A question for those more familiar with Geoff Johns's other work. From Justice League and Justice League of America, he doesn't seem to be that great of a writer when it comes to teams. For the most part, I enjoyed his run on Green Lantern and Aquaman. However, when it comes to the 2 JL books, it's a whole lot of miss for me. The main problem I have is that it never feels like a team book. For me, a good team book really shows the dynamic between its various members, and while a storyline may focus on some characters more than others, the presence of everyone is still felt on a consistent basis. JL is primarily the Batman and Superman show with guest stars, and JLA is all Martian Manhunter, although now with some more Stargirl. Every now and then someone gets the spotlight for a bit, but then they disappear and become a background character until the plot calls for them again. Outside of Throne of Atlantis, I keep forgetting that Aquaman is on the team. Did he have any lines during Trinity War? How often did he interact with other members? Flash barely does anything outside of making jokes with Hal. Cyborg got one moment in Throne of Atlantis, but has otherwise been relegated to the background. Hal got ejected for Firestorm, who's whole purpose seems to be a plot device for Forever Evil. I'll be a little more forgiving with JLA since that book seems to have been made entirely for the purpose of Trinity War and Forever Evil, and thus wasn't a real team book in the first place, but the main Justice League book? For the more knowledgable, is this a consistent thing with Johns?

No, he actually is a great writer, I mean he is the guy that made most of the Lantern Corps. He made the amazing group "The Others" He wrote many big events like "Green Lantern Rebirth" "The Flash Rebirth" "Blackest Night" "Brightest Day" "Flashpoint" where characters interacted nicely.

But idk, I just think there is something about him and the New 52 Justice Leagues. Maybe he's just bored? Idk. But I do think it will get a bit better once Lex, Cap. Cold & Shazam come in, since he really dose like these characters a lot.

Think it depends on how much he likes/is familiar with the characters. For JL, he admitted he wasn't really familiar with Batman or Wonder Woman's personalities.

Is it just me who preferred the Shazam back-ups most of the time over the actual JL storyline?

His teen titan run and justice society runs where amazing.

I think its just dc giving hi to much work. His writing 4 books right now or what? And his also the boss off the compleet dc universe.

I think we suide be writing 2 books at a time maxx and make them as good as we can

He's not even close to that, Dan Didio & Jim Lee are the bosses of DC. Geoff Johns is like their right hand man.

@2cool4fun: those were all in solo books where the focus was mostly on specific members. When it comes to consistently writing and balancing groups, he doesn't seem to be all that great. I'm not saying he isn't a good writer though because we all know that it isn't true.

His teen Titan tuff was good and his Justice society stuff is apparently great (although this might be because there were other writers co-writing jsa)

Considering most of the Justice League is in exile at the moment, and he stopped writing JLA after #7 as Matt Kindt currently doing the whole Manhunter and Stargirl saga, I'm sure Johns has some sort of direction for that, I think at the moment to comment on the books current state isn't valid.

Personally I loved Trinity War, Part One blew me away, Throne of Atlantis was an epic, and the 2 arcs beforehand were enjoyable for me.

But there's no doubt his character development is outstanding.

But I'm with you when it feels like you forget the likes of Aquaman and Flash are on the team...

If your asking this question then you haven't read his amazing Teen Titans runs

I enjoyed his work on Avengers. Red Zone was an excellent story and each member of the team was written well in my opinion.

Most consider his JSA run as (one of) his best work(s).

BB

Nope, his JSA run was fantastic. His run on that series made the JSA my favourite superhero team. His Teen Titans run was pretty good, too.

For some weird, unknown reason his new52 JL run has been pretty mediocre. TT and JSA had tonnes of character development and was very character driven. New52 JL seems to be more plot driven than character driven. The only thing of substance to happen to their personalities is the SM/WW relationship (which Johns hasn't written well).

I mean his GL books were basically team books at some points, but his TT is also pretty good. I just think he's gotten off to a bit of a slow start with JL. Post Forever Evil looks to be somewhat interesting, Throne of Atlantis was pretty good in my book, and even though I dropped Forever Evil it wasn't because I wasn't enjoying it.

Nope. I like his Justice League and he also did a great job with The Others.

No. Justice League has been going up in quality, and his JSA and Titans were great

Normally I consider him the opposite of Gail Simone, who is great with teams, but leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to solo books. Johns is at his best when he can focus on one character, which he really cant with a team book without making it seem like he's favoring one character over the others.

