@’s by JUSTICE LEAGUE Writer Geoff Johns!!!
WOO-HOO!
OK, I have to get myself together…there…
OK, so Geoff Johns has been writing JUSTICE LEAGUE, AQUAMAN, and GREEN LANTERN for DC and is also with the seventh issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE, starting the first ever appearance of SHAZAM in the new DC 52. I had a chance to talk with Geoff about writing DC’s biggest superheroes and reinventing Billy Batson’s alter ego. Here’s what transpired…
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): Hey Geoff, how are you doing today? GEOFF JOHNS: How’s it going, man?
BUG: I’m doing well. It’s great to talk to you again.
GJ: You too.
BUG: I just wanted to congratulate you on the success of all of the new 52. I don’t think I’ve talked to you since the whole relaunch and it seems to be, for the most part, a huge success for DC, so congratulations.
GJ: Thanks. We are pretty psyched about it and I think it’s gone over a lot bigger than anyone thought it would, so it’s great.
BUG: Definitely, yeah.
GJ: And your book’s out?
BUG: THE JUNGLE BOOK, yeah. It came out last week.
GJ: Yeah, I liked it.
BUG: Wow! Thanks a lot, I appreciate that. Well we are talking about JUSTICE LEAGUE today and I’ve followed the series from the very beginning. I wanted to ask you… the thing that interested me the most when I picked up the book last week was the Shazam back-story. Is it okay if I start out with that?
GJ: Sure.
BUG: Okay, great. So you are re-introducing Shazam to the DCU and what went into the decisions as to sort of making Billy Batson a little different than the previous incarnation as well as Dr. Sivana?
GJ: The stuff that happens will kind of take Sivana into a very different place, but that’s all part of the story, especially Billy… This is just the start of the story and so what you see are just the beginnings of where these characters end up, but for Sivana there was a specific… Gary and I talked about Sivana quite a bit and there’s a very specific course for where he goes and why he doing what he is doing and what ultimately happens to him as well as Billy and you know with Billy Batson it was… We talked a lot about it and Billy is a fairly complex character for us and you’re going to see more of him revealed in Chapter 2 and 3 and so forth as we go forward, but we wanted Billy in a place that was a little unexpected and also speaks to the heart of what our story is going to be all about and that part will kind of come through in where the story ultimately ends up.BUG: Okay.
GJ: But yeah, we’re having a little fun with it and we are hoping that, especially Chapter 2 when you see the lives of these kids, Billy and Freddy and Mary are basically a little bit more fleshed out and explored than they have been previously.
BUG: Great. I’m definitely interested in that and Gary Frank’s art is fantastic as always.
GJ: Yeah, Gary is really the… I don’t know who else could pull off this kind of story, because Gary is such an emotional artist and he’s got such detail. When I worked with him, you pull dialog away from the character just to let him be there, because he puts so much personality to them on their own and especially in Chapter 2 when we see where Billy ends up. The design of the characters and the storytelling and everything… there’s such class.
BUG: Yeah, and it’s really interesting… I was wondering, was there a meeting for this new DCU about what magic is in the DCU, especially since Shazam is so entrenched in that kind of genre of comic book storytelling, I guess.
GJ: Shazam and the whole mythology behind Shazam, there’s a hint of us expanding that out. You will see more and more about it in the coming months, actually a lot more about it very, very soon. But the idea was… The whole mythology behind Shazam is at the center of magic in DC universe and it’s kind of like we look at Shazam as the bridge between the superhero world and the magic world. That’s what the character is and we are trying to push that character in a slightly more magical and mystical direction in the world that he is in. Once Billy Batson is exposed and is connected to the magical power that makes him Shazam, he is in tune with a different world and there’s a magical world right next to ours that has been here and present, but only those who are connected to the power see it and so Billy is going to be changed permanently even when he’s not Shazam. He’s at least involved in this other world.BUG: Great. Any of the off beat characters like Mr. Talky Tawny and Mr. Mind and those guys? Are you planning on reinventing them as well?
GJ: Yes we are.
BUG: Very cool.
GJ: I mean what Gary and I are trying to do is a lot of… I think just about every classic Shazam character is going to… just about everyone is going to get their story’s told in some way, but also there’s a lot of new characters, quite a lot of new characters that are important and essential to our story as well.
BUG: Cool. I know they kind of hinted at Sivana’s family. Are they going to show up as well?
GJ: You will learn more about them at the very least, I’ll say that.
BUG: All right yeah, because I remember reading the old issues and his family was kind of as weird as the Shazam family, too.
GJ: Yeah, if not a little stranger. They are in a very different spot right now though as Sivana kind of alludes to, there’s something going on with them that he is involved in.BUG: And then the main story has the Justice League… It seems like its five years later. They seem to be at a very different place than what they were at in the last issue. What are we to take for that in this first issue that has happened in that five year span?
