Between Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison: Who's the better DC writer ?

[Robotman]

Anyone who says these writers "suck" has no idea what they are talking about. I know it's all opinion but the books speak for themselves.

Both guys had different strength and I think at their peak were at the top of their fields.

Johns had a great ability to make stories grand in scale that were also accessible to casual readers. I'm guessing his background in the entertainment industry helped with that.

His strength was taking characters with 80 years of continuity (sometimes incredibly complicated continuity), giving them a fresh start and jumping on point for new readers and keeping the most important aspects of the property's history. The JSA, Hawkman, The Flash (Wally years), Aquaman, and Green Lantern were obviously his greatest works. The fact that his stuff was accessible to new readers helped adapt it all for larger media. Most of the current DC movies are taking cues from his runs. You may not be a fan of him personally and they guy can't stick the landing of an event to save his life, but he will always be in conversations about who was the best JSA, Aquaman, GL, etc. writers of all time. That's quite an achievement. He's also one of the last DC writers to be make their mid tier characters sell well. His Aquaman and GL runs were always in the top 10 and out selling all of Marvel's most well know heroes.

Morrsion will always be my favorite comic writer and I think he is right up there with Gaiman, Miller, Ellis, etc. as the most groundbreaking and innovative creator of all time. Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, Arkham Asylum, We3 are some of the best comics ever made. And that's just his DC/Vertigo stuff. He's also arguably the best modern Superman writer for cripes sakes.

Hmmmm. Geof is like a JJ Abrams; he can set up an idea but for whatever reason he can never follow through or successfully close.

For this reason and of course EPICNESS I pick Morrison.

However, I feel Mark Waid, Gail Simone, Kurt Busiek, Ron Marz, Peter David, Walt Simonson, Devyn Grayson, Greg Rucka, and Warren Ellis eclipse both of them.

You think the work of Ron Marz and Devyn Grayson eclipse the guy who wrote All Star Superman, New X Men, and Multiversity?!? I know it's just personal opinion but daymun.

[SiegePerilous02]

I love them both, but they have wildly different styles and neither one is above criticism.

Morrison is far and away the better and more adventurous author, but I really have to be in the proper mind set to read something of his. He can be too dense at times, and I'm just not always in the mood for it. Johns is more accessible, writing fun adventure stories with cool characters. He has no pretense about being anything but a writer for big, exciting event books.

Morrison can get too self indulgent and sometimes sacrifices theme for character, and Johns writes crap when he's stretched too thin. Both of them are pretty repetitive when you read a lot of their stuff back to back, using similar tropes again and again.

In the end, I guess I prefer Morrison, but still love Johns for different reasons. If the two worked on a book together, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Quoting myself from a few years ago. My liking of Johns's writing has gone way down (though I enjoy some of his older stuff like his first Flash and GL up until BL was over), and my appreciation for Morrison has gone way up. Even when they whiff it (like with Wonder Woman Earth One), they have at least a few interesting ideas or enjoyable moments. With Johns, what you see is what you get, and it's gotten very repetitive.

You think the work of Ron Marz and Devyn Grayson eclipse the guy who wrote All Star Superman, New X Men, and Multiversity?!? I know it's just personal opinion but daymun.

For Marz, the only thing of his I've read extensively is his Top Cow work with Witchblade, the Magdalena, Angelus, etc. I was really hooked for a while, but the plots all ended up fizzling out and repeating themselves, and I think a good chunk of it was elevated by the artwork of Stjepan Sejic anyway. Oh, and some old CrossGen comics he did which were...solid/entertaining, but not too memorable.

I should probably give his GL run a chance some day, but the combo of it starting with Emerald Twilight and the other sampling of his work kills the enthusiasm.

[Vishop]

Morrison, easily.
Morrison has some of my favorite comics, Johns doesn't have any that I really care about (I haven't read his Hawkman and Flash). On the contrary, Johns made some comics that I wish I could forget.

Pretty much this. Its kinda ironic that GL while Johns best run has many flaws

[Captain Nostalgia]

Geoff Johns for me.

I think he was the writer primarily behind DC's success over Marvel during much of the 2000's.

Part of this is because his interest was not primarily in writing the trinity, which enabled a lot of non trinity titles to shine saleswise.

I actually like his first Flash run better than Mark Waid's (Which was brilliant in itself)
He re-invigorated the JSA
I personally really enjoyed his Hawkman at the time
I hear his Titans was good
Infinite Crisis & 52

Of course Geoff Johns claim to fame will always be the success of his Green Lantern run that put the title in the six digit category and the number 1 spot more than a few times.......Grant Morrison's Green Lantern....not so much, he was unable to reproduce John's success for be leaving.

[married guy]

While I have enjoyed a lot of Geoff Johns' stuff, he does not compare to Grant Morrison!!

In recent years I've found Morrison's work a lot more hit and miss, but he is still one of the greatest comic creators out there.
DC: One Million, JLA, All Star Superman, Flash, Multiversity and more...

Geoff Johns' first stint on the Flash was EPIC. His JSA was fantastic, Teen Titans was great, he made Hawkman readable again and his Green Lantern was an absolute highlight.
BUT!!
But Flashpoint was awful, Flash Rebirth and the 12 issues that followed it were a travesty.

