Geoff Johns

Justice League panel at SDCC 2011

DC has separating its new 52 books out into distinct brands (“Edge”, “Dark”, “Young Justice”, etc) and this panel was focused on the Justice League line of books (tagline “Worlds Greatest Super Heroes”). This naturally includes Justice League (writer Geoff Johns and aritist Jim Lee) and Justice League International (writer Dan Jurgens), but also books like Captain Atom (JT Krul), Green Arrow (writer JT Krul, artist Jurgens), Hawkman (artist Philip Tan), Flash (Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato), Mister Terrific (writer Eric Wallace), were also present – plus Johns in his capacity as the writer of Aquaman and Green Lantern. The panel was moderated by DC’s Senior Vice-President of Sales Bob Wayne and Executive Editor Eddie Berganza.

You can find an MP3 download podcast of the panel on DC’s website. There were quite a few creators present, but the JLI and JLI books took up most of the discussion.

Justice League

Jim Lee introduced the Justice League:

It’s been a real delight working with Geoff [Johns], we’ve talked about working together for a long time. And it’s great to be on a team book again, honestly. I’ve been working on single character books for a long time. All those characters have side kicks and foils and things like that to interact with, but it’s predominantly a single flavour that you get out of Superman or Batman. Doing a team book gives you a completely different dynamic. It’s all about the interaction between all these iconic characters and Geoff is just a master at exploring the personalities behind the masks. The characters have different ideologies and personalities, it’s great having that interaction between characters like Batman and Green Lantern.

There is a lot of humour, I actually laugh a lot each time I read the script, probably in places I’m not supposed to be. I always learn something working with new writers for the first time, he’s [Geoff] really brought out the humanity in these characters. I hope you guys get a kick out of it.

Later in the Aquaman segment Geoff Johns touched on the humour element.

I’m really trying to inject some humour into all my books this time around from Justice League, to Aquaman, to Green Lantern get back to, instead of superheroes talking with other superheroes all the time, have superheroes interacting with real people.

Geoff on Hawkman:

He’s also a member of the Justice League. Everybody’s having a meeting and they’re all talking and a big mace falls on the table. They look up and Hawkman’s there. He sits down and goes “don’t worry, it’s not my blood!

How Cyborg can be a founding member of the Justice League given that he was originally a the Teen Titans character will be addressed in Justice League. Adding Cyborg to the team is about shaking things up, Geoff Johns said that:

I didn’t want to do the same seven that everybody predicts. The Martian Manhunter, well you’ll see where the Martian Manhunter is at, in the storyline, the origin, but, I like Cyborg, I think he’s a great character. I’ve written him for years and years in the Titans and Flash and I really think he’s a modern-day superhero. I don’t know if anybody in here doesn’t have an online identity, but he’s online and offline all the time.

Jim Lee was asked whether the Justice League costumes were “Paul Gambini originals?”

The design on Justice League. We wanted them to be obviously a team and we had a chance to design the costumes in a way that subtly suggests that they are team-like so there are similarities between the costumes. The high collars, I just think they look more regal more majestic. If you look at a lot of the more open-collar costumes, like Superman and Aquaman, [they] harken back to the late 1930s and 40s strongman kind of appearance. So it was just giving it an update.

It was also noted that Ivan Reis had put that a high collar on Aquaman before Jim Lee came to do the JLA costume redesign.

Another questioner brought up the Manhunter issue and Johns reiterated that J’onzz’s status will be addressed somewhere in the first arc (“there is a story to be had there”), but from a larger perspective there is an in-universe reason in the New 52 as to why there is only one alien (to wit Superman) on the Justice League. Geoff jokes that “When everybody see him they’re like “its a Martian!” and Hal’s like “hey dude”. The Manhunter will be in Paul Cornell’s Stormwatch.

Justice League International

Dan Jurgens introduced the new Justice League International:

The Justice League International is an officially United Nations sponsored group [that is] in part is a reaction to the JLA. Batman, Rocket Red, Fire, August General in Iron, Booster, Guy (kinda of in and out a little bit), Vixen, Ice, and its going to be a bit of a rotating membership. Because some of these guys think – and when I say “Guys” is that a clue – some of these guys might think that they deserve to be in a somewhat better group than JLI. So there is a little bit of coming and going as the roster changes and rotates, but it is a group that is put together in direct response to the JLA.

