One of the things that I thought really worked was that you have ‘Smallville’ on television and ‘Superman Returns’ come out in the theater, and it was fine. Nobody freaked out; nobody thought they were competing. – Geoff Johns
The characters that have greys are the more interesting characters. The hero who sometimes crosses the line and the villain who sometimes doesn’t are just much more interesting. – Geoff Johns
The ocean is 90% unexplored. It’s a great canvas to paint Aquaman stories across, just like Green Lantern has space. It’s more organic, which makes it different and interesting. It’s alien, but it’s terrestrial. – Geoff Johns
I didn’t want to take the DC universe, put it in a box, shake the box and pour it out. I wanted to take the major characters and show what they could be like if they were put on a different path. – Geoff Johns
My sister was the inspiration for the character, the good qualities instilled in the character. The initial inspiration was there, but Stargirl has taken on a life of her own. She’s her own character now. – Geoff Johns
Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg are fantastic producers and showrunners, and they lead a very, very positive, fun, creative environment to work in and to work with. – Geoff Johns
I love finding balance. My favorite thing to do is action-driven, emotionally-charged scenes. – Geoff Johns
I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you’re afraid. You’re always afraid it’s not going to be as good as you want it to be. But, the key is overcoming fear. – Geoff Johns
As long as Green Lantern is still dealing with fear, it’s going to be relevant. ‘Rebirth’ really grew out of 9/11. 9/11 happened, and then two years later, I was writing about fear. It was obviously connected. – Geoff Johns
‘The New 52,’ I was really excited that new people got to jump in on books. In particular, on ‘Aqua Man.’ – Geoff Johns
The idea of introducing the Seven Seas is absolutely to challenge Aquaman on an emotional and personal level. His responsibility is unification of the world, and that just became a lot more complex when he learns about the fall of Atlantis and the splintering of the kingdoms. – Geoff Johns
I put my comics that are really valuable into regular mylar because I like to look at them. Once they’re in those clam shell boxes, they’re impossible to open up. – Geoff Johns
I really explored self-awareness and emotions through ‘Green Lantern.’ It might sound goofy, but I do believe that emotions have power. We’re all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction. For me, it was about recognizing my self-awareness. – Geoff Johns
Batman and the Flash have a whole lot in common behind the mask. They’ve both experienced loss, know forensic science, and are both a bit introverted. In ‘Flashpoint,’ Thomas Wayne thinks Barry is crazy, but Barry thinks Thomas is crazy. It’ll be really fun seeing those two trying to figure things out. – Geoff Johns
I tend to like writing long stories in comics. I worked on ‘Flash,’ ‘Teen Titans’ and ‘JSA’ for years. I always like diving into characters. – Geoff Johns
Clearly, Simon Baz brings such a different viewpoint to ‘Green Lantern.’ The very nature of the corps concept of overcoming fear, I felt Simon was a great character to explore, while getting a different viewpoint on things. – Geoff Johns
We are finding new areas in the ocean every day. It’s as alien as going to outer space. – Geoff Johns
Evil is relative – and what I mean by that is that our villains are as complex, as deep and as compelling as any of our heroes. Every antagonist in the DC Universe has a unique darkness, desire and drive. And the reason for being of ‘Forever Evil’ is to explore that darkness. – Geoff Johns
Any character can find an audience and work if you have passion for that character. You might have to just scrape off the dirt and the barnacles and pull it out and highlight it. – Geoff Johns
I like collecting comics, I like buying comics, I like looking at comics, but I also read comics on digital readers, so any way people read comics is fine with me. Digital is just helping people who might not necessarily have access to comics help them; that’s great. – Geoff Johns
The thing about Green Lantern rings is they pick whoever has potential to overcome great fear. – Geoff Johns
The problem is there are so many stories out there where I can pull that superhero out, put any other superhero in, and the story works the same. For me, that’s broken. I have to write a story that no one else but Aquaman or Shazam can be in, and as soon as you pull that character out and out someone else in, it doesn’t work. – Geoff Johns
I love every character in the DC universe, except for Rampage. Rampage is a She-Hulk rip-off, and I like She-Hulk. – Geoff Johns
‘Forever Evil’ is, ultimately, a Lex Luthor story. And everything in there is reflecting who Lex is and what he’s going through. And we continue to learn more and more things about him that we might not know, and he’s going to continue to experience things and do things that are surprising, I think, to even him – especially us. – Geoff Johns
