They're only out of costume if Geoff Johns says so
Comic Book Resources runs one of their predictably unchallenging interviews with Geoff Johns, and among the stuff they bring up in this otherwise dreary, laughable item:
In any case, his attempts to do anything like this really fall flat, not unlike J. Michael Stracynski's own efforts, mostly because of how they seem awfully half-hearted at best, to say nothing of merely symbolic. And it's clear that the only reason why this kind of story might happen is because Johns is DC's equivalent to Brian Bendis at Marvel. They can be quite "clever" and "cunning" when they want to.
Barry Allen’s life is as a member of the CSI. That’s really important to him as a character and I wanted that to be front and center in the book because most of the time the life outside of the costume is never seen anymore. That was that whole point of that first arc. When I wrote [it], I wanted to make sure that Barry’s life outside of the Flash was affecting the story and was as important to his life as his life is inside the costume. I think some of that secret identity and the supporting cast and the lives of heroes outside of their costumes and how that affects the story has been lost. Most of the characters never come out of the costume anymore. They don’t have a regular life that they return to each night. I wanted to get back to, like you said, presenting “The Flash” as a bit of an old school book because I don’t know if there is another superhero out there that takes his secret identity so seriously.Wow, that's pretty funny coming from Johns, who had a big chance to do a simpler story focusing on Wally West's relations with Linda Park's parents during his run on the previous volume, yet never went so far beyond a mere cameo for them, and even implied that Wally doesn't get along with the dad-in-law, if anyone! Is there anything about this current take on Barry that couldn't have been done with Wally? I don't think so. And I wouldn't be surprised if his claim is at least half exaggerated.
In any case, his attempts to do anything like this really fall flat, not unlike J. Michael Stracynski's own efforts, mostly because of how they seem awfully half-hearted at best, to say nothing of merely symbolic. And it's clear that the only reason why this kind of story might happen is because Johns is DC's equivalent to Brian Bendis at Marvel. They can be quite "clever" and "cunning" when they want to.
Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash
