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

[CSTowle]

Johns is the Michael Bay of comics. Depending on your taste in comics/movies, that's either a very bad or very good thing. Box office and comics sales would tell you good thing, and those things matter. We wouldn't get most Morrison comics or say David Lynch films (couldn't come up with an appropriate director comparison) if dumb popcorn stuff didn't subsidize them. Sometimes writers like Morrison produce best-sellers, but for the most part they're trying to do something different and better. People generally don't want different or better, they want familiar and comfortable. Dumb action, "bad-ass", simple themes, good vs evil, etc. And if that makes people happy that's a good thing. I'm going to see "Avengers 2" this weekend, and expect to see a lot of dumb action, a lot of simple themes, a lot of CGI, and I expect to love the heck out of it.

[JBatmanFan05]

They both have their needed place, but I vastly prefer Morrison.

Johns is great when he's delivering something like Sinestro Corps War, but often, yes, he's the Michael Bay of DC Comics.

To say a negative about Morrison, he should have aped Johns a bit for Final Crisis...fans wanted FC I think to be more COIE-like....(even more) drawn out & filled to the gill with crazy stuff.

[brandnewfan]

Johns.

Morrison is great but sometimes he confuses me lol.

[Noxex]

They both have so much good DC work, this is tough. I'm going Morrison, because he doesn't have anything as bad as Infinite Crisis or new 52 Justice League. Really though they're so different. I equally love his Green Lantern and Morrison's Batman, but they're so different they're almost in two totally different categories. Man I wish that we could get a reunion of the 52 team!

[Outside_85]

Between Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison who have written their fair share of DC Comics and heroes,
which of the two have done it the best when it came to the Trinity of the DC Comics and the Multiverse ?

The Trinity: ...I am hesitant at this moment to say Johns when dealing with the Trinity as a whole entity (all three together), but only because Morrison hasn't really let himself loose on Wonder Woman in anything published yet. By his own admission he didn't really know what to do with her back when he wrote JLA. Johns however did a hatchet job on Diana in his early JL stories, but he appears to be making up for it recently and seems poised to put her front and center in Darkseid War. The Trinity treated individually however Morrison takes the prize with better stories written for Batman (Black Glove, RIP, Arkham Asylum) and Superman (All-Star Superman, Action Comics) than Johns' Batman: Earth One and mini-stint on Superman.

The Multiverse: Morrison, easilly, because he actually uses it while Johns so far has been content with it just sort of being out there but with minimal contact or influence on the main DC Earth (see what the post Infinite Crisis did with the restored Multiverse? Nothing but provide something for Prime to destroy)

Who respected the DC mythos the best ?

Morrison, he dives into w/e mythos he happens to be writing on and digs out obscure characters, stories, events and items, polishes them off and incorporates them into his current story. Johns on the other hand tends to play with mythos when it suits him, but he snaps it in half if it gets in the way of his vision.

Who was the better event writer that work make the most sense to the readers ?

Johns nearly wins this just by being the more simplistic writer in general, despite most of his events being close to rubbish. Morrison however just makes his events more epic in scope.

Final Crisis~Multiversity>Blackest Night, Flashpoint, Infinite Crisis, Forever Evil

Honestly after all the work and delays these two have often caused, which is the better DC writer to you ?

Morrison, because he isn't disruptive and destructive.

[MajorHoy]

I avoid Morrison "events" like Final Crisis and Multiversity, but I enjoyed his work on Batman / Batman Incorporated.

I haven't enjoyed ANYTHING by Geoff Johns in about four or five years. He trashed Barry Allen by re-writing his history so he's another angsty "somebody killed my Mommy!" character because I guess it's too hard to write characters who had normal, happy childhoods. His approach to arcs has become:
* good-to-great start
* tread water in the middle
* lose interest and have an inconclusive non-ending that jump-stats the next meaningless arc

Do I really need to say more?

[Maxpower00044]

It's not even close. Grant Morrison all the way!

[Will J.]

Morrison, by far.

[PyroSikTh]

Well, yes, they do. And, if you're in a restaurant, you better know which one you're ordering.

You don't...order coke with your pizza?

Yeah, they're incomparable. Morrison writes the smarter, more involved, technical books. Johns' writes the straight-forward, entertaining, superhero books. One is Windows while the other is Mac. One is a TV while the other is a book. One is a guitar while the other is a violin. One is not better than the other, they're just different.

In short, I enjoy them equally for completely different reasons, and yes, I would like a side of Morrison with my Johns.

[MajorHoy]

You don't...order coke with your pizza?

Either beer or just regular water for me with pizza. Why drink nasty sugary crap with pizza?

[Hatut Zeraze]

That's an easy call for me - Grant Morrison.

I go back and forth a lot on Geoff Johns. I used to be a rabid fan, then I got to a point where I felt like I could see the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes, and I loathed his work. I've come around again and am starting to appreciate his stuff, as long as I take it in moderate doses.

Even at my most enthusiastic times where I enjoyed Johns' work, I never held it in as high a regard as I do the work of Morrison.

I've heard some criticism in this thread about Morrison's work on event stories. I can certainly understand if some folks don't enjoy his work on events as much as I do, but I find it peculiar to bring up in this particular thread because it is in the writing of events that I find Geoff Johns' work to be especially sub-par. I'll take Final Crisis and Multiversity over Infinite Crisis any day.

[t hedge coke]

You don't...order coke with your pizza?

Well, I do.

But, if my girlfriend said "go get a pizza," and I come back with a two liter of Coke... I should know better.

If I go to get a Morrison comic and I walk away with a Johns' trade, I have no one to blame but myself.

[neonrideraryeh]

For me, it's Geoff Johns. He always produces something really enjoyable. He can take pretty much any character and make them interesting. He is also really great at developing villains. This guy is about to make the Anti-Monitor have depth and I don't think many of you thought that could happen. I think Geoff Johns writes things that are deeper than some think they are, but still able to be bombastic and epic. Things can be both epic and interesting at the same time; style and substance can co-exist and I believe he does it.

Morrison is more hit or miss for me. He has done some good stuff but even that hasn't been top tier in my opinion. Then he also has done some stuff I thought wasn't too good as well. I consider him fairly average in the grand scheme of things. Batman #700 is probably the weakest Batman issue I've read.

[big_boss]

Geoff. Grant has never really written anything I've read or been interested in. Except All-Star Superman.

[Buried Alien]

They're both great, but operate on different levels. Johns is a master craftsman of traditional superhero adventure fare, while Morrison is more of an auteur exploring the concepts of superheroic fiction as a psychological and social phenomenon.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)