Geoff Johns vs. Mark Waid

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Waid ruined the Legion of Superheroes with his misguided and horrible Waidboot. Waid thinks he can speak about young issues and it comes off corny as hell. Johns wins this one for me just becuase he doesn't try and preach at me like an out of touch old man.

I quite enjoyed that run (at least the start of it) but then I'm no huge Legion fan. I always lose interest eventually. But Waid was a very active creator on the previous version and I believe he was an editor on the original post-Crisis run. Dude has had his hand on the Legion well beyond the so called Threeboot Legion.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

And it feels like his upcoming resurgence of writing for DC with the JSA characters feels like him doing a "Nyah, take THAT, Didio!" rather than out of genuine love for the characters (and I'm no fan of Dan Didio).

I'm not a huge Johns fan and I wonder if giving someone else the JSA might not be a bad idea (what ever happened to Jeff Parker, for a start), but this is unfair. Johns clearly loves the hell out of these characters - arguably more than any other group of characters in the DCU. Not even that arguably, really. And JSA probably still stands as the best thing he ever did at DC.

[Felipe Silveira]

Only in DC? Because Waid has legendary runs on Captain America, Fantastic Four and especially Daredevil.

I'm not a huge Johns fan and I wonder if giving someone else the JSA might not be a bad idea (what ever happened to Jeff Parker, for a start), but this is unfair. Johns clearly loves the hell out of these characters - arguably more than any other group of characters in the DCU. Not even that arguably, really. And JSA probably still stands as the best thing he ever did at DC.

He recently wrote some backups of Greg Pak's Agents of Atlas, by the way, read Jeff Parker's Agents of Atlas, it's pretty good.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

For me, it's actually a close call and I can't really choose either. I mean, yes, Waid had a lot of hits under his belt, namely Flash and JLA. But, so does Johns with JSA, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, and also his early-2000s run on Flash. Not to mention that they co-wrote 52 together, one of the best event comics of all time. So, personally, I can't really choose between them as far as my own taste goes.

As for overall impact on the shape of the DCU, though? I'm gonna have to say in that respect, Johns easily outclasses Waid. So much of Johns's stuff has formed the basis of how we see a lot of characters today and how those characters have been adapted to other media. We wouldn't even be getting a Black Adam movie if not for Johns's run on JSA.

Also, Johns is kind of the sole reason why both Sinestro and Black Adam are even considered key figures in DC's villain pantheon today. Without his work on those characters, they would still be considered like C-list villains.

[godisawesome]

The Legion Of Superheroes comparison for both writers is interesting because both Waid and Johns’s LoS were basically unnecessary, arriving-suddenly-out-of-nowhere rejections of previous successful runs that had some obnoxiousness in the meta-text of their introductions.

The post-Zero Hour LoS at least had the dual excuses of replacing a super-complicated, at times contradictory LoS from early Post-Crisis and emerging from a “time travel hijinks” soft reboot at the time.

But the Waid reboot was dropped in seemingly just because higher ups thought it might be a way to reinvigorate the franchise, with Waid gamely trying to differentiate and justify the difference with a very different tone and nuance to the characterizations of the characters. Then it lasted long enough to get the crossover with the reintroduced Supergirl… only for Johns to very quickly ignore that, and reintroduce a nostalgia-heavy Silver Age version that had a very self-congratulatory feel to it.

I’d add that while I don’t necessarily like either dude rebooting anything outright, I think Waid’s outright reboots tended to be a bit more substantial to the point that others could follow him and do well at his new concepts and ideas, while Johns always did better the more his reboot was softer and more complementary of what came before, and his harder reboots tended to struggle whenever he wasn’t the one directly overseeing them.

The Legions maybe show this - Waid developed his new versions of those characters to have distinct personalities and stories, while Johns going wholesale ona. Reboot left them feeling like amorphous, vague collections of Silver Age nostalgia.

[PUGSSSS001]

Johns is fast food and Waid is fine dining - they both serve the same purpose but one tends to make it more palatable.

