What's your opinion of Geoff Johns?

[Desh]

Comics, I love him!
Movies, I want to strangle him for Green Lantern.

I'm praying he doesn't try sticking his nose into Zack Snyder's films. Otherwise, all is lost D:

[Blacksun]

I'm praying he doesn't try sticking his nose into Zack Snyder's films. Otherwise, all is lost D:

if snyder and Goyer aren't enough reasons to worry about, I don't need johns added to the list.

[Sutekh]

Then I took a long, hard look at his Justice League run to date, and it dawned on me that he has been deliberately writing them as a bunch of incompetent idiots who have brought most of their current woes on themselves. They all act like squabbling children and have made NO effort to reduce the growing fear people have been experiencing about them.

That's pretty much my issue with him. I think I would very much enjoy his storytelling with original characters, or less well-developed characters.

But his hot-headed man-child Hal Jordan is *hugely* out of character, to someone who was reading his adventures as a child. His bumbling Barry Allen, mocked by other Leaguers for being clueless, also, nothing at all like the mature, competent and intelligent Barry Allen I read about thirty years ago. I'm totally cool with reading about less-than-fully-formed superheroes learning the ropes and making the occasional bone-headed mistake (which is why I generally prefer Teen Titans, Young Justice, New X-Men, Young Avengers, type stories to Justice League or Avengers tales), but to drag pre-existing mature level-headed heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. down to this level doesn't work for me.

But I'm not the target audience. As Aquaman #1 made crystal-clear, the audience for Aquaman #1 was 'people who don't like Aquaman.'

Since I already liked Aquaman, pages of people talking smack about Aquaman and Aquaman proving them wrong and demonstrating why he wasn't weak or lame or silly, and was in fact as badass, were all not only wasted on me, it indicated that DC wasn't writing this book for people who *already liked Aquaman* and didn't need to have it 'splained to them that he wasn't lame, it was in fact for the people who *didn't* like Aquaman, and needed Geoff to hold their hand and gently 'splain to them that he didn't suck.

Obviously they can't survive with the shrinking numbers of pre-existing fans of Hal Jordan or Superman or Wonder Woman or Barry Allen or Aquaman, and are making a bid to reach out and appeal to a new generation who didn't like the original Hal Jordan/Superman/Wonder Woman/Barry Allen/Aquaman. I wish them luck with that.

There was a silly sort of 'Kyle vs. Hal' or 'Barry vs. Wally' rivalry in the day. Both sides lost, because the 'Hal' and 'Barry' and 'Wally' and 'Kyle' that exist now are nothing like the original characters anyway, so nobody won.

John's frat-boy version of Hal is more different than the classic Hal Jordan than Kyle ever could be.

Even Booster friggin' Gold and 'the Kid' (Superboy/Conner) had matured beyond the toolish caricature calling himself Hal Jordan these days.

Johns would excel, I think, at original characters, or, at the minimum, characters so thinly characterized in the past that his interpretations of them would be seen as character development and growth, instead of regression or character assassination.

[Kid A]

I was going to say something more negative/critical of Johns, but I dug Forever Evil, so I'll say that I like Johns when he's actually trying to write something compelling, rather than his more formulaic style that Justice League has been for the most part.

[Pharozonk]

I'm praying he doesn't try sticking his nose into Zack Snyder's films. Otherwise, all is lost D:

Man of Steel was already crap so it can only really get better from there.

[Sodam Yat]

Man of Steel was already crap so it can only really get better from there.

Was it really? I had no problems with the movie. I enjoyed it, honestly.

[John Venus]

One word : lol ! Did Superman know about this ? ^^

If he did, we would be have needed 'Green Lantern: Second Rebirth Electric Boogaloo' before Blackest Night event.

[dupersuper]

A fine writer who - perhaps because he has spread himself too thin - often falls into unfortunate patterns in his modern work...and he hates the families of super heroes/future super heroes.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Comics, I love him!
Movies, I want to strangle him for Green Lantern.

You know that Geoff Johns didn't really have all that much to do with the Green Lantern film, right? Putting his name in the credits really means nothing at all when he didn't even write the script. No, that folly was the doing of Greg Berlanti, the current show runner of Arrow. It's like how Marvel ha named Stan Lee as a producer on every single one of their cartoons since the 90s and on some of their movie I believe. His name is there, yes, but he doesn't do anything.

[king of hybrids]

You know that Geoff Johns didn't really have all that much to do with the Green Lantern film, right? Putting his name in the credits really means nothing at all when he didn't even write the script. No, that folly was the doing of Greg Berlanti, the current show runner of Arrow. It's like how Marvel ha named Stan Lee as a producer on every single one of their cartoons since the 90s and on some of their movie I believe. His name is there, yes, but he doesn't do anything.

the way WB and DC has put him on such a short leash since 2011 indicates he had a role in the flop, how much is the question.

since the Flash tv show seems to be his baby in particular; i'll reserve judgment on how far away i want him from from adaptations*

*okay, i know this was probably Nelson or WB itself's call; but why wasn't Timm, Dini or McDuffie given the CCO job in light of the, you know, rather successful animated universe that is still getting reruns?

