How would you rate the Superman run by Geoff Johns?

[SuperCrab]

My favorite Geoff John Superman stories are in his new52 run, which compromised Superman (2011-2016) #32-#39, collected as Superman: The Men of Tomorrow (2016).

Though it wasn't the best run the world has seen, some cool moments include (I think, anyway, some of these may be right before or after his run):

- Clark, who was closer in age to Jim Olson in the New52 and was at times his roommate, revealed his secret identity to Jimmy before anyone else.

- Having lost his powers for 24 hours due to use of the solar flare, Superman at one point stands between a gunman and his intended victim and persuades the gunman to give up without a shot knowing that a single bullet would have killed him.

- Testing out his new solarflare power leaves Clark powerless and naked at a different point around the globe every test, which means Batman has to fly all over the place picking him up in the Batcopter. Batman is as hilariously annoyed as one might expect.

- Without his powers due to the use of the solarflare, Clark is taken out for a night on the town by the rest of the Justice League in their civilian guises. This is the first time alcohol has the ability to effect him, so he gets very drunk, which is also hilarious. I also have to say that, in retrospect, this has an almost Last Super character to it, as that group of people would never gather together again in a friendly setting in Superman or Action Comics.

- Also notable are I think the first appearances of "Mr. Oz" and Ulysses, the first of whom plays a big role in Rebirth and beyond and the latter of whom Reborn made a point of showing in the merged Superman's revised past as though they planned to come back to him, although I don't think they ever did. The asterisk on both of them is that Superman continuity drastically changed after the New52, so if it were ever picked up again in an Earth 52 (See Doomsday Clock) book, they don't necessarily have to stick to Mr. Oz being Jor-El (A Rebirth era reveal that may not have been originally intended) or Ulysses, well, okay, they didn't really do anything with him that a new book could contradict.

In fact, the Rebirth Jor-El makes no sense. First he's an evil villain who haunts Superman and ignites death on a massive scale around the globe. Then Lois and Clark give him permission to take their son on summer vacation unsupervised. Remember back in the New52 when Mr. Oz could have been Ozymandias, a giant squid in disguise, or literally anyone else?

I'm a little bitter about them abandoning the New52 Superman. Does it show?

[Ascended]

Damn that’s harsh. Must not have read Frank Miller’s origin then .

Oh no, I read Miller's Year One and thought it was better than Secret Origin. It's not anything I'd ever want in main canon, don't get me wrong, and a lot of it is awful, but it at least had a personality and voice of its own and it introduced some stuff I actually rather liked, such as Clark joining (and getting kicked out of) the military.

The only saving grace SO has is that it brought back some pre-Crisis stuff, and it was so bland and vague other writers could have worked their own stuff around it without it feeling out of place.

Of course, the pre-Crisis stuff started making its way back to the mythos long before SO. And other writers never took advantage of the "bullet point" origin so that open framework was wasted as well.

Johns is great on the C-list. But with the Trinity? He's one of the worst at DC. Like Doctor Know posted, Johns is a paradox that way. Which, hey, not every character is a good fit for every writer. I don't begrudge Johns for being bad with those characters, he just shouldn't have been allowed to write them after he proved a poor fit. He sure as hell shouldn't have been allowed to write Superman as much as he did.

[All Star Superman]

As a guy who grew up in the early Bronze Age with an extensive back issue collection from the Silver Age, I really liked the general idea Johns had post Infinite Crisis: a synthesis of everything that's come before, with the prominent return of Silver/Bronze Age concepts that should never have been excised from the main continuity Superman. The execution was a bit off at times, but it's a great run overall and it's one I wish wouldn't have ended with such mismanagement and awful writing. New Krypton should have ended with Superman, the JLA, Orion and Big Barda, and the GL Corps creating a mega Boom Tube. New Krypton is sent to another part of the galaxy or maybe even a completely different galaxy.

JMS had some great ideas too, and I think Grounded is nowhere near as bad as people who haven't read it in its entirety consider it. It's aged better and I think it really works best years later.

[greatmetropolitan]

Johns fell into the trap a lot - if not most writers - fall into with Superman, in that he forgot to give him an actual personality. They tend to write Good Guys and then throw in a bit of Can Be Stern And Won't Take Your Crap to spice it up, but they never feel like more than a cardboard cut out of Superman. I feel like I'm reading a cypher.

Johns' Superman stuff was hurt by coming out at the same time as All Star Superman. I think they wrote parallel death of Jonathan Kent stories and Johns' just paled in comparison. When the two stories are compared side by side, you have Superman biting through Brainiac's tentacles and being told "you're a brute", only to headbutt Brainiac. Then in All Star you have Clark not throwing a punch for 11 issues, hugging a suicidal girl and Lex Luthor being undone by Superman's view of the cosmos and our relationships to one another. Different levels, and Johns did not come off well.

I actually kinda liked what Johns did in the new 52 JLA - Clark was quiet, contemplative, decisive. He didn't speak often but when he did it mattered.

The Legion story was cool as a legion story, but again, his Superman didn't feel like there was all that much personality going on.

Secret Origin wasn't great (Birthright superior, I think). Though I'll admit to hating Clark-as-Superboy in Smallville stuff, especially when the kid is drawn with a terrifying adult Christopher Reeve head.

[manwhohaseverything]

Johns fell into the trap a lot - if not most writers - fall into with Superman, in that he forgot to give him an actual personality. They tend to write Good Guys and then throw in a bit of Can Be Stern And Won't Take Your Crap to spice it up, but they never feel like more than a cardboard cut out of Superman. I feel like I'm reading a cypher.

This is where i am at...