GJ: Well what’s up in the five years and you will actually see a pretty big even that happened to them a few years ago in Issue #8, but the idea is to… Really it’s more about the perception of Justice League versus the reality of the Justice League. These are people who don’t hang out 24/7. They get together and they do their thing, all of them for different reasons, and Steve Trevor is there to kind of wrangle them all, but everything the Justice League is and does is going to come crashing down in the next arc which is called “The Villains’ Journey” where their past and everything that they have been in and not been in kind of catches up with them and the team is going to be shaken up quite a bit.
BUG: That’s one of the things that I noticed, in the five year span they still don’t really interact well with each other yet. They don’t seem to have too much confidence in each other still. Batman and Green Lantern are still fighting at this point as well… Does that have to do with the fact that this is just like a job to them and they don’t get involved with each other?
GJ: Yeah, I mean some of them are friends and Superman certainly is friendly with most of them. Aquaman has his own stuff he deals with. He shows up half the time and half the time they are wondering, “where the hell is he?” All of them have their own personal lives outside of it that don’t really intertangle and they still keep themselves somewhat distant and just because people hang out a lot doesn’t mean… I’m sure you know, everyone works with people that they don’t like and just because they hang out with them a lot doesn’t mean that they are going to end up liking them. That’s the case for Batman and Green Lantern. Even thought they are a lot closer and more similar than they might want to admit and we’ll see in the up coming issues, but the dynamics of interpersonal relationships among the team are going to be front and center in the next arc and those are the ones that are really challenged. They might have had it a little too easy I think being the Justice League. They might think that they can handle it all and the idea is to show their dark side. Since then they’ve tackled a lot of villains, but I don’t think they’ve been forced to take a hard look at what they are doing and they are about to have a wakeup call. That’s what THE VILLAIN’S JOURNEY is all about.
BUG: Cool. So the inclusion of Steve Trevor in this issue, he’s definitely playing a different role in this issue than he has or maybe he isn’t, but as far as story-wise is concerned he is more like the every man that he’s able to experience these larger than life characters. Is that a statement of the fact that these characters are kind of hard to relate to sometimes as far as the public of the DCU? GJ: I think it’s a weird thing. I think it’s kind of opposite. I think actually the characters are extremely relatable, but I think the public at large sees them as gods and the superheroes are untouchable and flying above us all and doing their thing and they save the universe every other day and Steve Trevor is really the bridge. He’s almost the deflector. He’s almost the myth curator. He’s perpetuating that myth and protecting the League and it’s all extremely personal to him. I think this is the last thing in the world he wants to be doing, trying to handle the Justice League and talk to politicians and try to protect them and insulate them from all of the red tape that they would have to face and that’s what Steve’s job is and he’s treated a bit like a gopher. I don’t think Hal really respects him and maybe that’s chalked up to a little competition that he feels with Wonder Woman and I think Steve is there strictly because of his relationship with Wonder Woman. I think he’s convinced himself it’s a sense of duty and honor and “Someone’s got to do this” and “only he can do this,” but at the end of the day he is still very much in love with Wonder Woman and he’s very much there to try and help her in any way he can, even if it’s extremely painful for him.
BUG: Is it difficult for you not to favor Aquaman and Green Lantern since you write those books?
GJ: I don’t think so, but I certainly know where those characters are going in my head a lot more than the other ones, but I ask all of the other guys about their characters and where they are going in the other books, so there’s some pretty big relationships that go on between characters that are Green Lantern and Aquaman that will defined, but I also think that there’s something about characters like they will act differently in a situation… You’d act different going to your family’s house for dinner than you will at your job or that you will hanging out with your best friend from high school and Justice League has a certain way that characters bump off with one another and that will continue to play a pretty big role in it and you will see there is a balance. Obviously Green Lantern and Aquaman I know immensely well, but there’s a balance to having all of the characters. Really I love the Batman Green Lantern dynamic. I just think that’s a lot of fun.
BUG: You’ve done stories with Jim Lee, Gene Ha, and Gary Frank. I think some writers would just be lucky to work with one of those guys in their lifetime and you’ve worked with all three of them multiple times with other projects. Do you find yourself knowing who is going to be the artist for that issue and then writing to that artist’s strengths or do you just write your own scripts and then have the artist kind of figure it out? GJ: Absolutely. Like Gene Ha is a very… You can see it compared to like what Jim saw in Justice League and Gene saw in Justice League. You write to everyone’s strengths and Gary Frank for instance, if I was doing Shazam with somebody else it would probably be a different book, but with Gary it kind of evolves into that very character driven human kind of whimsical… If you want a little bit of whimsical fun in there too and Gary delivers that, so yeah whoever I work with, I work with very differently. Like Ivan on Aquaman or Doug Mahnke on Green Lantern, but Doug is very good at visceral and primal action and emotion and brutality. He thrives on that stuff, like the weird and the wild he thrives on, so having him draw strange aliens worlds…
BUG: I love seeing his aliens.
