The Four Color Media Monitor

In an interview with CBR, one of the worst modern writers next to Brian Bendis describes his whole cliched premise for a new comic he's producing with artist Reis, which is supposed to be something like a nod to one of the worst crossover events of the mid-2000s:

CBR: What was the initial inspiration behind the creation of Hyde Street?

Geoff Johns: Definitely my love for horror. I have worked on superheroes for so long and I love it, but I never had the opportunity to really explore other genres like we're doing with Ghost Machine and with Hyde Street. Ivan and I had done Blackest Night and Aquaman Vol 1: The Trench , and there were some horror elements in there, and we really liked it. So we wanted to explore something that tapped into our love for Black Mirror, The Twilight Zone, and the Universal Monsters and the classic horror stuff that we love, but with modern sensibilities and with recurring characters instead of an anthology.

We've created this place where people are drawn to called Hyde Street, and it can be anywhere. So you could be in New York City, or in a small town in France, or off a country road in Alabama and you might find yourself on Hyde Street. It can look like anything, but there are certain people on Hyde Street called "the residents" that are there, and you need to be careful who you talk to and what you listen to because these people are there for a reason. You've been drawn to Hyde Street for a reason. And it's all about who the residents are, why they're there, what they're doing, who they work for, and the mystery. But it's an exploration of our favorite horror stuff and sci-fi stuff, but with a larger tapestry of mythology like Blackest Night or Green Lantern.

As somebody who foolishly read some of Johns' resume years before, I know what kind of "modern sensibility" he's talking about, and it is most unendurable. And quite unsurprising Johns would sensationalize the whole issue. On which note, the following contains something most laughable:

Can you tell us about the creative team and the creative process behind the horror series?

Johns: Ivan Reis, I've worked with first at Marvel on Avengers, and then we did Green Lantern together. When we came back together, we talked about what kind of genre and what story we wanted to explore. It was never doing a horror story. We call this a horror character epic, because it's not really an anthology. It's an ongoing series with these continuing characters. We just wanted to tap into that. Ivan actually started his career in horror, and so for him to get back to it was exciting for him, and it just felt like something new. I've just always loved monsters as a kid and strange characters. I like characters. I hate gore for gore's sake, but I love horror characters.

Creating Hyde Street, I wanted to explore what horror meant decade by decade, because you see all these characters pulled in from different eras, and that's all explained in the book. But you see these monsters, and some of them look human, and some of them don't, and some of them have monstrous forms. It all came from Ivan and I just talking about what we wanted to do next, and then bringing in our colorist, Brad Anderson, our letterer Rob Leigh, and our editor, Brian Cunningham. But it really started with Ivan and I wanting to do another horror book like we did with Blackest Night, but create a real exploration of character and a real big story that wasn't just an anthology, but was something much greater than that.

Interesting how he admits, in a way, that when he worked on superheroes, he clearly wasn't interested in character focus, which was exactly the problem that befell Green Lantern in the 1990s, since the editors weren't really interested in it either, just in "shakeups". And most insulting to the intellect how somebody who stuffed bloodletting into the Flash, and even clogged GL with nasty moments, would claim he doesn't like "gore for gore's sake", when his past resume suggests otherwise, and even contains horror scenes of a different kind. It's reprehensible how these overrated embarrassments try to claim they don't support what their very own portfolios can contradict.

This horror comic will be released on October 2 just in time for Halloween. What are you looking forward to the most ahead of its release, and what do you envision for the future of this new series?

Johns: I'm excited for people to check it out because it is so different from everything out there, and it introduces just the tip of the iceberg with these two characters that are in competition for souls. Leading up to it, I'm just excited for people to check it out and meet the characters and see their reaction. It's a super fun book to work on. We just want to keep working on this book. It's a monthly book, and I think that gives us a real chance to explore all these characters in very different ways. The thing I love about returning to monthly comics is that you get to do the issues that delve deeper into character and side stories and fill out this whole world that we're creating.

Because Hyde Street is a world. And Hyde Street is told from the point of view of what I would call the monsters, the residents. And we have a one-shot coming out called It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour by Maytal Zchut and Leila Leiz that comes out at the end of October, and it's this one shot that tells a story from the point of view of one of the victims. I think it's really cool to see those juxtaposed together. So in the main Hyde Street book, we really explore the monsters, and in this Devour one-shot, we explore the victims. And that story introduces one of the residents called Miss Goodbody, who's a nutritionist from 1983.

Nothing new that Johns has ever focused upon the villains. That was one of the biggest problems with his superhero writing, which came at the expense of the heroes and co-stars. And no chance this is much different from everything else out there, when here, he made clear it's a horror tale, and there's been way too much of that lately at the expense of optimism and bright comedy. That the exploration of the monsters takes place in the main title, rather the single special, also speaks volumes.

We must hope the audience has since wised up to Johns' mendacity, and won't pay a dime for his new Hyde Street comic. There's far too much emphasis on such horror themes as it is, and CBR's refusal to take an objective view of the subject is one more reason these travesties continue to be made.

Labels: crossoverloading, dc comics, Flash, golden calf of death, golden calf of villainy, Green Lantern, history, indie publishers, misogyny and racism, moonbat artists, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, violence