Also I have to say; his TT run wasn't that great, the team spent most of it's time saving its members from various calamities rather than fighting good old crimes committed against normal people and Johns took a lot of liberties with the characters personalities when he started the book. Also I don't think there was all that much innovation when it came to characters, atm I can only remember him making a new Brother Blood... a vampire brat that worshiped Trigon, sry but the original Brother was more interesting... but Raven kinda maimed him.

And right now... well his JL is not something I'd consider a stellar piece of work. Cyborg is basically a bus that occasionally says something... pretty much the same applied to Darkseid, he can't write WW to save his life by the looks of it, and I am genuinely surprised how uncool he's made Batman in this setting.

Then why on Earth did he write Batman Earth One?

I like how he's written, The Others in his recent Aquaman run, I don't think he's bad.

People consider his JSA and Teen Titans run as one of his best works and as one of the best runs on both teams.While his current job on Justice League work isn't good at all until recently when Forever Evil happened and everything became amazing.

Geoff Johns is brilliant. Totally reinvigorated Green Lantern, ditto Shazam...I love his stories. How can anyone suggest he is a bad writer?

So he could create "his own new" Batman

No, but his attention is very divided that's why his current titles lack.
He is writing too much and has too much responsibilities. it's a shame considering his capabilities as a writer :-(

The question was rhetorical.

Johns is a terrific writer, especially with teams. The GLC, Teen Titans, and Justice Society of America. His New 52 work however has not been up to par. I haven't completely loved his Justice League work or his stuff on Green Lantern but his Aquaman stuff was pretty good.

Personally I think he is a fantastic writer. I loved his run on Green Lantern and Teen Titans from what I've read of it. He really made people change their minds on Aquaman which is a pretty impressive feat. I don't really like his Justice Leage run too much (though I'm in the minority I did like JL: Origin).

This. Johns works best when he is dealing with solo characters, especially ones that people have a hard time giving a shit about or characters that he likes and understands. He then expands their mythology and gives those characters huge fanbases.

His Aquaman run is far superior to his JL run for example. Also, he did wonders for characters he likes like Hal Jordan yet can't write Batman or Wonder Woman to save his life.

He's the writer that batman needs

No

He's currently only writing Justice League and Forever Evil, the latter of which ends in two months. So I wouldn't say he has too much on his plate. It had been confirmed that he is going to reinvigorate another character, like he did with Green Lantern a decade ago, and Aquaman recently. After seeing the New 52 origin of Plastic Man in Forever Evil, I'd guess Plas is that character.

GLC is a team!

His run on the Green Lantern and Green Lantern corps, the JSA and the 2003 Teen Titans proves that he can write a team book BUT i think that right now he's limited by the teams he's been given and their new "importance" with the rest of the DC universe (Justice League events are now at the center of everything rather than just being another fun team book) + I'm getting the impression that DC editorial and their "plans" for the 52 continuity are limiting what he can do, or accelerating some of his other plans. + unlike in the other team books he has written, where the majority (if not all) of the characters are exclusive to that book he's dealing with the most popular character who all (apart from Cyborg) have their own titles, thus he doesn't have the same freedom and range with the characters as they have to be the same characters as portrayed in the other book (a factor which can be far more easily seen by comparing the writing and character dynamics of the JL & JLA to those of the JLD & JLI). If the justice league had a different roster which didnt have all of the big hitters in them (only some with other characters) I'd bet that we'd all be saying "wow! he should write the JL with all the big-hitters in it!" as he'd be able to have more freedom with the characters. Hell one of my favouret issues of the current run was the recrutment one where they brought up all those different heroes to try out for the league as they were not (or no longer) tied down to another series, allowing them to be worked far more freely by Johns than any of the major league characters.

I've only read his Justice League. I want to try his Teen Titans but haven't had the opportunity yet as that is so far down on my list of things to read. But, his Justice League is good.

I hope you are joking.

I don't see Johns being a good fit for a character like Plastic Man. Maybe he's going to write a Cyborg ongoing? Or what about Doom Patrol, which was recently featured in JL 27?

@martianmanhunterisbetterthancy: Nope :)

I would rather have snyder but having everybody crap on bruce is amusing in it's own way, he deserves it after MM is removed from JL

It actually is kind of amusing.

@martianmanhunterisbetterthancy: it is right?