Sandman is your new DC Canuck

This past Canada Day, Earth-2 writer James Robinson mentioned on Twitter that issue five of the series would introduce a Canadian character.  And on Saturday, at the San Diego Comic Con, the character in question was revealed.

We’ll also meet Wesley Dodds, the Sandman, a Canadian superhero who works with the World Army. The Army is led by new character Amir Khan, who Robinson describes as “Captain Nemo meets Nick Fury.”

Cool character, but I admit to being somewhat disappointed.  I was hoping for someone new.  Not necessarily someone that is constantly draped in the flag, but a character that is at least identifiable as Canadian.

The sense I get from this is that Dodds will be made Canadian out of convenience.  Non-Americans were needed for something called the World Army, so this character will suddenly be Canadian.  I see another Booster Gold situation where we're told that he's Canadian, as a member of Justice League International, but nothing ever happens in-story to confirm or display it.

We'll see how Sandman is introduced and used in the story.  The solicitation for issue #5 makes no mention of him so his presence might be a little light, at least at first.  And there should still be an element of newness to the character, since this is a re-imagined Earth-2.  For all we know, he'll have an entirely new look and back story.  He's arguably as close to a blank slate as you can get without actually being one, and most of the updated versions have been quite good to this point, so I'm still excited to see what Robinson comes up with.