[John Venus]

Depends on how you define by better writer.

Johns is more accessible. He boils characters down to basic archetypes and makes them appealing to new readers. Morrison is more experimental, esoteric and sometimes requires in depth knowledge of DC or whatever Morrison is interested in at the time (see: his Batman run). Morrison is drawn to the weirder sci fi aspects of superheroes, Johns is more drawn to the human element of the icons.

I did not agree with all of Johns choices but he did well reinvigorating a lot of DC's franchises especially GL. I think Johns peaked around Blackest Night and Brightest Day period and every thing he's written afterwards has been on the decline. Morrison on the other hand is still going strong with their work on Multiversity and the GL OGN's.

I think the problem with Johns is that he stretched himself too thin trying to write and trying to 'fix' everyone. He was good for Hal and Hawkman. IMO, he wasn't good for John Stewart, Wonder Woman, Cassie Sandsmark or the Teen Titans in general.

[MajorHoy]

Geoff Johns for me. . . He re-invigorated the JSA

Actually, don't forget Geoff Johns didn't start out the run of JSA in 1999.
James Robinson and David Goyer were the writers for the main story when the run started in JSA Secret Files #1. Geoff Johns replaced Robinson in the writing credits starting with JSA #6, but Goyer was also credited as still being involved through issue #51.

[Doctor Know]

Morrison hands down. The more recent Johns outings haven't been worthy.

His new 52 Justice League run was a colossal waste of time. Including the events Trinity War and Forever Evil.

His attempt to bring "hope and optimism" back into the DCU with Rebirth, was immediately sideswiped. As it was paired with the full integration of the Watchmen characters into the main DCU.

Doomsday Clock was thin story that was not supported by it's epic length. A turkey that two nearly 2 years to complete and was a big nothing-burger. Starting 1 year after Rebirth kicked off in 2016, but not finishing until late 2019. Completely missing the Rebirth wave, and wrapping up while the next "current thing" (Metal and Death Metal) were reshaping the DCU...again.


If Johns does make a comeback, I hope he does something smart and sophisticated. He later writing have been movie trailer ****. Things that look good at a glance, but the experience of the story is half-baked or awful.

[Triniking1234]

Gotta give it to Morrison but if Morrison is 10, Johns is a 9.95 for me.

[Stanlos]

Anyone who says these writers "suck" has no idea what they are talking about. I know it's all opinion but the books speak for themselves.

Both guys had different strength and I think at their peak were at the top of their fields.

Johns had a great ability to make stories grand in scale that were also accessible to casual readers. I'm guessing his background in the entertainment industry helped with that.

His strength was taking characters with 80 years of continuity (sometimes incredibly complicated continuity), giving them a fresh start and jumping on point for new readers and keeping the most important aspects of the property's history. The JSA, Hawkman, The Flash (Wally years), Aquaman, and Green Lantern were obviously his greatest works. The fact that his stuff was accessible to new readers helped adapt it all for larger media. Most of the current DC movies are taking cues from his runs. You may not be a fan of him personally and they guy can't stick the landing of an event to save his life, but he will always be in conversations about who was the best JSA, Aquaman, GL, etc. writers of all time. That's quite an achievement. He's also one of the last DC writers to be make their mid tier characters sell well. His Aquaman and GL runs were always in the top 10 and out selling all of Marvel's most well know heroes.

Morrsion will always be my favorite comic writer and I think he is right up there with Gaiman, Miller, Ellis, etc. as the most groundbreaking and innovative creator of all time. Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, Arkham Asylum, We3 are some of the best comics ever made. And that's just his DC/Vertigo stuff. He's also arguably the best modern Superman writer for cripes sakes.



You think the work of Ron Marz and Devyn Grayson eclipse the guy who wrote All Star Superman, New X Men, and Multiversity?!? I know it's just personal opinion but daymun.

Yes, opinions do vary. They can and do differ as ours do here.

[Thor-Ul]

I would say they are kind of equal, with Johns being more classic and Morrison being more exotic.

[John Venus]

Was Johns best work a result of him vibing with better creators like Busiek, Donner, Robinson, Goyer and Moore and he struggled when left to his own devices or was he always talented and just went through a decline post Nu 52?

[MajorHoy]

Was Johns best work a result of him vibing with better creators like Busiek, Donner, Robinson, Goyer and Moore and he struggled when left to his own devices or was he always talented and just went through a decline post Nu 52?

Even before Flashpoint/New52, his run on The Flash (with Barry) and the "War of the Green Lanterns" crossover, he seemed to be struggling.

[Robotman]

Even before Flashpoint/New52, his run on The Flash (with Barry) and the "War of the Green Lanterns" crossover, he seemed to be struggling.

It seemed to coincide with his transition to Hollywood. He became the DC Entertainment CCO and was writing and producing movies and tv shows. His comics quality started to suffer and as we saw with Doomsday Clock, it caused massive delays to his projects. Comics went way down on the list of priorities.

[KC]

Both are great writers who clearly love DC and its history. Morrison probably had the higher high with All-Star Superman but Johns' GL is one of my favorite runs of all time. I can't choose.