There are times where the world of comics changes. Moments where the rails of reality make a sudden bend toward an unexpected future. It is a great opportunity; it seems, in a world in which each landmass has already been explored, that a brand new island comes out of nothing. A new portion of ground that nobody knew about simply pops out before the eyes of everybody. It was there all along but still, in a way, invisible. This island lies in the mind of a few writers. And only in the minds of those who possess the right qualities, such as the foresight and intuition, there is the creative potential needed to express this new world full of wonders. In these moments all reality is vigorously torn, renewed, and what we are shown is a completely different world. A new one, very prosperous, characterized by a perfect balance of fertile soil, oxygen and nutrients, all primary sources needed to allow a vigorous development of unpublished magnificent adventures. Behind these revolutions that change the continuity of the events, there is often a person with a great talent, a feral mind with the great ability to deploy a complex chain of events, which does not lose efficiency and emphasis during the storytelling. The history of this decade and the revolutions that have been made in the field of comics, at least for DC Comics, is the legacy of Geoff Johns.
This great story begun way back in time, when two young kids from Detroit, while having fun at grandma's house, found a dusty old trunk. They opened it, guided by the typical childhood curiosity, and they found lying down there a few comic books. Intrigued by this discover, they began to browse these books and they let themselves to be kidnapped by the adventures read in these books. They let those stories nourish their imagination, inspiring their new games. They started to mimic the heroic deeds of those amazing heroes made of paper (how many fans of comic books could tell to have started their everlasting passion exactly in the same way?). One of those kids was Geoff Johns, the current CCO (Chief Creative Officer) of DC Comics.
The career of Johns started after a "lucky" call between himself and Richard Donner, an American film producer (famous for his contribution to movies like Superman, Lethal Weapon and The Goonies): it seems that, while he was waiting to talk to someone, Donner himself picked up the phone and gave him an assignment for an internship. In a couple of months he was promoted to production assistant. This work gave him the chance to meet Eddie Berganza, editor of DC Comics; this meeting opened the doors of DC Comics before him. Amongst his early works, there is the writing of “Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.”, a series based on the second Star Spangled Kid. Thanks to this work he was soon noticed by James Robinson, who proposed him a partnership for the writing of “Justice Society of America”. Johns used this chance to show his full artistic potential and, eventually, managed to write stories for The Flash regular series. The real challenge, however, came only in 2006, when he was required to bring back from the dead the first and greatest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.
He set a miniseries named "Rebirth"; this name become a concrete stronghold in the DC reality (Geoff Johns, in fact, used this brand for other series of great relevance, such as the rebirth of Barry Allen). Once he accomplished this first task, he started to think that every emotion should be channeled to a ring. With this idea he made his assumption for the creation of the Sinestro Corps. The "Sinestro Corps War" begun as a prologue to his next and far more impressive work. It was greeted with great interest by the fans of Green Lantern; the series gained also a nomination for an Eisner Award (Best penciller / Inker or penciller / Inker Team). This great success gave Geoff Johns the inspiration to dare even further, to freely create stories involving the entire DC Comics superheroes. Gradually, in every comic book involving the world of the lanterns, he presented the entire cast of the ringwielders and the way they could tap into the emotional spectrum and create constructs. With such a perfect group, he found the basis for the subsequent colossal colorful odyssey: we were at the threshold of the exciting “Blackest Night”. That story required an immense amount of work, as much as it needed -and deserved- all the necessary space for its execution. It claimed the pages of every regular comic book and also required the printing of some additional limited series comic book, focused on the activities of DC’s greatest gun, such as Superman, Batman, The Flash and Wonder Woman.
The Blackest Night was the conclusion of a sort of Trilogy of the Lantern. Geoff Johns was promoted to CCO, a position that he still holds. Not satisfied with the successes obtained up to that point, Johns continued to write every adventure about the world of the lanterns. He then made, alongside Peter J. Tomasi, the ideological sequel of “Blackest Night”. Obviously, we are referring to “Brightest Day”, a 24-chapter-long saga that brings into the spotlight a character remained for years in the shadows, Swamp Thing. In the same period he wrote the second "Rebirth" event, celebrating this time the return of the Silver Age Scarlet Speedster, Barry Allen. This miniseries was once again a success and the first issue was sold out within the first day of sales. Similar to the rebirth of Hal Jordan, Geoff Johns has been able to identify the distinctive features of the most famous Flash.
Then he started a brand new crossover event, named “Flashpoint”. It was, as usual, played out of the normal boundaries imposed by Nature. This new series, all focused on the DC’s speedsters world, sees the eternal antagonist of The Flash, Professor Zoom (a.k.a. Reverse-Flash), generating a rip in the fabric of space-time with the only purpose of destroying Barry Allen in the past, preventing the accident in which he gained his powers. Even this series was a sales success throughout every issue, with the final one ranked at the second place in the US sales charts, outnumbered only by Justice League #1. The “Flashpoint” aftermath led to the DC Comics reboot, named "The New 52!”.
During this relaunch, he dedicated himself to the writing of the Justice League and Aquaman titles. Once again, he proved not to be just a writer amongst many others. Geoff Johns manifests the same features of the subjects he writes about: a great force, an inexhaustible creativity, tenacity and a lot of intuition. He is a modern King Midas who seems to turn everything who puts hands on into gold. With the release of the fifth chapter of both series, in January 2012, The Justice League is back at the 1st place of the sales rankings. Aquaman, however, earns the tenth position (everyone take a little time to reflect on the magnitude of this achievement). But the true value of Johns’ work is well proved by the remaining eight positions of the top ten: the reverb of Flashpoint and the aggressive advertisement operated by DC Comics on the new 52 titles, has obtained a ranking composed exclusively by books marked with their logo (a new reflection now on the Aquaman series ahead of ANY other Marvel Comics book).
At this point you might think that, having already written so much, this young author should be, by now, out of inspiration. If you think so, you are wrong. He is about to return with a new chapter, a new "Rebirth", this time with the aim to give a new sense to this new whole DC universe. This project will achieve two goals: the first one is to reintroduce in the continuity line some situations that have been, without much criticism. With “The New 52!”, in fact, the bridge that linked DC Comics to his older fans, has been erased. Some of the best affective situations between characters, developed over several years, were simply just eradicated, and this is the right time to give an explanation to that decision. The second goal is to bring back on the Grand Chessboard the second greatest Flash, Wally West, quickly erased as well. This new chapter will be the starting point for an exciting new series of stories. This book contains clues that will bring more attention to possible future series. In short, this “Third Rebirth” will provide to all DC writers many ideas to be used to develop an interesting editorial future.
According to Johns’ words, this will be his last contribution to the world of comics, for a while. Meanwhile he will take care, with his body and soul, to the development of the incipient DC Alternate Universe, a project that aims at bringing the DC superheroes on the big screen in a series of films with a common storyline (as well as the MCU to the Marvel Comics).
In witnessing the results of his exemplary work, we have to be fully aware of one thing: the thing that really binds the writer from Detroit to DC Comics and its characters is, actually, pure love. A love that appears to be mutual. It can’t in fact help but think that, in the Michelangelesque cover of "DC Comics Rebirth", the hand that all the characters strive to reach in a desperate search for salvation or, perhaps, inspired by a deep sense of gratitude, it is actually the hand of Geoff Johns.