[Crazy Diamond]

the way WB and DC has put him on such a short leash since 2011 indicates he had a role in the flop, how much is the question.

since the Flash tv show seems to be his baby in particular; i'll reserve judgment on how far away i want him from from adaptations*

*okay, i know this was probably Nelson or WB itself's call; but why wasn't Timm, Dini or McDuffie given the CCO job in light of the, you know, rather successful animated universe that is still getting reruns?

Dini I'm not sure, but Timm probably wasn't interested and Mcduffie was dead and even then wasn't on good terms with DC Comics. If Johns is doing the Flash TV show I hope it's better than the Blade tv show was. That one was abysmal and Johns was one of the writers on it.

[AlexanderLuthor]

the way WB and DC has put him on such a short leash since 2011 indicates he had a role in the flop, how much is the question.

since the Flash tv show seems to be his baby in particular; i'll reserve judgment on how far away i want him from from adaptations*

*okay, i know this was probably Nelson or WB itself's call; but why wasn't Timm, Dini or McDuffie given the CCO job in light of the, you know, rather successful animated universe that is still getting reruns?

My understanding is that Johns had as close to nothing to do with the Green Lantern movie as possible and still have your name on a credit roll. I think a much better way to judge him will be all of the DC TV shows this fall. If they continue the success of Arrow then it will be a big achievement for Johns

[Blacksun]

I like him, since he was the one that pulled me back into comics this year, after a 15 year absence with his GL run (which I'm still reading). Now I wouldn't say he was the best of all time, but he is a solid mainstream writer. The only thing I haven't really liked by him, is how he writes Wonder Woman in the New52 JL. She has a totally different personality than she does in the main WW series. Granted I'm only on the first trades of both, so I hope the JL version changes down the road.

she won't change

the way WB and DC has put him on such a short leash since 2011 indicates he had a role in the flop, how much is the question.

since the Flash tv show seems to be his baby in particular; i'll reserve judgment on how far away i want him from from adaptations*

*okay, i know this was probably Nelson or WB itself's call; but why wasn't Timm, Dini or McDuffie given the CCO job in light of the, you know, rather successful animated universe that is still getting reruns?

Timm steped out of Warner animation because they wanted to adapt the crap new 52 stories. he had no chance of being a CCO.
Dini i don't know, maybe he is more into writing than executive corporate positions

[Zero Hunter]

Look at the track record:

Booster Gold - fantastic
Hawkman - fixed a property that was so far beyond broken and made it great
Aquaman - probably more popular now than he has been in decades
JSA - a property that was for the most part dead that he made into one of DC's best for many years
Action Comics - a great run
Flash - one of the best runs the title ever had
Green Lantern - another property that was almost dead before he took over
Teen Titans - again a severly damaged property that he brought back
Final Crisis : Legion of 3 worlds - brought the Legion back from the disaster that Waid made them.

You can all say he is some hack with no talent but you show me one writer that has had his kind of success on such a wide varirty of properties. Yes he is superhero writer and he doesn't claim to be anything else. I would much rather read someone like him who actually loves the superhero genre writing them over say Ellis who really has nothing but contempt for superheros phoning in a story for a paycheck so he can writer about something he really likes to write about. That to me is one of Johns biggest strengths is he loves superheroes and is not ashamed to admit it. Some of the things people like to knitpick are just so minor that it just makes me shake my head. He is a master at getting things stipped back down their core parts and then moving on from there. There is also pretty much no better writer at fleshing out villains and actually making them real characters and not just punching bags.

[PennyDreadful]

Look at the track record:

Booster Gold - fantastic
Hawkman - fixed a property that was so far beyond broken and made it great
Aquaman - probably more popular now than he has been in decades
JSA - a property that was for the most part dead that he made into one of DC's best for many years
Action Comics - a great run
Flash - one of the best runs the title ever had
Green Lantern - another property that was almost dead before he took over
Teen Titans - again a severly damaged property that he brought back
Final Crisis : Legion of 3 worlds - brought the Legion back from the disaster that Waid made them.

All these are from before the reboot and before he spread himself too thin. I agree with dupersuper: Johns is falling into certain patterns. And he needs to back away from the back-to-back events before he completely burns out.

Honestly, I think perhaps he's ready to move into other media and bow out of comics. He's already involved in the TV series to some extent, yes? That might be good. First, there'll be writers/producers to keep him in check if necessary. Second, he'll get to try something new. I really believe his best work in comics is behind him. I hope that his Superman gig is his last hurrah before he moves on, and that he sticks around for 1-2 years, tops. I also hope that they don't just draw on Johns' stories for DC animated movies. Really, Geoff, you're doing okay money-wise, right? Do you have to also pay yourself to adapt your stories?

I definitely have a problem with Johns (or ANYONE) having too much influence on a comic company's shared universe/creative direction. He is a talented writer. He just needs to stop overextending himself and dragging down other books in the process.