Aaron Lopresti is doing incredible artwork on this book, he’s knocked the ball out of the park page after page. It’s a lot of big open stuff as I think this page shows [the coloured page] and its one of those things that we’re really trying to bring back, I think a lot of action and movement into the DC Universe, lots of big visuals, lots of fun stuff. As you can see here too [surprised as second JLI page is shown], as we continue on JLI. Not yet coloured, but Aaron and inker Matt Ryan are really going fabulous work on this. There is just tremendous characterisation that is coming through in their artwork, all the figure work, and everything they do.

On the Batman’s inclusion in both teams:

With JLI – I’ve got to figure how to do without giving too much away – let’s put it this way: JLI is a sponsored United Nations organisation that it put together in response to the JLA right? Well the JLA kinda thinks that they have somebody attached to their team that the United Nations knows nothing about. So he’s [Batman] kind of the bridge between the two teams and it’s not like the Batman would ever do what the UN tells him to. So he’s there because he thinks that’s where he should be and building a bit of a conduit between the two groups.

Dan Jurgens later brought the JLI cover back up and pointed out that none of the characters, with the exception of Batman, were wearing masks:

One of the things we’re building in the new DC Universe, as it pertains to this group, is the idea that all these people are much more known than typical, and remember I said that Batman was there without the UN’s permission. They went though an exercise that said we don’t want people with masks and identities we don’t necessarily know, and we sure don’t want any aliens.

Diversity

Issues about of the new line’s diversity was raised several times. Mister Terrific’s Eric Wallace stressed that the drive to increase diversity wasn’t limited to the headline characters, but there was also effort put in to increase the diversity of the supporting casts and the background characters.

The questions about diversity also prompted responses that revealed details that various writers may otherwise have held off until their books would have appeared. Dan Jurgens said that August-General-In-Iron had become one of his favourite characters in the JLI book. Geoff teased that there was a “smaller” character in Justice League who rhymed with “batom” (pretty much telegraphing that the Ryan Choi version of the Atom was to make an appearance).

There was an interesting and slightly tense debate on the prominence of, or lack of, women in the new DCU. This led Geoff to claim that DC has “by far and away more iconic and stronger female superheroes than any other company out there.” The questioner countered that most of those were “Girl” representations of “Man” characters and not adult “Women”. She made several very good points and the panel struggled to convince her that things were being addressed.

Just from my own survey of the Justice League books – Justice League International and Dark are both 50% male/female. The flagship JL title isn’t so balanced as it looks like just Wonder Woman, but there are other characters like Mera and Element Woman, who we haven’t seen yet so we may have to wait to pass judgement on that one.

It was unfortunate that Bob Wayne had to silence the audience at one point.

Justice League #1 by Johns and Lee

USA Today (retweeted by @DC_Nation) has just confirmed that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee will be taking over Justice League post-Flashpoint. The news was scooped what Bleeding Cool had announced Bleeding Cool a few hours beforehand.

Justice League (vol. 2)

From the USA Today article:

Starting this summer, the publisher will re-number its entire DC Universe of titles, revamping famous characters such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and others from its 76-year history for a more modern and diverse 21st century.

The first book to be released under this new era: Justice League No. 1, out Aug. 31, a series by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee that reunites the famous lineup of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

Johns promises a focus on the interpersonal relationships within DC’s trademark superteam. “What’s the human aspect behind all these costumes?” he says. “That’s what I wanted to explore.”

This should be really good – some of the highlights of Blackest Night were the Barry Allen and Hal Jordan interactions. This will be the second volume to be called just Justice League – the post-Crisis on Infinite Earth series was also called that before it was rebranded as Justice League International (there is a still a previously announced JLI series lurking around somewhere). The JL series launches in the same week as Flashpoint #5.

Updated 01/06/2011: A second USA Today article included more details on the JL series:

Guided by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee, Justice League will begin its first year with an updated secret origin reflecting DC’s new initiative, giving the group a reason for coming together that it lacked when the league first appeared in 1960. And while it will ultimately boast 14 members, at its core will be DC’s A-list do-gooders: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman.

The original image that DC released was a crop of the above image and didn’t show the Flash or Cyborg.

Revamp? Reboot?

This is also a revamp. Jim Lee from the article:

This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.

