10 Comic Writers Who Need To Stop

5. Geoff Johns

DC ComicsDC ComicsGeoff Johns is one of the most successful writers working in comics today. We don't think there's a DC character he hasn't written at this point, and he's been such a big draw for the company that he was one of the key architects working on the New 52 reboot that sent all of their properties back to square one. Since then he's helmed the big Forever Evil crossover event and been the lead writer on both Justice League and Superman. 50,000,000 fanboys can't be wrong, can they? Well, yeah, they probably can. And are. They are definitely wrong in this instance, because Johns is an irredeemably terrible writer. The first issue of his Superman run, which came out last month, included some terrific artwork by John Romita Jr and Klaus Johnson, and a career-worst script by Johns. Where everything the art team was doing was fresh and new, Johns was trotting out some tired tropes of genre storytelling - namely the doppelganger of the main character who's probably gonna turn out to be evil - and writing some of the most on-the-nose expositional dialogue this side of a Final Fantasy game. His basic technique stinks, and it's just as bad if you take in the whole view. The biggest crime you could accuse Johns of is being stuck in the past, something which he can actively try and resurrect with his vaunted position of Chief Creative Officer at DC. Nostalgia is a dangerous thing, and simply returning the good old days will often result in creative stagnation - which is something Johns is all about, consistently retconning character developments and the like out of existence in favour of making stuff stay the same. Forever. Which is really boring. And badly written. And that's why we don't like cricket. Sorry, Geoff Johns.
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/