Geoff Johns' worst book or idea

[Adekis]

New 52 version of Captain Marvel. Everything about that character is trash.

I'm not a huge fan of him either. Kind of a shame that "Shazam" seems more successful than Captain Marvel has been for a long time. Way to dash my hopes and dreams for a Thunderworld ongoing! But maybe we'll get lucky.

Yeah, as popular as the Emotional Spectrum is/was it's also not something that's universally beloved.

I'm not a huge fan of the Emotional Spectrum, personally. I kind of prefer the Green Ring vs Qwardian Ring dichotomy to this rock-paper-scissors of Lanterns Corps. On the other hand, it also doesn't bother me that much. It's in a lot of legitimately good stories, it's part of the bedrock of Green Lantern the Animated series, and overall, I've just kind of gotten used to it. And besides, one of my favorite DC fan fiction of all time relies on the Emotional Spectrum, so it's responsible for at least one thing in the world I truly love.

I will say though, I'm not a huge fan of the "Parallax is a monster" retcon. That one still occasionally makes me angry. Maybe it's because the first Hal Jordan story I ever fell in love with as a kid was The Final Night, and its resolution relies very heavily on Parallax being a choice Hal made, and more than that, a choice that Hal sees as being morally consistent with his choice to become Green Lantern in the first place! I understand that Emerald Twilight is usually considered to be poorly written, but in Final Night I conceived of Hal Jordan as a complex character who is a hero and a villain both, at the same time. Making Parallax into an external influence on Jordan not only triggers my personal intense disdain for externally imposed alignment changes, it also casts aside my formative take on Hal Jordan as a character.

I don't know if that was actually Johns' idea though. It could well be Didio doing his thing of streamlining characters to make them easier to use in other media through the magic of retcons. I've never gone and read the history of Rebirth's writing process.

[Kurisu]

Rebirth? Doomsday Clock? Sticking Janet up Hank Pym’s butthole? Some many things to choose from. A shorter list for me would be his good ideas, and that would solely be Simon and Jessica. But even then, Humphries did most of the legwork.

Can we add his idea of an Englishman's accent in Doomsday Clock #9 as an honorable mention?

No joke, one of the worst things I’ve ever read, holy smokes. And I read Jawbreakers.

Battle-happy Wonder Woman. I enjoy the New 52 Justice League Vol.1 except for that part. That's so weird.

Ugh. I cringe every time someone posts that “i HaNdLe iT” panel.

[married guy]

I originally loved the emotional spectrum idea.
The problem was it was DONE TO DEATH thereafter.

[caj]

Killing off the Earth 2 Superman. Far and away. There was absolutely no reason to bring him back if they were just going to do that. He got his happy ending and they wouldn't let him keep it. There was just no excuse for that. They should have just left him alone instead of turning him into a villain and literally dragging his corpse around the DCU afterward. I still haven't forgiven Johns for that.

Yours was the first response to the thread and I must say that I completely agree with you that this is my least-favorite Johns idea.

Marv Wolfman and George Perez were so respectful to the Earth 2 Superman and Lois Lane by giving them an eternity in paradise. I still can't figure out why Johns would bring them back, only to kill them off.

As you say, there was just no excuse for this.

[Vampire Savior]

Putting Cyborg on the Justice League and his overall handling of Cyborg is what comes to mind. I don't really think I need to explain this.

After that, I'd say the Emotional Spectrum. Stupid, corny, insanely redundant idea. There is way more interesting stuff to play with in Green Lantern, such as the dawn of time, the Anti-Matter Universe, and the Controllers. Interestingly, while I do believe that, I don't think the incredible potential of any of those concepts has been really effectively tapped, though.

After that, I'd say Justice League: Origin. That was probably one of the worst set of comic books I'd ever seen in my life. The only saving grace is Jim Lee's artwork.

[Cmbmool]

Flash Rebirth and his Barry Allen run on Flash. It destroyed the Flash family right there.

[Dr. Ellingham]

I always thought of Geoff Johns as a hybrid of Marv Wolfman, Len Wein and Mark Waid. All four are more great superhero ideas people, versus brilliant comic writers - such as Moore, Morrison, etc. Johns typically builds stories that evolve concepts, settings and histories with significant respect for the past, even as he's changing it. It's a neat trick. That said:

Worst book - Brightest Day. It made me realize how apathetic I was towards superheroes. I finished reading the first part, and the collection of Flashpoint (which I did like), and haven't read a new DC book since.