In a letter to Comics Retailers DC goes into a bit more detail on the changes:

We are positioning ourselves to tell the most innovative stories with our characters to allow fans to see them from a new angle. We have taken great care in maintaining continuity where most important, but fans will see a new approach to our storytelling.
Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes. Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.

A new approach to storytelling? This could very well be as major as the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboots or as minor as the post-Infinite Crisis relaunch. I do have concerns about what the status quo will be. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was struggling with my more pessimistic tendencies on this one. I’ve see too many relaunches and reboots at DC before. I hope it will be brilliant, I know the people involved should ensure that, but we’re really going to have to wait and see how this one plays out.

Day and date digital

The reason for the relaunch given in the article is a complete, linewide shift to day-and-date digital distribution. I read all of Generation Lost digitally so I’m use to it, but they will have to do something about the price point. $2.99 for a digital comic is too high if you don’t have some sort of download to hard-disc option – it’s just too much money to lock into one company’s digital vault.

Prediction for the next few years: Comixology will be bought by somebody big, really big. Given that Amazon bought Audible I could well see them making a play for Comixology, if the digital comics market continues to expand.

The return of Earth One

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I was going to post to ask if anybody thought that DC had gone quiet on the news front, but its seems like they were holding back for a big tease about next year’s stories. This week their blog is going to be running a series of posts called “DC in 2010″ and the first one is a doozy. Their first announcement is about a new line of original graphic novels set within a new universe called Earth-One. The concept looks rather a lot like Marvel’s Ultimate Universe – take the existing characters and retell their stories beginning with updated origins. The first two original graphics novels will be Batman: Earth-One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank and Superman: Earth-One by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis.

There is an accompanying interview at AICN with Geoff Johns and JMS. Johns commented on the approach to Earth-One:

It’s Gary Frank and I joining together to be a part of the first line of ongoing graphic novel series ever from the big two.

BATMAN: EARTH ONE is more in line with the European idea of releasing chapters of an ongoing series in graphic novel form. We’re planning on doing two novels a year and set in this new universe, we’re getting unlimited creative freedom that we couldn’t have in current continuity.

When Dan Didio asked if Gary and I would be interested in something like this we were onboard immediately. We’re taking on Batman, and the world around him, and rebuilding it from the ground up.

I think the disadvantage of the Sueprman project is that Geoff Johns is currently retelling Superman’s origin with Gary Frank in Superman: Secret Origin and it seems that JMS will be making some of the same creative choices (e.g. a Daily Planet on “downward slide” before Superman’s appearance).

There are several things that are important about this announcement, but the biggest one could simply be the format they’ve chosen. Original graphic novels play to the book store crowd and not the comic book store. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t buy trades or graphic novels at my local comics shop – they’ve just too expensive when compared to somewhere like Amazon or Borders. I’m sure we’ll hear worries from the shop owners.

On a purely story telling side, its been noticable that DC have avoided using the phase Earth-One since the introduction of the new Multiverse. The main universe has been called New Earth (post-Infinite Crisis) or Universe Designate Zero (Final Crisis). Any instances of it being called Earth-One have generally been explained as mistakes. The Justice Society visited Earth-Two, but an actual Earth-One was missing. It’s an important name because it was the title of the main DC Earth from the 1960s to 1986. However, this new Earth isn’t that Earth and the name seems to be purely branding.

This new set-up side steps the All-Star approach of using high profile talent to launch self-contained series. As brilliant as All-Star Superman was, All-Star Batman has been something of a car crash. I really wouldn’t be too surprised if we see All-Star Wonder Woman re-emerge as Wonder Woman: Earth One. For that matter, I really wouldn’t be surprised if the rumoured Geoff Johns / Jim Lee take on the Justice League emerges as Justice League: Earth One.

Few things say Earth-One Batman more than a yellow oval behind the bat symbol

Jim Lee on a JLA book?

Take everything that follows with a liberal dose of “I’ll believe it when I see it.” For sometime there have been rumours that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are going to collaborate on a Justice League story or title. As usual these rumours come from Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool. The latest incarnation involves a question asked to Lee at a convention. From Bleeding Cool…

Jim Lee was asked by a fan during his panel at the Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con if he would be working on Justice League in the next few months. Lee replied “wouldn’t that be awesome” before saying with a glint that it would be “foolish, foolish” to suggest that a late artist such as himself be given a book with many characters in it, before mentioning that it was very cool now that Hal Jordan and Barry Allen were back… before drifting off and repeating “wouldn’t that be awesome?”

