DC Comics To Debut New Superhero Inspired By Teenage Cree Activist for Justice League Canada

Toronto cartoonist Jeff Lemire was captivated by the story of Shannen Koostachin, a Cree teenager from Attawapiskat who in 2008 rallied her fellow classmates to Parliament Hill to protest for a proper school in her community instead of the temporary buildings the students had long been using. As Lemire told the CBC News about the character, “There would be the cultural strengths. The family ties, the knowledge of the land, the rich, rich symbolism of the Cree on James Bay.”

The idea for a Cree superhero came about in part as a result of Lemire's childhood interest in the culture from his visits to Northern Ontario as a kid and seeing the First Nations people. But according to Lemire, this will not be a comic with a limited audience. “This is not just a story that will be told in Canada, these comic books go all over, they go all over the world." 

Sadly, Koostachin was killed in a car accident in 2010 just before her birthday. But her legacy will live on through the comic, which will debut in the spring, and in the school that is set to open next September bearing her name.