New Cree Superhero Revealed In Justice League United

Feminist comics bloggers DC Women Kicking Ass have (via a scan from the new Previews magazine) a first look at the new, Cree superhero created by Canadian writer/artist Jeff Lemire for his upcoming series Justice League United. The cover, originally revealed with the character blacked out (presumably to retain the surprise of her actual, physical appearance since her membership on the team had already been announced, along with her heritage and some other details), has been revealed in full in Previews, giving fans their first look at the character--and of course a closer look by zooming and cropping, also via DCWKA. When he decided to develop DC's first First Nations character, Lemire elected to base the character loosely on the late activist Shannen Koostachin. Koostachin, from the Attawapiskat First Nation, led a campaign for safe schools and Aboriginal education and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. She died in a car accident at the age of 15 in 2010.

"I think if I can capture some of that heart and some of that essence in this character, perhaps she'll almost be a guiding spirit in the creation of this character,"Lemire said in an interview with CBC. Lemire says that he has not decided on the new character's superpowers, and will be taking submissions from students. "There would be the cultural strengths," he said. "The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism of the Cree on James Bay." DC have, of course, had Native American heroines before -- both Dawnstar from the Legion of Super-Heroes and Sarah Rainmaker of Gen 13 fit the bill, as DCWKA noted -- but the Cree and other First Nations are more closely associated with Eskimo culture than with what we know as Native Americans in the public imagination. Justice League United #1 will hit the stands on May 14.