What the happened to Geoff Johns? There was a time when he seemed to know what he was doing!

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He started believing his own hype.

Before GL: Rebirth came out, you could sit with the guy and talk about comics.  Even as busy as he was, he'd carve out time after the con to just be "one of the guys".  Have a drink at the bar, be amongst friends.

Not any more.

When you keep hearing how "awesome" you are, you forget where came from and your head gets way too big.

And now it shows in his writing.

Instead of trying to do a damn good job, he tries to "one up himself" with the next story.  Nothing is simple any more.  It's now a decade long trilogy of trilogies!!!

Add me to the list that has become recently dissappointed with some of Geoff John's latest efforts.  I really like Green Lantern rebirth, but am about a year behind on reading the Green Lantern series, when they started crossing over to the GL Corps  I started to lose interest.  And a while back I dropped all Superman related titles (I couldn't finish reading his Braniac Story). 

I thought his initial run on the Flash was great, one of my favorites, but the Flash Rebirth #1 was tough to swallow.  My eyes have glazed over trying to read the Final Crisis and Legion of 3 worlds, I need to take another shot at them to bring myself up to speed I guess...  Then again, if comics become a chore to read , whats the point.  

Instead of trying to do a damn good job, he tries to "one up himself" with the next story.

It seems most modern 'hot' writers (Bendis, Millar, Morrisson) seem to be in the same trap of readers expecting their next story be more 'awesome' than their previous highs. I assume there was alot less pressure in the 'good ol' days', where writers worked in a relative vacuum and could focus simply on cranking out solid work to pay the bills. Maybe readers today feel a little too passionate about a given book, which probably makes writers like Johns second-guess themselves.

I'm not reading the Flash story (no interest in seeing Barry Allen return). But I'd be willing to give Johns the benefit of the doubt - maybe all is not as it initially appears.

I've enjoyed Johns work on JSA, Teen Titans, The Flash and Booster Gold tremendously. However, if he has one major flaw as a writer, it's that he sometimes has a "Can You Top This?" approach to his plots.

For example, the Flash once battled and defeated a dozen or so of his best villains in one climactic issue. It made for a good story - but what about the writers who have to follow that? Once you've set the bar that the Flash can beat a carload of villains at once, how can a battle with the Flash versus just the Mirror Master or Captain Cold ever hold anyone's attention?

For now I'm giving Johns the benefit of the doubt over the Father's arrest - as Paul noted, it's part of Barry stating why he went into forensics and more or less became a cop (and seemed to be heavily lifted from Crossing Jordan, and probably other sources) -- and at least pre-crisis, Barry's dad was a part of his life and not rotting in jail for murder, so . .

the first issue of Flash: Rebirth didn't sing as well as the first issue of GL: Rebirth to me - and Johns pacing does seem to be off as he is getting Morrison like in LONG set ups with quick (weak) payoffs . . but he still generally comes through in the end.

What the happened to Geoff Johns? There was a time when he seemed to know what he was doing!

Maybe you could work with him and get him back on the right track!  Maybe a GL miniseries . . . . .

I'm too busy working with ME just now, thanks!

Yeah but you know what you're doing!  So does Geoff, but you could help mold him . . . besides I am defensive for guys named Geoff  . . . and I am greedy for a JB GL run -- Ganthet's Tale was not enough! 

Really dug Angel by the way!