Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

It wasn't too long ago that Jeff Lemire unveiled his teenage heroine Equinox in the DC Comics landscape.

September is DC's "Five Years Later" crossover month set in the near future, though, and that means the girl is now a woman — and a formidable one at that — in the Justice League United: Futures End one-shot, out Wednesday.

It was amazing for Lemire to create Equinox for his JLU series, the writer says, but now he's able to push her forward in the timeline to watch her become a bigger part of the superhero universe.

"The Equinox in the present is still very much figuring out her power, her legacy and her place in the world," Lemire adds. "The Equinox five years later is in full control. She is a confident and powerful woman, and a major player."

Illustrated by Jedd Dougherty, this week's JLU issue acts as the first of a two-part story line that continues in next week's Justice League: Futures End, also penned by Lemire.

Equinox is in her native Canada but fighting the good fight on her own — her superhero squad has been disbanded due to mysterious circumstances, but she receives an urgent psychic message from Martian Manhunter. She ends up seeking help from the current Justice League group to head off into space and deal with a prison planet that's been compromised by its supervillain inmates.

A couple of members of the Legion of Super-Heroes appear, which leads into the upcoming reintroduction of the cosmic team in the pages of Justice League United — an annual at the end of October kicks off "The Infinitus Saga."

The one-shot also seeds the fact that the JLU is no more, and that ties into the regular series' upcoming story lines, as well, according to Lemire. (He did fit in a cameo by Animal Man and his family "that I particularly like," he says.)

Picking the Justice League team for his story was "a real balancing act," the writer admits. He chose characters he really wanted to write like Equinox and Martian Manhunter, kept current big guns Cyborg and the Flash, but also included the enigmatic Stormguard and Aquaman's Others teammate Vostok, whom writer Dan Jurgens was working with in the weekly The New 52: Futures End series.

"It came out as a really eclectic group, which was fun to write and fun for readers," Lemire says.

"It's a lot of fun to take characters I'm invested in in the present and project them forward."

Lemire also inserts a surprise guest star in a cliffhanger ending to the JLU one-shot, a familiar person to DC fans whom he's always liked but one that wasn't being actively used at the moment.

"This was a chance to present them in an unexpected way and hopefully drive some interest back into the character in the present," Lemire says. "It will be fun to see if any writers pick up on what I've done here and run with it in any current DC books."