Tag Archives: Geoff Johns

Super-Speed Violence

Four Color Media Monitor considers the dark side of Flash as multidimensional CSI — namely, the level of violence in the CSI shows.

And Geoff Johns certainly has a reputation for scripting graphic violence. I didn’t notice it so much on his initial Flash run, despite the fact that he opened with an entire morgue full of murder victims, but it became clear as I read more of his work — JSA (though I only really read “Injustice Be Done” and the first arc of Justice Society of America — which has Baroness Blitzkrieg, who super-speeds through people causing them to explode), Infinite Crisis (Superboy Prime screaming “You’re ruining everything!” as he dismembers and beheads C-list members of the Titans with his bare hands on-panel), etc.

I do think violence — even graphic violence — has a place in storytelling, but not necessarily in every story. In something like Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, or Irredeemable, it fits. You’re dealing with hardened criminals or ax crazy super-beings, and that’s the point.

But I don’t think it’s a good fit for the Flash. In all his incarnations, the character has primarily been about the wonder of speed. And while super-speed can certainly make violence very effective (or ineffective, depending on who the fast one is), and has many practical uses, what do most people think about when they think of the Flash?

Running.

That’s not battle. That’s not a fighting technique (discounting Baroness Blitzkrieg, anyway). That’s adventure.

Sure, adventures often involve fighting, or death-defying stunts, or overcoming a powerful villain of one sort or another. But the violence isn’t the point of the adventure — it’s an element of risk.

I said last week that I liked the idea of Barry as an interdimensional detective, and I do — in the sense that I want to read about him solving bizarre crimes. But I don’t want to see it turn into Powers. I’m already reading Powers, and I want something different from The Flash.

I’d like to think that Geoff Johns, as he brings to an end the story of Superboy Prime in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds and gives us the final word on death in the DC Universe in Blackest Night, will keep The Flash (post-Rebirth) more about adventure than about death and dismemberment.

Geoff Johns Buys Into Earth-2…Comic Store

Earth-2 Comics in NorthridgeFlash: Rebirth writer Geoff Johns has gone into business with Los Angeles-area comic store Earth 2 Comics as co-owner of their new, second location in Northridge, California, CBR reports. The new location opened on April 29.

Geoff Johns will host the grand opening celebration on Saturday, June 13 (the week that Flash: Rebirth #3 comes out!) along with Philip Tan, Jeph Loeb, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Zeb Wells and more.

“Earth-2” seems like an appropriate place for the writer of Infinite Crisis, Legion of Three Worlds and Justice Society of America

Read more at CBR.

Barry Allen: Metatemporal Detective

Another interview with Geoff Johns, this time at Scripps News.

The stuff I really want to focus on is with Barry Allen as a crime-solver. But his crimes are on the crazy ’60s-physics level. A murder could span across dimensions or ancient cities or crazy places that are real cities. Or he could find a body where the crime is unsolvable through normal means, and kinda taking that “CSI” approach but putting it on a greater scale of wonder and scope and the DC Universe itself….He solves crimes that are unbelievably bizarre and unexplainable. And they take him to different places and strange foes and bizarre criminals.

The interviewer compares it to CSI: 52.

This sounds like the kind of book I’d be interested in even without the Flash. And when Geoff Johns eventually leaves, Grant Morrison would be the perfect choice to follow him — I like the way he wrote Barry in Final Crisis, and he showed in his 9-issue run back in the 1990s (reprinted in The Flash: Emergency Stop and next month’s Flash: The Human Race) that he can write crazy sci-fi adventure starring the Flash.

Read the rest of the interview.

(Title shamelessly taken from Michael Moorcock’s short story collection, The Metatemporal Detective.)

Geoff Johns: Building a Mystery

IGN interviews Geoff Johns about Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night and Superboy. He’s still being really cagey about Flash: Rebirth, since it’s “about the greatest crime ever committed against the Flash family and a mystery doesn’t start with the answers, it ends with them.” But a few items that stood out:

I want to explore regarding Barry’s time before he became the Flash. There hasn’t been a whole lot done, if anything, about what Barry did before he was the Flash and what Central City was like before the Flash was around. That’s going to be something I’ll be exploring in the future.