Worst idea - Building Flash Rebirth on the template of Green Lantern Rebirth. Not entirely his fault; he wasn't given the task of bringing Barry back and building a great story out of it, or even rebooting the whole concept. Instead, he was given the no-win scenario of making the story about reintegrating Barry into the existing structure and trying to make it a "big" story. And that didn't really work. As with most modern comics, too many super-powered characters, with not enough conflict to warrant their inclusion.

[Kyer]

Flash Rebirth. It kind of killed most of my ardor for all things DC comics.... kind of the beginning of the end. He was not redeemed in my eyes until DC Rebirth. Fat lot of good that did though. *sigh*

[phantom1592]

Yeah, as popular as the Emotional Spectrum is/was it's also not something that's universally beloved.

Even some Hal fans didn't enjoy the Emotional Spectrum, the re-emphasizing of the GL's as space cops, the Guardians going off the rails, or the "shilling" of Sinestro.

Agreed. His GL Rebirth was amazing, and I loved his first year or two of GL... but once everything in the entire universe became exclusively space born-rainbow rings I found it really dull. Turning Sinestro from Space Hitler to a poor misunderstood anti-hero was pretty stupid too. I feel that the GL's went from the undisputed powerhouses of the universe with the most powerful weapons limited only to their imagination... to little more than Adam Strange who can fly and shoot lasers... Lot of good ideas, but a lot of 'other' stuff too... I certainly don't consider it his worst by any margin.

My least favorite thing of his was Flash Rebirth. Considering how much effort went into GL rebirth... and how I've been looking forward to Barry's return for 20 years... I REALLY was excited when he was announced on it. But something about the 'reverse speed force', the dead mother/framed father retcons, and the fact that Barry's actual return wasn't even in that book but a sidenote in Final Crisis. The end result was just... extremely disappointing. Artwork was gorgeous, but the story... ehhh… NOT what I wanted to read.

[caj]

Putting Cyborg on the Justice League and his overall handling of Cyborg is what comes to mind. I don't really think I need to explain this.

I will admit I live too much in the past when it comes to comics, but I hated this too. I didn't like that it seemed to take Cyborg out of the Titans realm. Plus, here was the perfect opportunity to have the seven original members of the JLA together again and they dropped the ball by leaving J'onn out of it.

[Crazy Diamond]

Infinite Crisis may be the worst comic I have ever read from DC. Nothing redeeming about it at all except for the constant laughter I got when a friend loaned me his issues. Countdown to Infinite Crisis sucked as well.

Justice League: Origins was the first comic to put me to sleep. I could not finish it.

I'm afraid to read Stars and STRIPE and JSA again because maybe I'll end up hating those as well.

[The Darknight Detective]

Disclaimer: I like almost all of Johns' ideas.

Same here. In fact, I would say his bad-idea percentage is far lower than the average writer, IMO.

[Hol]

It was actually Geoff and Ethan who had convinced Dan to bring Barry back. I do not have any links to interviews to confirm but I remember the time around the announcement of Barry's return VERY well. I know after the fact Dan published a letter in the back of all DC comics explaining that his plan all along when first arriving at DC was to bring Hal AND Barry back but I do not believe that to be true. a) Because in many interviews at cons he always said Barry is one of the characters that their deaths meant something and Wally is the Flash now and b) Ethan said in interviews at the time that he and Geoff had to convince Dan. He joked that it was funny that Dan was taking credit now. I'm not a huge fan of Ethan but I 100% believe him.

So yeah bringing back Barry Allen, for me, is the worst idea he ever had. Mostly because I knew it would be the downfall of Wally West and the destruction of his character that is so unique in comics. And I was right. And partly because it was executed so poorly. Flash Rebirth is terrible...and to add to it Geoff left 12 issues later. He messed up a good thing and then left.

[Dred]

Ethan said that he's the one who convinced Dan, not Geoff. Geoff still wrote the story, though.

[Hol]

Ethan said that he's the one who convinced Dan, not Geoff. Geoff still wrote the story, though.

It's been 10 years so I do not have any "proof" but I remember Ethan saying it was both of them.