Geoff Johns

For a man about to start a war, Geoff Johns seems calm. Upbeat, even. Upstairs from Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood in an office lunchroom ahead of a signing for Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, DC Comics’ chief creative officer, sporting just-tearing-at-the-knee jeans, a red plaid shirt and a weathered Aquaman baseball cap, occasionally pets his bulldog while discussing the summer event he and collaborator Jeff Lemire are scripting in their respective “Justice League” and “Justice League Dark” titles, and together in “Justice League of America.” (You can see a larger version of Ivan Reis and Joe Prado’s triptych cover for the first issues here.) “Trinity War,” which unfolds in six parts across those three series’ July and August releases, with tie-ins including “Trinity of Sin: Pandora” No. 1 (written by Ray Fawkes), is DC Comics’ biggest event since launching […]

“Arrow” gets a visit from a comic book legend this week, although the character doesn’t appear on screen. Geoff Johns, DC Comics’ chief creative officer and one of the highest profile comic book writers working today, drops in on Starling City to write this week’s episode, “Dead to Rights.” Often when a guest writer comes on to a show, the episode tends to be a little more self-contained. But not this one, which is filled with plot developments, the return of old villains and ends with quite a cliffhanger. (Wouldn’t you know it, the series takes a couple of weeks off after this week.) Johns recently announced that he was stepping down from his writing duties on “Green Lantern,” the DC Comic he helped reinvent nine years ago. He talked with Hero Complex briefly about his episode of “Arrow” and […]

Cisco Ramone, a.k.a. Vibe, is perhaps the unlikeliest member of the Justice League of America. He’s a teenager who, in a tragic turn of events, finds himself endowed with the ability to sense and fight inter-dimensional threats — in this case, the forces of uber-villain Darkseid. Cisco’s newfound powers, drawn from vibrational cracks between different dimensions, win him a place among the heroes he revered in his childhood. The new Justice League also includes Catwoman, Hawkman, Stargirl, Green Arrow and more. The launch issue of “Justice League of America’s Vibe” hits shelves Wednesday, but Hero Complex readers get a sneak peek at the comic, co-written by Geoff Johns and Andrew Kreisberg and illustrated by Pete Woods and Sean Parsons. Click through the gallery above or use the links below for larger versions. Cover | Variant Cover | Page 5 | […]

Geoff Johns, whose work on “Green Lantern” brought the character out of relative obscurity to the top tier of DC Comics’ slate of superheroes, announced Monday that his run would end in May with Green Lantern issue No. 20. Johns’ tenure at the helm of “Green Lantern” began in 2004 with the six-issue “Rebirth” series, which brought longtime Green Lantern Hal Jordan back into the corps, reinstated much of the Green Lantern’s earlier elements (including Guardians of the Universe and archenemy Sinestro) and set the stage for Johns’ ever-expanding suite of characters. Johns announced his decision in a post at DC’s the Source, in which he spoke of his contributions to the Green Lantern mythos. “It’s hard to imagine a Green Lantern universe without characters like Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker, the Indigo Tribe or the rest of the gang anymore,” […]

The Batman we know best is unrelenting, unflappable, unforgiving and, on occasion, unhinged. But watch Bruce Wayne’s face during the next month and you’ll see something new and truly troubling in his eyes: uncertainty. Two major additions to the Batman mythology arrive in the next three weeks — on Independence Day it’s “Batman: Earth One,” the hardcover graphic novel  by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, and then (of course) on July 20 it’s the opening day for “The Dark Knight Rises,” which closes out Christopher Nolan’s history-making Gotham City trilogy. The projects have more in common than their release month; each has the rare but authentic possibility of reaching a final scene in which a third family tombstone is added next to Thomas and Martha Wayne. In “The Dark Knight Rises,” moviegoers are reintroduced to Bruce Wayne but at first he’s just a […]

Hollywood used to find movies ideas on the New York Times bestsellers list, but lately it seems like studios are handing around an old Toys ‘R’ Us  catalog from the Reagan years. Battleship, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Tonka and Ouija have all made headlines, and any day we’re expecting to hear about a visionary producer who thinks that proposed View-Master movie just might click. Surely, though, this ongoing toy story in pop culture can’t continue, can it? “By the power of … Grayskull!” Ah. Right. We almost forgot that DC Comics announced in April that “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” would be launched as a six-issue series in July. Writer James Robinson and artist Phillip Tan are crafting this new interpretation of the muscular Mattel brand that launched in 1981 and became a cartoon series in 1983. The premise of the new series is that Skeletor has […]

Few superheroes have soared as high as Captain Marvel — he was the first comic-book character to reach Hollywood’s silver screen (Republic’s “Adventures of Captain Marvel” beat the Fleischer “Superman” cartoons to theaters by six months) and he was a newsstand powerhouse, outselling every rival in the 1940s. But Earth’s Mightiest Mortal plummeted from pop culture due to changing tastes and legal issues and, from 1954 to 1972, his comics weren’t published at all. He’s been in the DC Universe since that 1972 revival but (despite some bright spots) he’s never lived up to that illustrious heritage. Now, in the pages of “Justice League,” Geoff Johns, the star writer and chief creative officer of DC Entertainment, and artist Gary Frank are adding new wrinkles to the mythology and hope to put some of the old magic back in the word “Shazam!” HC: We’ve seen different versions […]

The 2011 Hero Complex Film Festival is in the books and what a weekend it was. Robert Downey Jr. shocked the crowd for a surprise “Iron Man” reunion; Jon Favreau made jaws drop with 10 minutes of footage from “Cowboys & Aliens” ; Warren Beatty stretched a Q&A to nearly two hours and declared his need to “vomit” a “Dick Tracy” remake/sequel; “Superman” director Richard Donner wowed the crowd with sparkling stories about the classic film and the late, great Christopher Reeve;  Marvel won the audience over with the world premiere of a new “Captain America: The First Avenger” trailer and the coolest giveaway of the year;  ”Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” director Nicholas Meyer confessed a painful regret about the late Gene Roddenberry,  while the new “Trek” creative team looked to the Federation’s future on the big screen; comics superstars Geoff Johns and […]

The 2011 Hero Complex Film Festival is in the books and what a weekend it was. Robert Downey Jr. shocked the crowd for a surprise “Iron Man” reunion; Jon Favreau made jaws drop with 10 minutes of footage from “Cowboys & Aliens” ; Warren Beatty stretched a Q&A to nearly two hours and declared his need to “vomit” a “Dick Tracy” remake/sequel; “Superman” director Richard Donner wowed the crowd with sparkling stories about the classic film and the late, great Christopher Reeve;  Marvel won the audience over with the world premiere of a new “Captain America: The First Avenger” trailer and the coolest giveaway of the year;  ”Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” director Nicholas Meyer confessed a painful regret about the late Gene Roddenberry,  while the new “Trek” creative team looked to the Federation’s future on the big screen; comics superstars Geoff Johns and […]

DC Comics has been making headlines for weeks, but on Saturday, three of the top creative forces finally stepped into the spotlight to discuss the seismic changes planned for the oldest and most iconic comics universe. The Justice League, the superhero team at the very center of the DC Comics universe, will get an all-new origin story, beginning Aug. 31 in “Justice League” issue No. 1, according to artist Jim Lee and writer Geoff Johns, the celebrated creators who will be working in tandem for the first time. Johns and Lee said the story will be set five years in the past, as will the new Superman tale, which will launch with “Action Comics” issue No. 1 in September. “Action Comics” writer Grant Morrison sent a special video message to Saturday night’s audience at the Hero Complex Film Festival at […]