btw this is a minor spoiler from the green lantern issue that came out a week ago....





so the sinestro corps are being recruited much the same way the green lantern corps is....

the biggest difference is that the rings of the sinestro corps find people capable of instilling great fear....so the ring flys up to earth, and of all the people there, who does it find???


bruce fraking wayne!!!!!


how awesome is that!...the $3 for this issue is worth it alone to see batman's alternate sinstero corp costume...and the awesome, but two panel willpower battle...


in a side-plot of one issue, johns delivers a much cooler, and much more relevant scene than 7 issues of civil war*


*imho the best scene in civil war is captain america stepping on bishop's head for suggesting that they were the avengers and not caps team.

that was not only awesome but perfect!

and yes i know a certain friend that will be requested what could only be termed as a really cool mod

"greatest writer in comics?" Because the Sinestro Corps run their rings on fear and that Bruce Wayne was their initial selection for Sector 2814?

Yeah, that stuff is clever and fun, but that's a pretty far cry from "greatest writer in comics."

Don't get me wrong; I have hundreds of comics by Johns and I'm still collecting Green Lantern. I like Geoff Johns' comics. They are fun, and occasionally, great, but I read and have read enough superhero comics AND comics outside the very-limited superhero genre to have a pretty decent guage on comic book writers.

As cool as he may be, Johns isn't remotely the best writer in comics. Maybe you could make a case for "best writer of superhero comics" or "best writer at DC," both of which I would disagree with, but at least those are reasonable arguments.

"Best writer in comics," though, is utterly indefensible. That's like looking at the strongman at a flea circus and saying he's the strongest creature on Earth.

I think he's the best for this generation of comics. All time I still cling to Moore. Who would you pick Hatut?

I choose Kirby.

That's some crazy ####.

When you say "Johns" do you mean Grant Morrison?

ok i admit i was swept up in hyperbole...therefore i will qualify



grant morrison is an excellent writer...but all of his main-title runs are plagued toward the end with incoherent storylines like that mark silvestri run on xmen...im still not sure what happened there.

alan moore probably is the greatest writer in comics

frank miller is the greatest creator in comics as he is one of the few people who really can (not just think they can) write and draw with an equal level of ability (ok we're looking past all-star batman)

mark millar is the greatest writer when working on his own material...the instance you put him in previous continuity material...he couldn't even voice bizarro...let alone 616 cap vs ult cap.

brian bendis is the perfect example of the peter princinple....the best street crime writer in comics...therefore he should advance to galaxy level combat??? eh....not so much.


still there are only two writers for whom i will purchase anything they write Garth Ennis and Peter David....

Let me answer your question, but first, I want to again qualify this. I am a fan of Geoff Johns' writing. He does a lot of things no one else does and when I first clued into what he was doing I was very excited - his writing was a HUGE breath of fresh air.

Over time, I started to notice a few things that he does and doesn't do that started to dampen my enthusiasm. I'd rather not go into those things here, this thread being devoted to his positive traits. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed his writing enough that even when I began to notice the faults, the strengths were still strong enough and frequent enough to keep me reading.

As for who, in the current generation of writers, I might consider better, here are a few thoughts:

1. Brian K. Vaughn.
I have yet to read his Runaways stuff, but everything else I've read is top-notch. His stories are fine throughout and I personally feel that his sense of drama and theme is stronger than Johns'.

2. Greg Rucka
I couldn't really get into his Wonder Woman run. Maybe I didn't read enough. What I have read, and what, in my mind, solidifies my interest is his work on Queen & Country and Checkmate, both very well-written, intelligent books that stay solidly interesting after many rereads.

3. Dan Slott
Maybe this guy's not better than Johns. What I can say is that he is seriously underrated. She-Hulk and the very short-lived Thing series have been amongst the funnest Marvel Comics I've read in years. The kinds of fanboy ideas Slott has are in the same vein as the ones Johns' consistently entertains us with, but, in my opinion, Slott has a much better handle on how to end a story. I believe he is writing that new Marvel Initiative comic. I know I will be buying every issue.

4. Gail Simone
Do I really need to sell her writing to anyone here?

5. Keith Giffen
Maybe he doesn't belong to "this generation." All I know is that Annihilation just about killed me, it was so good. His history of spectacular stories doesn't get talked about nearly enough. Don't even get me started about the 5-years-later LSH.

These are a few I might consider better than Johns. The list gets bigger when I pull in the giants like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Rick Veitch, and the huge list of talents I think of as just-as-good, like Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Ed Brubaker, etc., etc.

I can't get into Vaughn...ecspecially after what he did to Gambit. Anyway, I think Johns should definately be up there for greatest writers of the current generation. Look what he has done over the past few years. He is one of the major reasons why I think comics are stronger today.

Curse the price of comics causing me to drop all my books! It hurt to drop Justice Society and Green Lantern. I'll be collecting them in trade, so I look forward to reading this Sinestro Corps story and specifically the Bruce Wayne part.

With Cap dying, Marvel made my wallet light enough to pick up GL and JSA.

Wow, I apparently post on this forum as "Hatut Zeraze." : ) With the exception of Greg Rucka, all of those writers would have made my "Better than Geoff Johns" list. Maybe that means I should be reading more Greg Rucka.

Part of my problem with Geoff Johns is his apparent personal responsibility for every "big DC event" in the last year or two. While not as bad as Civil War, Infinite Crisis was essentially pointless, hubbub for hubbub's sake. A sales exercise, nothing more. His writing gets me sometimes, but he has a lot to answer for.

--wyld

Yeah I can see where someone would like Johns less than I. I'm after all a big fan of history, and Johns seems to love DC's history, so we kind of mesh well together.

Vaughn is fantastic in his own created tittles. Everything else I find him so-so in. I'm also glad he's learning to write in a way that he doesn't have to end everything with a cliffhanger.

I love Morrison - in very, very small doses. I find he has great ideas, but he gets pretentious with them. He reminds me a little too much of that guy in English class trying too hard to impress the girls with (bad) poetry.

Busiek and Kirkman are my #2 and #3 right now.

It was dissapointing to see Johns not on the Flash anymore and would have preferred that Wally still be Flash under his control. Also, I like what he did with the Teen Titans. That title has been great and he really gave it some flare with the whole "One Year Later" stuff. The one title I look forward to each month, of DC, is the JSA and though I do like Mr. America, I think Johns has done amazing stuff with that title.

I do like Vaughn's independent stuff, just don't ever put any more stuff with Gambit into his hands. I just hope he never sees Ollie.

Kurt Busiek still holds the torch for me, but Dan Slott is catching up to him, simply because Kurt hasn't done a whole lot to impress me as of late...besides Astro City, which is always fantastic.

Johns is good, but man, his run on Avengers stunk. Maybe it was just because he had to follow the greatest run on any comic ever (Sorry, Stan and Jack). Hmm. So, here's my top five:

1. Kurt Busiek
2. Dan Slott
3. Stan Lee
4. Alan Moore
5. Joss Whedon (just you wait)