Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns has emerged as the go-to guy for DC Comics to revitalize old characters and concepts, and for good reason. He’s skilled at updating and streamlining the vast legacy of characters that DC has amassed over the decades, scraping off decades of accumulated continuity that clings to them like barnacles. His talents don’t simply extend to old characters – he’s proved himself adept at putting new spins on old characters when necessary and developing new characters based on older ones when the older ones are no longer available. His greatest asset, however, is also widely considered to be his greatest weakness – he’s often criticized for his obsession with legacies and the past.

Johns first demonstrated his fascination with the past on his first comic title, STARS and S.T.R.I.P.E., launched in 1999. This short-lived title updated the character of the Star-Spangled Kid, with a new character assuming the mantle of the first Kid, Sylvester Pemberton. Courtney Whitmore was the stepdaughter of the original Kid’s sidekick, Stripesy (Pat Dugan). The character was also based on Johns’ sister Courtney, who died in 1996.

Johns later was allowed to expand his focus to the entire Justice Society, a WW II-era superteam that had a convoluted history stemming from a number of revivals and eliminations over the years. His abilities at undoing years of tangled continuity and problems helped make JSA a best-selling title for DC and established the remaining original members as “elder statesmen” of the DC Universe. At the same time, he began a five-year run on The Flash, which was characterized by the revitalization of Flash’s Rogues Gallery, and a new emphasis on setting as Johns developed Keystone City into a richer backdrop for the series.

One of Johns’ most notable achievement to date has been the restoration of the character of Hal Jordan, another fan-favorite character that had undergone a number of re-imaginings with limited success. This effort showcased Johns’ meticulous attention to detail and his ability to plausibly develop concepts to both restore Jordan to his former position and redeem his character. Probably his greatest commercial success was Infinite Crisis, a miniseries that set out to undo the events from Crisis on Infinite Earths and restored the “Multiverse,” a number of parallel universes that originally incorporated incompatible comic concepts. 

Obviously Johns’ skill set is extremely valuable to DC Comics, with its more than 60 years of history, and his work is particularly gratifying to long-term comic fans, who yearn to see many of these characters restored after the depradations of decades of marginal writers. However, some critics see Johns as a talented writer who “wastes” his abilities on cleaning up characters and continuity best left behind. Regardless, no one can argue that Johns has made a tremendous impact on comics in a very short amount of time.

Recommended:
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., DC Comics
JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice, DC Comics
Green Lantern: Rebirth, DC Comics
Infinite Crisis, DC Comics