The Evolution of Geoff Johns
It was the late ‘90s and I was interviewing folks for www.richmondcomix.com (my first “gig” as a journalist/interviewer, it paid nothing but a few free comics, high long distance bills and cutting my teeth and getting my feet wet in the comics industry), I got a hold of Geoff to talk about his new book, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.. Back then, he was an assistant for director Richard Donner, and would come home after a long day at work to write Stars. I got in touch with him a few times after, for pieces for Comics Buyer’s Guide on Hawkman, JSA, and at some point, I remember chatting with him about his new run on The Flash.
Now, here’s where I come clean: while I really liked Geoff personally (as personally as you can get in interviewing someone), his earlier work was kind of lukewarm to me. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. was great in the character department, but I felt that his pacing lacked a bit. Then, when he teamed up on JSA with David Goyer, it’s apparent that he learned some tricks from his co-writer because, pretty soon, Geoff became a much better writer, with a great sense of pacing tied in with strong character moments.
And then, Green Lantern happened.
And Geoff went up there (in my eyes) with Mark Waid and James Robinson. A couple of months ago, I sat down and read through the entire run of Geoff’s Green Lantern. At the risk of fanboying out, he’s not only made GL an important character (with the type of terrifying threats that justify the need for a Green Lantern Corps), but he’s also made me actually give a damn about Hal Jordan. You have to realize that, back in the dark days of the ‘90s, Hal was always a character we were told was important and that we should like, but were never given a reason to like. His glory days were behind him by about a decade. Geoff has brought Hal down a few notches (thanks to his time as the villainous Parallax, cleverly written off as the virus-like yellow impurity of the GL rings), so that he’s forced to build himself back up. Hal is an important character because he’s earned his importance once more.
Then, Geoff hopped on Action Comics, and has restored Superman to an accessible and iconic level, distilling him down to the best facets of the character from the past seventy years. I have one more Action hardcover to get, and then my collection of his run will (for the moment) be complete.
His Flash: Rebirth, bringing Barry Allen back into the fold, hasn’t impressed me as much, however. While it’s a really well done comic, Barry seems a bit too self-absorbed and out of character for me. But, I’m sure that Geoff and artist Ethan van Sciver are going somewhere with it, and that it’ll all make sense in the end.
But, back to sitting there, and getting Geoff to sign a copy of Flash for my pal, Patrick, and walking out of Hanley’s on a rainy evening, I felt like I’d gotten my ass kicked through no one’s fault but my own. Johns has gotten an amount of really lucky breaks, sure, but he’s worked his ass off in the past decade at DC. I look at how far he’s come in that decade, and realize that there’s no excuse for my not having gotten my shit together and really pushed to write comics again. Sure, I’ve done loads of history and journalism projects (from The Blue Beetle: His Many Lives from 1939 to Today to www.nycgraphicnovelists.com) to show for, but I haven’t really put myself out as a writer in a few years.
So, thanks to my own guilt and self-criticism, I’m finally going to make the leap this year.
Read more!




