And if you're one of those people who want to move to Canada, in order to avoid paying for Obamacare, then goddamn, you are dumb.

I've never read anything from Jeff Lemir. I've heard one or two good things about Sweet Tooth. On the JLC, He says “It’s not really like Alpha Flight, as we’re not creating a bunch of very Canadian characters, 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.”

And that's right there folks, is the most archetypal Canadian thing in itself: Not wanting to be a cliché. Let me just check where this guy is from... oh yes Essex County, Ontario, the most southern point in all of Canada, which includes Windsor, across from Detroit... Completely Americanized. Of course the last thing this guy wants to be associated with Canada, is moose, and beavers, and maple syrup, and hockey, and everything that people for better or worse like to compare us to. He is not about that life.

Honestly when you hear about a new Canadian superhero team, what would you rather read about? a bunch of goofballs that resemble a hockey puck, bigfoot, and a maple leaf, or a bunch of American quitters and hipsters who care about their national identity? I prefer the maple leaf, but really it's not up to me, because as I said, this is going to have to appeal to Americans. It's your sales that will keep this thing afloat or not. If you're not reading this for some ridiculous fascination with Canada, then why would you read it?

I remain cautiously pessimistic. I might check out an issue or two, to see what the tone is like.

[DarkKnightJared]

CIBAWAG, if you've never read anything with Adam Strange before, I highly recommend Andy Diggle's brief run on an on-going, which is collected under the trade "Planet Heist." There's also Wednesday Comics, DC's experimental twelve-week project where they released a big newspaper size and quality strip which not only had AMAZING strips based on Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Kamandi, but a GORGEOUS Adam Strange strip by Paul Pope.



Also, ARGUS is more of the New 52 DC's take on SHIELD, with Steve Trevor, the lead WW love interest back in the day, being basically DC's Nick Fury.

Trinity War isn't really so much DC's Civil War--while there was some in-fighting, it's always been from an outside force manipulating things, with all the JL's trying to work together but in their own ways to figure out what the hell is going on.

And Jeff Lemire's a really good writer--his run on Animal Man's amazing, and his run on Justice League Dark has been solid. He's also on Green Arrow right now, and he's basically doing to the character what Geoff Johns did with Green Lantern back in the day--revitalizing and throwing a whole lot of new, interesting shit in there.

[MetoxoTheLavaMan]

Don't hate on Windsor or Detroit cib, there's at least one poster here from that area.

[CIBAWAG]

[Phillies64]

I always wanted to see a DC/Marvel crossover where the DC superheroes travel to the Marvel Universe and are shocked at Canada's military might.

I'm not insulting Canada's actual military. It's just that in the Marvel U we have: Alpha Flight, Department H, Weapon X...etc. Marvel's Canada is probably the (or at least a) top military power house in the world.

[CIBAWAG]

[Phillies64]

[CIBAWAG]

[Phillies64]

[DarkKnightJared]

Also, it should be noted that Lemire has also tweeted since then.

"Justice League Canada will just be the first storyline of something larger that the team will evolve into."

When asked by someone else if he meant a return of Justice League International, he replied, "think bigger than that."

So...Justice League of Canada is temporary, but it is going to lead to something even bigger. Maybe Justice League Unlimited?

[CIBAWAG]

[CIBAWAG]

[DarkKnightJared]

Also, in an interview with CBR, Lemire said that three of the current JLA team will be on the roster, as well as Adam Strange and a new Canadian character, but the other characters will be a mix of other revamped heroes like Strange and current DCU guys. He also said that the book will become much more cosmic in scale, with the rural Canadian setting making contrast.

[MetoxoTheLavaMan]

Canadian politics are boring? Tell that to rob ford

[CIBAWAG]

[Phillies64]

[CIBAWAG]