GJ: Yeah, he’s just perfect. He’s the perfect guy for that book. He’s just doing a great job and then Ivan is such a graceful artist on Aquaman. There’s a fluidity and an organic nature to water and Aquaman’s interaction with Mera and those characters. Ivan gives them a very regal sense of being and then Jim Lee delivers on hardcore action. He’s pretty untouchable when it comes to the give action and then you’ve got guys like Gene Ha who are master storytellers and really you look at those scenes with Steve Trevor when he’s talking with Wonder Woman and the way he set all of that stuff up and the emotion you see on his face after he gets off the line with her and doesn’t really know… “What is it? What’s your relationship with her?” and it just kind of comes out at a time when he’s a little vulnerable and I think he’s probably regretting he even said anything, but you really feel for the character right there and you understand him. I think Steve Trevor, although we’ve quoted the character a lot, I don’t think he’s taken center stage for a long, long time, so it’s fun to see him develop like that.
BUG: It’s nice seeing him in that role. So this being Ain’t It Cool News, do you have any special bombshells you want to drop for us? Any teasing that you want to do for the fans?
GJ: On the evil side you will see Black Adam appear very, very soon and you will see the start of Sivana’s change begins in Chapter 3.BUG: Okay. Great.
GJ: Then in JUSTICE LEAGUE we have a very new villain, who’s actually been present… He’s been mentioned in a JUSTICE LEAGUE title since almost Issue #1. I thin he was mentioned in Issue #2 and the clues to the story and what he’s going to be up to are already laid out for us and that’s pretty fun to see.
BUG: So how long do you plan on being on the Justice League title? Is there any end point to this?
GJ: No, I’ve got plans for quite a while actually.
BUG: Good, that’s great. And SHAZAM, how long is that going to be running?
GJ: It’s going to be running I think at least a year, but with JUSTICE LEAGUE it’s one of those books too where we just got the kind of beginning under our belts and now the real stuff begins. The hardest thing about the first arc is we know the ending, they’re a team right? Now we are going into the future and there’s a new member that joins in the next arc. We see some of the past that we haven’t seen before. Now the future is unknown and even some of the past is unknown, so going into those territories and seeing those relationships start to evolve, because they are not going to remain the same after what happens in the next arc. The next arc is a pretty brutal attack on them and like I said a wake up call and I’m really looking forward to exploring Joseph Campbell’s A HERO’S JOURNEY, in that arc, you know, what does it take to make a great villain?
BUG: I just had one question. Was there a temptation to stay back in the five years later universe for a little while longer?
GJ: No, not really. What I didn’t want to do… I ended the issue… We talked a lot about this. I ended the first arc with an image of them fighting Starro that harkens obviously back for those who know to THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD issue and so it was kind of suggestion of all of those enemies they fought they did fight. All of that stuff did happen and I didn’t want to do… Marvel did this so great with Ultimate Universe, but I didn’t want to do this with “What’s the new Starro story? What’s the new first time they fight?” I really wanted to get to new territory and so getting to the five years into the present and introducing new characters and the first new member of the team that comes on is someone who has never been part of the League before which I guess is a pretty good thing for people and just the idea of introducing the new characters. It’s much more like in GREEN LANTERN where we introduced a lot of new characters and in AQUAMAN right now introducing a lot of new characters and in JUSTICE LEAGUE we will be introducing a lot of new characters and new villains and new situations, because then you don’t know how it ends up. Then you don’t know where it goes. I love characters like Vandal Savage and Despero, but I just don’t have any interest in the League going up against them right now.BUG: Yeah, it becomes kind of a greatest hits kind of thing.
GJ: Yeah, and that’s fine, but I’d really like to go somewhere new.
BUG: Sure. Okay, well best of luck to you with JUSTICE LEAGUE. I know I don’t even need to wish you best of luck, because it is a high selling book and everything like that, but still I’m looking forward to reading SHAZAM and finding out what’s in store for the League, so I can’t wait to read those issues and thanks a lot. Are you going to be at C2E2?
GJ: Yeah, I’ll see you there man.
BUG: Okay, great. I’ll see you then. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
GJ: Cool. Take care.
BUG: JUSTICE LEAGUE #7 is in stores now and continue to read Geoff Johns’ “The Villains’ Journey” and his SHAZAM! backup in the coming months. Also be on the lookout for Johns’ AQUAMAN & GREEN LANTERN ongoing series at DC!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/reviewer/co-editor of AICN Comics for over ten years. He has written comics such as MUSCLES & FIGHTS, MUSCLES & FRIGHTS, VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS TINGLERS & WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE DEATHSPORT GAMES, WONDERLAND ANNUAL 2010 & NANNY & HANK (soon to be made into a feature film from Uptown 6 Films). He is also a regular writer for FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND & has co-written their first ever comic book LUNA: ORDER OF THE WEREWOLF (to be released in October 2012 as an 100-pg original graphic novel). Mark has just announced his new comic book miniseries GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK from Zenescope Entertainment to be released in March 2012.Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
