The Four Color Media Monitor

Overrated Johns was interviewed by ComicBook, discussing the new Justice Society series he's writing, and expects everyone to just buy into his claim he's capable of expanding on the title's legacy at face value:

Nicole Drum, ComicBook.com: Tell me a little bit about the new Justice Society of America, #1.

Geoff Johns: It's really exploring the Justice Society in a very different way than it has been explored before. And I don't completely want to blow it, but I think it's going to surprise a lot of people, the way The New Golden Age really sets up our main character. And it revolves around our main character, and it's going to introduce a lot of... JSA number one has a lot of new characters in there too, a lot of new heroes, new villains, and a new purpose to the JSA. So, you'll see what they evolve into at one point in their long legacy.

And one of the things that has been interesting to explore this new Justice Society that is every era, every generation has its own unique team, and that the great thing about these generations of JSA teams is that it's going to keep continuing on, next generation and next generation, next generation. And you'll see the differences in the generations and the differences in the teams and the legacies and everything else. When we come into the JSA, Justice Society of America, in issue one, it's at a very specific time in its existence, a time that it is going through an iteration of itself that it never has done before. And so, you'll see why that is and what that means, and how it's going to affect both the future of the JSA and the past at the same time.

I seem to remember that over a decade ago, Johns came up with an illegitimate son for Wildcat named Tommy Bronson, who had powers of his own, in yet another one of the most forced storylines ever conceived. I don't know if that concoction still stands as "canon", but whatever Johns has come up with is laughable, and doesn't age any better than anything else. And when Johns speaks of exploring "generations", it sounds like little more than an excuse to dodge the query of whether entertainment value has any place here. With the way industry sales have been going, there's no telling if this can continue much longer.

Something you told me before about just dealing with the JSA again, especially when we talked at the end of Flashpoint Beyond, was that you're not reinventing the JSA, you're going back and finding places and pockets and corners where you can expand that story, but not change it in a way. So, we're expanding and we're developing new things. I like to think about it, I was explaining it to one of my colleagues, we're not reinventing the wheel, We're finding those places of untold stories in a lot of ways. Does that feel accurate to you?

Yeah, it does when we look at the past. One of my goals, always when I take on a big, longstanding character team, is not to... I don't necessarily think the JSA needs to be changed. Its origin doesn't need to be altered. It is what it is. But I love expanding on it, both back then and today and in the future, is expanding that legacy of the JSA. Is that they had other stories we have not yet read about in the past. There are other characters we have not yet met that they interacted with in the past. Just because they weren't published in 1940 doesn't mean they didn't exist. Every character has stories to be told in their past, present, and future. And the JSA, to me, it has more than any of them.

And one of the goals of The New Golden Age is to expand that out and to create even a more unique, mysterious, unknown, diverse group of characters and stories that we can explore with the Justice Society. And you saw some of those in the Golden Age, and you saw some hinted at in Stargirl #1. And those aren't the only ones that we'll see. You'll see other ones, as well.

Boy, does that understandably raise suspicion in this day and age when they speak of "diversity". One can only wonder if he'll introduce more social justice ingredients, and for now, we definitely can't be shocked if Alan Scott and Todd Rice both remain retconned as homosexual, so what's Johns talking about in regards to alterations he himself never did anything to prevent or avoid? In Alan's case, it was one of Johns' co-writers, James Robinson, who oversaw that when he was writing an unsuccessful remake of JSA called Earth 2. Till this day, DC don't seem to have any interest or willingness to abandon that, in all their entitled mindsets.

Johns also produces quite a laugh riot when he says just because new characters weren't created in 1940 "doesn't mean they didn't exist". Sorry, but they didn't, until later writers created them in later eras. This is colossally stupid, and confirms he's just another somebody who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality. All he seems good at is boasting. Including his addition of a new take on the original Bronze Age Huntress:

And it's a character story focused on our main character, Helena Wayne. It really is her story. And who she is, why is she different than the Huntress we all know? Why is this Huntress different? It's not just because she's the daughter of Batman and Catwoman; there's a lot more to it. And what her specific personal reason to be, reason to exist, reason to become a part of the JSA, it's all in there. [...]

Whether or not Helena's race or sexual preference will be changed, it makes no difference. What matters is that Johns is looking for little more than excuses to avoid writing on merit, as has practically been the case for a quarter century now, ever since he sadly got into the industry. Most of the "character development" in his stories was also very flimsy, and again, his stories don't hold up well, due to how they used far too much self-referential nostalgia and jarring violence. So whether or not he'll leave Alan and Todd as they've been for some time now, it just don't matter, because Johns' writing is simply insufferable regardless.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice Society of America, msm propaganda