Geoff Johns' worst book or idea

[caj]

This wasn't his idea. It was just supposed to be just a Flash story, editorial high jacked it and turned it into a story that altered the universe. Seriously people, if you're going to criticize Johns ideas, can it be the ones that were actually his?

Not in any way trying to be disrespectful, but I'm not sure how much Johns was or wasn't involved with what went on with Flashpoint. Johns was pretty much rebuilding the DC Universe at that point. He was involved with almost every major event that had been happening in DC for several years. While he may not have come up with every single idea, he was definitely heavily involved with the direction everything was going at that point.

[Batknight]

Not in any way trying to be disrespectful, but I'm not sure how much Johns was or wasn't involved with what went on with Flashpoint. Johns was pretty much rebuilding the DC Universe at that point. He was involved with almost every major event that had been happening in DC for several years. While he may not have come up with every single idea, he was definitely heavily involved with the direction everything was going at that point.

I think it's been made pretty clear the reorganizing of the universe with the New 52 was mainly a product of Didio and Lee. Their influence is very clearly there much more so then Johns. We know when Johns was originally planning the story there was no intention of making it a story that would change things as distractedly as it did. That came as a mandate from higher up.

[Restingvoice]

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

[BohemiaDrinker]

Flash: Rebirth.

I mean, his whole Barry run on the previous continuity varied from "mediocre" to "terrible", but Flash: Rebirth was just a radioactive pile of crap from it's inception, that killed pretty much every interesting thing about the franchise in exchange of, well, crap.

Not one single idea introduced in that book should ever be mentioned again ever, anywhere, for all eternity,

[Hawkman]

Brightest Day for me, mainly because I hated the way he "concluded" (e.g., left hanging) the story of the Hawks. I know Tomasi is co-credited, but the Hawks' story in particular smacks of Johns's oversight, if nothing else. Felt like a huge regression to me, and another example of Johns never wanting to let those characters ever be happy again. I was actually relieved when Flashpoint came along and rendered the whole thing moot.

[NexusTenebrare]

The Rebirth one-shot that set off the whole Rebirth thing and its attack on the New52 continuity.
The BS idea presented there in that the New52 was devoid of love and legacy, etc.
I really like most of Johns' work, but I'll never forgive him for that one.

[Sacred Knight]

Pretty much all his ideas for Superman as a character are bad.

[ducklord]

Disclaimer: I like almost all of Johns' ideas. Assuming Doomsday Clock doesn't get editorially poleaxed (like Infinite Crisis), it's going to be a stunning achievement.

But Barry's Retroactively Dead And Unsaveable Mom was his worst big idea, in my opinion. One could, if you were an internet fanboy blowhard like myself, make the argument that this single plot thread has directly led to the continuity-bleakness fustercluck that IS today's DCU.

[astro@work]

I'm a pretty big fan of most of Johns stuff.

The biggest lame duck story IMO was the year-long Magog/Kingdom Come arc in JSA volume 2. Mostly I remember it as year's worth of issues where the big giant traipsed across Africa doing not much. It was 12 issues that felt like 342.

[Thor-Ul]

I like a lot of Johns stories, but Ihave to join the people who dislike Flash: Rebirth. It was a copy of GL:Rebirth, in absolutely everything, from the heroes in pursuing of the titular hero to the archenemy suppousely dead as the secret conspirator, it lacked of any creative element. And didn't connect, because was worked for GL didn't worked for Flash.

About Flashpoint, I liked, but the New52 reboot it was felt forced, as a last time added change.
Superman: Secret originwas a disgust for me. It stinked to nostalgia.

[BatmanJones]

Disclaimer: I like almost all of Johns' ideas. Assuming Doomsday Clock doesn't get editorially poleaxed (like Infinite Crisis), it's going to be a stunning achievement.

But Barry's Retroactively Dead And Unsaveable Mom was his worst big idea, in my opinion. One could, if you were an internet fanboy blowhard like myself, make the argument that this single plot thread has directly led to the continuity-bleakness fustercluck that IS today's DCU.

I agree with this post. I generally love everything from Johns apart from Barry's mother being killed as part of his origin.

[BatmanJones]

I'm a pretty big fan of most of Johns stuff.

The biggest lame duck story IMO was the year-long Magog/Kingdom Come arc in JSA volume 2. Mostly I remember it as year's worth of issues where the big giant traipsed across Africa doing not much. It was 12 issues that felt like 342.

Forgot this one. Pretty lame, I agree. I absolutely loved Power Girl being sent 'home' but was disappointed in the resolution of that part too. Was still great to see Richard and Helena after so many years.

[DevilBat66]

He's one of my favorite writers at DC but.....

Bringing back Hal Jordan and thereby sidelining Kyle Rayner is second only to the ridiculous emotional spectrum Care Bear Corps garbage as his greatest sin to me.

I loved Hal Jordan growing up but, I was well over his crappy death and had become a huge Kyle Rayner fan then, BLAM! Here's frickin' boring old Hal back and here's a bunch of gobbldey-gook emo-ring stuff.
Ugh. Can anyone tell me what the Hel emotion "will" is to this day? Seriously.

Screwing over Wally for Barry sucked too.

[ducklord]

He's one of my favorite writers at DC but.....

Bringing back Hal Jordan and thereby sidelining Kyle Rayner is second only to the ridiculous emotional spectrum Care Bear Corps garbage as his greatest sin to me.

I loved Hal Jordan growing up but, I was well over his crappy death and had become a huge Kyle Rayner fan then, BLAM! Here's frickin' boring old Hal back and here's a bunch of gobbldey-gook emo-ring stuff.
Ugh. Can anyone tell me what the Hel emotion "will" is to this day? Seriously.

Screwing over Wally for Barry sucked too.

Full disclosure: I'm a former member of HEAT, so I'm a self-identified fan with major entitlement issues

I can understand the annoyance of a Kyle Rayner fan feeling that Hal just stepped back in and tromped all over a character that had (eventually, tortuously) established himself as a pretty sweet character in the DCU.

But I think the additions of the Yellow Lanterns Corps and (to a lesser degree) the other Corps were darned brilliant expansions. And yes, they often didn't make a lick of sense (Emotions first started on Earth? Will is in emotion? Why is empathy so gol-durn weird? Why are there no males in the violet corps? etc.), but there was a whole lot of absolute comic book coolness for those first few years after GL: Rebirth.

I think the difference between GL: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth is that the former felt like an inevitable make-good on a bad idea (Hal going nuts for no good reason and destroying the Corps), while the latter felt a lot like a present that no one asked for ("Barry's back? Um, gee, I guess that's okay. But he had a pretty good death, and his protege is doing a good job carrying on his name... what's that, you promise Wally won't get get shafted by this? Okay, based on how you've handled the GL franchise we're gonna trust you on this one, just please don't screw it up...")

In hindsight, it's hard not to argue that Kyle eventually got pushed into a ditch by the return of Hal (although I'd argue that Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz represented the final nails in his emerald coffin). But at least in the vastness of the GL mythology there's theoretically room for Kyle to shine.

[EsotericFailures]

Kyle Rayner has been treated far better since Hal's return than most legacy characters do in. Compare him to Wally, Ryan Choi, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain and his treatment was/is pretty good. He doesn't have a series now but since Hal's return he usually had a book going via Ion, Green Lantern Corps, New Guardians, Omega Men etc. When they wanted a Lantern to kill they chose John over him.

The introduction of Simon and Jessica does make him irrelevant to the wider DC universe though. Like Tim Drake he's just there now, all the things his character was known for in the 90s have now been stripped away from him.