Tag Archives: Geoff Johns

Geoff Johns, DC’s New Chief Creative Officer

The big DC news yesterday was the announcement of the new executive team for DC Comics. Jim Lee and Dan Didio are promoted to Co-Publishers, succeeding Paul Levitz, and Geoff Johns is promoted to Chief Creative Officer.

So for the most part, it looks like the “corporate overlords” at Warner Bros. like what DC has been doing and want to keep the same people in charge. That, and make sure the writer behind their most popular books isn’t even tempted to leave! (Though it’s clear that Geoff Johns is so fascinated by DC’s universe and characters, I can’t imagine what would lure him away.)

In a statement on The Source, Johns assures fans that he’ll still be “writing Green Lantern, The Flash, Batman: Earth One and Brightest Day.” In addition, he’s in charge of figuring out how to bring DC’s world, including Wildstorm and Vertigo, into other media: “film, toys, television, video games, animation and beyond.”

Review: Blackest Night: The Flash #3

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The conclusion of this miniseries — to the extent that it concludes, anyway — is more satisfying than the middle chapter. The story is more solid, and it’s visually more varied as characters with colors beyond black and blue join Blue Lantern Barry Allen onstage.

Speaking of color schemes, I noticed something interesting about the covers: they get progressively brighter. The first issue is mostly black and silver, with a dark blue logo outline. The second issue adds some color by putting Captain Cold in the center, and has a brighter logo outline. By the third issue, Blue Lantern Barry takes up the entire cover, and the logo is again a tiny bit brighter. I don’t know whether it’s intentional, but it’s certainly thematic.

The story follows three main threads: The Rogues in Iron Heights; Captain Boomerang; and the Flashes.

The Rogues’ story gets the least attention this time around. Once again it picks up right where they left off, but instead of focusing on emotional manipulation, it’s basically a dungeon crawl as they try to work out something that will shut down the Black Lantern Rogues. It does, however, give away a little more about the resolution of Flash: Rebirth

Captain Boomerang’s story is a sad one, and while moving, I’m afraid it significantly damages the character for future use. More on this in the spoiler section.

This time around the Flashes’ story works best. Barry Allen is still dealing with an unfamiliar power set, but by this time he’s gotten accustomed to it, rather than spending the entire issue learning how to use the blue ring…plus there are other speedsters around to keep the “Fastest Man Alive” theme on track. There’s also a solid resolution to one of the major story elements from last month.

Of course, since this is a side story to a larger event, it ends — or rather stops — with a big “To be continued” sign as several characters head back into the main Blackest Night story, and the big question from issue #1 is left unanswered.

Spoilers below!

Continue reading →

Flashy Convention Appearances (Spring 2010)

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Some upcoming convention and signing appearances by Flash-related people:

Emerald City Con (March 13-14 in Seattle, Washington) has added long-time Flash writer Mark Waid. Geoff Johns and Impulse artist Humberto Ramos are already on the guest list. — @emeraldcitycon

MegaCon (March 12-14, Orlando Florida) has Ethan Van Sciver — @MegaConvention

WonderCon (April 2-4, San Francisco, California) has the Flash: Rebirth team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.

C2E2 (April 16-18, Chicago, Illinois) has the Flash: Rebirth team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. (Note: This means they will not appear at Anaheim Comic Con the same weekend.) — @c2e2

Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con (June 11-13, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) has Ethan Van Sciver. — @WizardWorld

Florida Supercon (June 18-20 in Miami, Florida) recently confirmed John Wesley Shipp, the lead in the 1990 Flash TV series, for the convention. — @FLSupercon

Review: Blackest Night: The Flash #2

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If there’s one thing that best describes Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins’ Blackest Night: The Flash #2, it’s “caught in the middle.” It’s the middle of a three-part story. It takes place between chapters of a larger story. It fits between the end of one Flash series and the beginning of another. It’s about people caught between life and death.

It’s also about mirror images, both in terms of opposites and in terms of forcing characters to look at themselves.

Unfortunately, it looks like this miniseries isn’t going to stand on its own very well, for the simple reason that it’s not a self-contained chapter of Blackest Night. Each issue is interleaved within other chapters of the larger story. The first issue brought readers up to speed with Blackest Night #4. This one doesn’t pick up where the last issue left off, but skips ahead and has to recap a couple of major events from Blackest Night #5 & #6.

That may be a big part of why I liked the Rogues’ story a lot better than the Flash’s: their story actually does seem to be a solid story, not a loose collection of scenes that fit between panels in another series. In that way, it reminds me a lot of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.

Of course, another reason I liked the Rogues’ story is that it’s hard to go wrong with Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins on the Rogues. As I mentioned last time, Johns’ grim-and-gritty storytelling and Kolins’ angular art style are perfectly suited for the hardened Central/Keystone criminals…and for the undead Black Lanterns.

And now…it’s spoiler time! Continue reading →

Flash #1 Launches April 14

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DC’s full April 2010 solicitations won’t go up for a few more hours, but they’ve posted the Brightest Day books at the Source…including the first issue of the new ongoing Flash series.

The Flash #1

On sale APRIL 14
40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art, cover and 1:100 variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 Variant cover by Tony Harris

A BRIGHTEST DAY tie-in! Get in on the ground floor of DC’s next epic in the making! The Flash races out of BLACKEST NIGHT and into his own monthly title as the all-new adventures of The Fastest Man Alive start with “Case One: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues!” Barry Allen runs back to his life in Central City, but when one of the Rogues turns up murdered under mysterious circumstances, it’s up to The Flash to not only solve this bizarre crime, but protect those that are still targeted by the elusive killer. Plus, don’t miss a peek into the future of the Flash universe in this special, extra-sized starting point issue!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

Some Thoughts:

After a year of reshuffling the series’ concept, we finally have an official launch date for The Flash.
Now we know what happened to the cover Tony Harris was working on for Flash Secret Files.
I wonder how long they’ll keep doing variant covers.
It’s kind of funny that they dropped the backup stories in order to keep the price point at $2.99, but they’re starting with an oversized $3.99 first issue.

Sidekick Corner: Ignition

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So as I am the new kid around here I wanted to name my posts something that can identify them different to our glorious leader and I feel that right now being the new kid on the block sidekick is a good way to identify myself. Kelson is the guy that channels the speed force. I am impulse to his wally at the moment. I might change the name later but for now I think it is a nice way to let you know when I am speaking.

So this is the place that I will be looking at The Flash and his universe at the characters and events that have shaped each person that has worn the lightning.

Ignition: the end of one age, the birth of a new one.

So today I wanted to look at the Ignition storyline that begins with Issue 201 and what the story meant to the character of the Flash and the Flash universe in general.

Ignition is an interesting issue from the perspective of serialised super hero story telling. It is a great example of how you can make large scale changes to the status quo and still maintain the integrity of the character and honour the audiences expectations.

This is the reboot that I feel the people involved with “One More Day,” the Spider-Man story that was intended to create a new paradigm for the character. But where they failed with “One More Day,” Geoff Johns succeeded: execution. Geoff Johns took the subplot that ran through the Flash starting in the last half of Mark Waid’s run (the fear of loss) and used that theme as the reason for the changes made in this story.