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

[akmal154]

Morrison. though Geoff's Green Lantern run is GOAT.

[InformationGeek]

Geoff Johns by a country mile.

Unfortunately, I just don't care about a lot of the themes and concepts that Morrison writes, especially when they start to overwhelm the actual story and characters (though Morrison is nowhere as bad as Hickman get in that department). As such, I can only judge Morrison's stuff story and character-wise and honestly, he seems to have problems in those areas.

[Sirzechs]

Geoff Johns by a country mile.

Unfortunately, I just don't care about a lot of the themes and concepts that Morrison writes, especially when they start to overwhelm the actual story and characters (though Morrison is nowhere as bad as Hickman get in that department). As such, I can only judge Morrison's stuff story and character-wise and honestly, he seems to have problems in those areas.

Quote For Truth.

[t hedge coke]

As such, I can only judge Morrison's stuff story and character-wise and honestly, he seems to have problems in those areas.

That's a common feeling, I know, but I've rarely ever felt it. He's one of the few writers to do Lex Luthor and make me feel like Luthor could be a real human being.

I feel the characters in Vimanarama or Final Crisis a lot more than I feel them, as actual people, in Infinite Crisis or I Wear My Jacket Like My Father The Man Who Wore a Jacket Like a Man, Man, And Was My Father (This Is My Father's Jacket), aka Green Lantern.

I like Johns, alright, but the comics usually feel like someone playing a videogame or smashing action figures together more than individual, thinking people who can see, smell, and understand where they are.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

I can't believe this is even a question. Grant Morrison is one of the best comics creators out there and probably gets DC's superheroes better than anyone else alive. He's a daring, intelligent writer with a huge imagination, a strong grasp of the metaphorical and allegorical nature of superheroes and one who can say more about a single character in a thrown off line than many can over a whole issue. All Star Superman to me represents everything great about modern superhero comics, while showing up all the usual event-driven clap trap that DC and Marvel routinely put out to be the adolescent nonsense that they are. Speaking of which...

Geoff Johns has gone from solidly good at the start of his career to being, with only a few exceptions, pretty terrible. His characterization of most superheroes (he's actually rather good with most villains and anti-heroes) is dreadful, his plots often inane (Infinite Crisis and Blackest Night especially) and his stories tend to have all the substance of a Michael Bay movie. Worst of all, his writing often represents everything wrong with the overly violent, "grimdark" paradigm present in superhero comics right today and his preference for certain characters over others makes much, if not most, of the stuff he has written since the heyday of his (Wally) Flash and JSA read like juvenile fan fiction.

I do actually think that Johns has the technical skills to be a really good writer but his excesses greatly need to be reined in - something that is unlikely to happen considering just how much power he holds at DC. Mind you, I gave up reading his stuff after the twin debacles of Blackest Night and Flash Rebirth so he may have improved greatly since then. But, to be honest, nothing I've heard or read seems to suggest this.

[poroto678]

Both are incredible its really hard but I'd have to go with Johns for simplicity because sometimes Morrison's meta madness gets out of hand.

This. 10 char.

[Noxex]

Morrison. though Geoff's Green Lantern run is GOAT.

I agree to a point about Green Lantern. But it totally went off the rails into nonsense after/during Blackest Night. He messed up the story in ways Morrison never has done. Some examples:

Carol was suddenly ok with being a Star Saffire... Because someone she didnt know said Hal needed her help?
Sinestro became a GL... Because Johns likes villians more than heroes?
Cowgirl totally dissapears from the story... I dont even have a sarcastic theory for that one...

Also i cant believe DC let him publish that last issue... It felt like an FU to anyone who would ever try to write something as great as his run in the future. Thats pretty much the exact opposite of what Morrison did at the end of Batman.

[LoneNecromancer]

Also i cant believe DC let him publish that last issue... It felt like an FU to anyone who would ever try to write something as great as his run in the future. Thats pretty much the exact opposite of what Morrison did at the end of Batman.

That's funny. Morrison said he loved Johns' finale to GL and said he wished Batman Inc's end was as good as it.

[LoneNecromancer]

Geoff is a pint. You'd never get tired of it as long as it was good and not too warm or flat, and you could drink them down by the ton. However you'd also find yourself forgetting just how many you drank, not all of them are that memorable and sometimes they'd just be too much the same.

Grant is absinthe.

[Lightning Rider]

I'm not a big fan of Johns's big "events". I think before he was given control of the DC Universe and turned every storyline into event build-up and fallout, he was a much better writer. Up to anything after Infinite Crisis I suppose. I really enjoyed his run on the Flash and Justice League. Whenever Green Arrow narrates a Justice League story, I feel like we get an up close look at the actual relationships between the characters. I just wish he remembered his original theme for Wally-"The Flash is not about Tragedy"-before ruining Barry Allen.

I can easily see why people think Morrison is the better writer. I think he can sequence a story in a more compelling and thematic way. And the arcs are more fulfilling in one sitting, I think. But I think at his best, Johns crafted dialogue to make the heroes and the villains seem like people you know. I tend to prefer that over the sometimes convoluted psycho-thrillers Morrison likes to make.

[TheDarkNut]

Morrison is an overall better writer but John knows how to write superhero stories better.

[SiegePerilous02]

I actually think that is Johns *problem*. He's fallen so in love with his villians that he forgets that they should, you know, Evil obstacles for the heroes to defeat. Sinestro in the gl corps and Luther in the JL just make no sense at all. (And as long as we're on the Rogues, it was Morrison that started the whole project with Mirror Master in Animal Man.)

Yeah, but then they just become one note, mustache twirling cliches instead of actual characters. Having fleshed out heroes going against fleshed out villains is always more interesting. It's why Batman's major foes are so popular, because they're both archetypal and humanized. Luthor has always had some redeemable qualities to him, so putting him and Cold on the League is actually very interesting. It sure as hell wouldn't work with the Joker, or Black Manta and Cheetah, but those two? Yeah, it works.

And I'm just gonna say it: Johns' Billy Batson > Morrison's.

[colonyofcells]

I agree with Geoff Johns to blur the difference between heroes and villains since both groups are equally dangerous and equally irrational.

[Scott Taylor]

Geoff Johns, because he establishes and reinvigorates characters like no other. Morrison's writing is a fun ride while it lasts but you always have the feeling that its temporary and not really significant in any way.

[Nomads1]

I like them both. Neither is my all-time favorite. There are things fronm both that I love, and things I deslike. Both have their weaknesses. Johns seems to occasionally favor gore too much for my tastes, however Morrison does like getting a little bit too wierd for his own good. However, if I were to chose, mostly, Johns. I think he has a better grip of what works in a super-hero comicbook, and I prefer his approach to character work.

Peace