It’s been a few years since I’ve read most of the Barry issues, but yeah, I seem to recall there was very little of Barry’s pre-Flash career as an adult. Readers learned more about his childhood in Fallville, his friendship with Daphne Dean, his comic book collecting and fascination with the Golden Age Flash than about how he met Iris or ended up working for the Central City Police Department. The book that did go into it was Mark Waid’s The Life Story of The Flash, which dealt with how Barry ended up in criminology, how he and Iris met and got engaged, etc.

As far as various character cameos in the first two issues:

There’s stuff going on with all of the Flash’s enemies and allies….every villain that appears there are plans for. Seeds sown. Like Black Hand in Green Lantern: Rebirth. There’s a long race ahead of us.

So Geoff Johns has long-term plans for The Flash. And since he’s Geoff Johns and not Grant Morrison, chances are DC will actually follow through with them and not try to sweep them under the rug as soon as his book is over. (Though to be fair they do seem to be following through on Morrison’s Batman arc, at least.)

At this point, it sounds like a virtual certainty that Geoff Johns will be writing the inevitable ongoing series that will follow Flash: Rebirth. This is probably a good thing, though at this point I want to see where Rebirth goes before calling it.

Geoff Johns on Word Balloon

The Word Balloon podcast interviews Geoff Johns, and the writer talks about Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night, and Legion of Three Worlds. Newsarama has a few excerpts, including this bit about reader reaction to Barry Allen’s characterization:

I love the discussion and debates, because I know where this story is going …I remember when we did The Sinestro Corps Wars, and Kyle at the end of the first issue was possessed by Parallax. People went crazy! They couldn’t believe how we could do this (laughs) …and Ethan was saying ‘We should tell them that he’s not going to be Parallax,’ and I said ‘No! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.’ … In Flash: Rebirth, Barry is searching for the same answers…this story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that. [Emphasis added.]

The whole interview is about an hour long. I know what I’m going to be listening to at lunch!

Update: I forgot my headphones, so I had to wait until I got home to listen. 🙁

Things that stood out, Flash-wise:

  • Trying to go against expectations
  • Twist coming for Wally
  • Flash is back, but Barry isn’t yet (figuratively speaking)
  • Bart’s attitude toward the Rogues is sort of “Nyah, nyah, missed me!”
  • Bart and Barry are in sync in terms of sensing that something’s wrong.
  • Expanding the Flash mythos so that there could be more than one Flash book post-Rebirth

Speed Reading: Covers, Talking Costumes and Ewoks on Steroids

Some weekend linkblogging:

Art

Covered features artist James Duncan’s reinterpretation of Flash v.1 #108.

Flash v.1 #159iFanboy’s Great Moments in Comics features a scan of the Flash’s costume begging Barry Allen not to leave it. “The Case of the Curious Costume,” which appeared in Flash v.1 #161 (1966) was a “bonus” story based on the cover from Flash v.1 #159. (Thanks to GCD for the scan!)

Crave Online’s Top 5 Covers for April starts the countdown with Flash: Rebirth #1 at position 5.

History

Over at Comics Should Be Good, Scott’s Classic Comics Corner has been trying to pin down the start of the Bronze Age of comics (a much fuzzier boundary than the start of the Silver Age), and finishes his series with several less serious suggestions. Among them: Flash #220 (1973), the return of Turtle Man, 17 years after he first appeared in…Showcase #4.

Critique

Profzoom has launched a series of Flash: Rebirth Annotations.

Pete’s Rambling Observations suggests that Wally’s kids are “Ewoks on steroids”

Read/RANT considers How Many Green Arrows (or Flashes) is Too Many?

The Weekly Crisis’ Moments of the Week include several “anti-moments” from Flash: Rebirth #2.

Interview

Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns about his 10-year run on JSA and Justice Society of America.