Least we also forget that Lee is now free on his executive obligations at Wildstorm so has time, in a relative sense, to spend on drawing comic books. Unless, that is, he gets hired back as DC’s Publisher (another rumour).

This puts me in mind of another question that was put to Geoff Johns at CBR about his post-Blackest Night work.

[CBR: ] Schluffy wants to know if you’ll be returning to “Action Comics” or any of the other Superman titles after “Secret Origin” is complete?

[Geoff Johns: ]I will not. My stint on Superman ends with “Superman Secret Origin.” The guys have a lot of big plans ahead, but I am going to be focused on the Flash and Green Lantern. Gary Frank and I are moving on to a different project.

So Johns is rumoured to be writing a JLA project with Lee and he’s admitted to another undisclosed future project with Gary Frank. I’d love it if those two things were actually the same project – a JLA companion title in the same vein as Johns’ Action Comics run (a single writer paired with a succession of distinctive, high-profile artists) with Frank and Lee illustrating the first two arcs. Purely fanish pie-in-the-sky, but we can at least dream.

Updated several hours later to add:

CBR have more in depth coverage of the Jim Lee Big Apple Con panel and reproduce Jim’s quote in full:

Lee was asked about rumors that he’d work on a “Justice League of America” comic book within the next year or two. “That’d be awesome,” he answered. “But it’s taken me this long to finish ‘All-Star Batman and Robin,’ so for me to even suggest that I’d work on something else with more than one character on a page would be suicide. It’d be foolish if I said that–but it’d be awesome if that happened! I would love to do it, but I want to get ‘All-Star Batman and Robin’ done first.”

That sounds far less definite than the BC story, but the self-deprecation aside I still think he could do it if his schedule was clear enough.

People talking about Superman

Kurt Busiek on the Superman plots he’s leaving behind:

“But one of the great things about working in the DC Universe is that leaving a series doesn’t mean you have to drop all the ideas. Some of what I had planned for Superman will find its way into the mystery project, just as some of what I had planned for JLA turned up in Superman. And I certainly intend to do more with Khyber and Subjekt-17 and Arion in the future somewhere, and hope I’ll get to do more with Karsta Wor-Ul and the Insect Queen and Krypto and the Rude Mechanicals and the issues raised in #666. If Geoff and whoever follows me on Superman pick up the stuff I put in the book, then great. If they don’t, it’s there for me to pick up at another point.”

Geoff Johns on Kurt Busiek’s replacement:

“And with the new writer coming in on Superman, too – I have a great relationship with him, he’s one of my favorite writers of all time, and I’m psyched about moving things forward between Superman and Action. There’s a third writer we’re talking to that I’m hoping will be involved in this Superman explosion we’re cooking up. I want to bring the same level of excitement to the books that was there when I was a kid.”

Phil Hester on Superman Artists:

“It begins and ends with Joe Shuster. His Superman had a raw, coiled energy that no one’s captured since. Joe’s Superman also exhibited a playfulness contrasting the wild-eyed power. I worked on the Superman TV series very briefly as a storyboard guy and Bruce Timm’s notes on Superman distilled everything I ever felt about how he should look and move. Even when Bruce’s Superman is standing still it looks like he’s exerting some graceful power, like by standing there he’s holding the earth in place. “

Bill (David Carradine) exposed Tarantino’s view of the Silver Age Clark Kent: (from Kill Bill, somebody finally loaded the scene onto You Tube)

As you know I’m quite keen on comic books, especially the ones on super-heroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding super-heroes fascinating. Take my favourite super-hero, Superman. Not a great comic book, not particularly well drawn, [slugs a whisky] … but the mythology! The mythology is not only great, it is unique. [...] Now a staple of the super-hero mythology is that there is the super-hero and there is the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning he’s Peter Parker, he has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic that Superman stands alone.

Superman didn’t become Superman; Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big-red-S, that’s the blanket it was wrapped in as a baby when the Kent’s found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses, the business suit, that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman view’s us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent: he’s weak, he’s unsure of himself, he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race!”