Are Dan Didio and Geoff Johns Trying to Sabotage Each Other?

[Anthony Shaw]

Yeah, Didio and Lee approached Johns directly to do Rebirth. Johns only agreed to do it unless they did it his way. Now, some are convinced that the whole New Age of DC Heroes spinning out of Dark Knights Metal is Didio's brainchild. That it is something he has been pushing for heavily. That may well be the case. There were rumours that Johns was miffed that these new books were taking top talent away from the Rebirth titles. However both lines don't appear to be stepping on each other's toes.

There has only really been two occasions where Johns and Didio disagreed that I know about: The first was regarding Didio wishing to kill Nightwing during Infinite Crisis. The second was upon the launch of The New 52. If you were around during the initial press launch panel, which was fronted by Johns and Lee, Johns appeared were uncomfortable and stand offish. I believe there were rumblings that he opposed it. But he was out-voted by Lee, Didio, Harras and Diane Nelson.

Now, Didio had longed to do a reboot at DC. Originally, he wanted Infinite Crisis to do it. But he was convinced otherwise by Johns and Levitz. Then he wanted to do it with Final Crisis. Again, Levitz put his foot down. 2011 roles around and Levitz was no longer Publisher. At the time, he stated he wanted to return to writing. Although some took this as spin to cover the fact he had been "pushed out." That he stepped down providing he was guaranteed work and was given creative freedom over The LoSH. Johns was gearing up to do Flashpoint. Which was, at that point, a storyline that would have been featured in the recently relaunched Flash book starring Barry Allen. The conclusion of which, would have seen the DC Universe revert to its original state. Without Levitz to block him, Didio finally had an opening to do what he had always wanted.

Johns had plans in place and had already planted seeds for future storylines in the Flash. He was also in the early stages of planning a new Justice League title with Lee. Which would have featured the original founding members coming back together to reestablish the League (which had mostly featured B and C listers in the latter issues of the former series) and would see Cyborg elevated to the team from Teen Titans. He was also going to do a new Aquaman ongoing. Suddenly, Flashpoint was made into its own mini-series and the ending was changed to result in The New 52. which discarded almost all the hard work that had gone into revamping characters post-Blackest Knight.

But saying that, it is clear they may disagree. However I don't think Didio or Johns set out to "one up" the other.

The behind the scenes stuff is more exciting than many of the actual books published.

[Anthony Shaw]

Johns making Doomsday Clock is just going be another long protracted arc that leads to nowhere(see Trinity War, Forever Evil, Darkseid War,etc)
Didio has really been the man behind all the status quo changes guiding DC

If there is infighting its probably over the stuff coming from Johns taking so long and DC being held hostage by his stories

DC should have gotten a JSA title and an LoS title on the stands a year and a half ago. And if they're going to do a Flash team title and maybe also a Charlton team title, the same goes for them. The company has forgone a lot of income by not getting these things rolling.

Of course Doomsday Clock is making big money for DC, but I've been wondering if maybe the sales will start dropping. That would not be a good thing.

Besides lack of development for the protagonists, these big events with not pay-offs have soured me on a lot of Johns' work.

In addition to the lack of JSA & LSH, I'm not sure who is to blame for this.

[Osiris-Rex]

Geoff Johns is involved in pretty much everything though, comic books, TV shows, and movies. I think the only thing Johns doesn't have a say in is animation. And despite the claims
that Johns got demoted, he is still the co-president of DC Films. The only thing that changed is when Jon Berg left, Walter Hamada stepped into that role. I doubt Johns even wanted
to have sole control of the movies, given everything else Johns is involved in.

[Cmbmool]

Yeah, Didio and Lee approached Johns directly to do Rebirth. Johns only agreed to do it unless they did it his way. Now, some are convinced that the whole New Age of DC Heroes spinning out of Dark Knights Metal is Didio's brainchild. That it is something he has been pushing for heavily. That may well be the case. There were rumours that Johns was miffed that these new books were taking top talent away from the Rebirth titles. However both lines don't appear to be stepping on each other's toes.

There has only really been two occasions where Johns and Didio disagreed that I know about: The first was regarding Didio wishing to kill Nightwing during Infinite Crisis. The second was upon the launch of The New 52. If you were around during the initial press launch panel, which was fronted by Johns and Lee, Johns appeared were uncomfortable and stand offish. I believe there were rumblings that he opposed it. But he was out-voted by Lee, Didio, Harras and Diane Nelson.

Now, Didio had longed to do a reboot at DC. Originally, he wanted Infinite Crisis to do it. But he was convinced otherwise by Johns and Levitz. Then he wanted to do it with Final Crisis. Again, Levitz put his foot down. 2011 roles around and Levitz was no longer Publisher. At the time, he stated he wanted to return to writing. Although some took this as spin to cover the fact he had been "pushed out." That he stepped down providing he was guaranteed work and was given creative freedom over The LoSH. Johns was gearing up to do Flashpoint. Which was, at that point, a storyline that would have been featured in the recently relaunched Flash book starring Barry Allen. The conclusion of which, would have seen the DC Universe revert to its original state. Without Levitz to block him, Didio finally had an opening to do what he had always wanted.

Johns had plans in place and had already planted seeds for future storylines in the Flash. He was also in the early stages of planning a new Justice League title with Lee. Which would have featured the original founding members coming back together to reestablish the League (which had mostly featured B and C listers in the latter issues of the former series) and would see Cyborg elevated to the team from Teen Titans. He was also going to do a new Aquaman ongoing. Suddenly, Flashpoint was made into its own mini-series and the ending was changed to result in The New 52. which discarded almost all the hard work that had gone into revamping characters post-Blackest Knight.

But saying that, it is clear they may disagree. However I don't think Didio or Johns set out to "one up" the other.

Now I am curious to know what happen to Didio when the New 52 started to backfire on him and Rebirth was made ?