[Stanlos]

KC is disliked by a lot of WW fans for it's depiction of WW. It reduced her to a passive bystander, a warrior who is eager to fight and kill and later Superman's baby mama. The story also completely misrepresents the Amazons ideal with no proper rebuttal.

TBF, Waid has admitted that his take on WW was flawed and he wrote her much better in the recent WW 80th Anniversary Special.

I enjoy KC except for everything that has to do with WW.

I can't disagree there. Reducing WW to an Eve trope mixed with one dimensional Xenaesque clone is uncool. But Geoff Johns did far far worse by the character pooping on her mythos and thus far has not learned whereas Waid (and similarly Loeb) has learned and done much better by the character in later entrants.

WW can be difficult for writers because of her design. Most of the tropes regarding female characters do not apply with her and this requires a much higher level of thought and awareness when writing her.

[Comic Lore]

Harder or me than Johns vs Morrison, but still...

Geoff Johns.

I thought Johns first Flash run trumped Waid's run, and the Green Lantern, JSA, Hawkman.....sigh...they have aged like a fine red wine.

The one wild card that could change this outcome for me though would be the fact that......I still haven't read Mark Waid's Legion of Super Heroes....if it's stellar...it could sway my opinion.

It's really really not good. I hate Waid at DC as he gets every character's voice wrong.

Geoff John's is the better writer and it's not even close.

[Captain Nostalgia]

It's really really not good. I hate Waid at DC as he gets every character's voice wrong.

Geoff John's is the better writer and it's not even close.

Ok thanks, I'll take your word for it.

[PennyDreadful]

Geoff Johns is Phil Collins and Mark Waid is Peter Gabriel.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Johns, overall.

One of the biggest issues I've always had with Mark Waid is that virtually none of his villains have any depth whatsoever. They're all mastermind level bad guys who want to hurt the hero because they're sociopathic monsters. All villains are the same under him, with slightly varied MOs

Johns (though he does need an editor to hold back his worst impulses) develops his villains, and I think did a good job at expanding the themes of his series. Having Mordru, a Legion of Superheroes villain, as a JSA foe was inspired.

[M@Bowers2014]

I think both are great writers but I think Waid is a slightly better writer TECHINCALLY. However I love way more of Johns' DC work than I do Waid's. Johns' runs on Flash, JSA, Hawkman, Green Lantern and various Legion projects are way more re-readable for me than Waid's work. Plus the original hard reboot of the Legion was his idea then after DnA had really made that version sing he pulls the plug for his Threeboot which left me cold. While it had great art by Kitson so many of the ideas bothered me. I feel that Johns understands the Legion better than Waid going by their work. I am loving the current World's Finest series and I did love Waid's Flash run but I'm giving this to Johns.

[Nomads1]

Sorry, Johns, I like a lot many things you've done, but I gotta say Waid. His Flash is fantastic. The Return of Barry Allen is still the best Flash story ever. His JLA Year One is among my top ten stories of all time. His Captain America with Garney is, IMHO, perfect. Exactly what Captain America should be. Waid wins this round, for me.

Peace

PS: Just to be clear, as I like a lot of what Johns has done (Star Spangled Kid, JSA, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Avengers, etc...), but not all, I think that Waid's best work is top notch, but it's not like I think everything he does is exceptional. Sometimes it's barely servicable, not even good.

[Hol]

i love both writers work but Waid is much better in my opinion. When he hits it is beyond special. His Flash run is perfection, his Fantastic Four run is the best version the book ever had, JLA, B&B, Daredevil, Worldsfinest. All incredible.

That being said Johns has some fantastic work too. His first Flash run, JSA, Hawkman are all some of my favorites. The first half of his GL run is great too. Infinite Crisis is one of the best DC events.

But still Wait is #1.

[krazijoe]

Geoff Johns is Phil Collins and Mark Waid is Peter Gabriel.

Wait, do I have to sit through Sussudio? Please no or I will take a Sledgehammer to my head...