A Crisis of Chronology: The DC Universe According to Geoff Johns

With Blackest Night finished and the Brightest Day on the horizon, today’s Easter gift to you is a list of fan-favorite Geoff Johns’ extensive work in the DC Universe. Unfortunately, as it is Easter and I have family to see, I’ll only be providing you with the list for now, but come back later this week (hopefully late tonight or tomorrow) for my usual commentary. Update: Commentary has been added! Now you have no excuse, poozer! While you can follow Geoff’s work fine if you go by when it was released on an issue by issue basis, the list at the end caters towards the trade paperback reader. Follow the jump for this hefty list!

The Justice Society

I already talked about Johns’ involvement with these titles in my previous column about the JSA, but this is really where he set his roots. Geoff’s first actual comic (Secret Files and Origins excluded) published by DC comics was one of the one-shots that made up The JSA Returns! After that he started the title Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. before joining Goyer on JSA, and – as the cliche goes – the rest is history. Johns is often criticized for having too much of a focus on the past, but with such an early involvement with classic legacy characters, I do not see how it could have gone any other way. Besides, at least his writing is (usually) good.

The Flash

A lot of people have been worrying that with Barry Allen’s return that Geoff Johns is going to let Wally West fade into obscurity. Those people probably never read Johns’ run on The Flash, wherein his respect for the character of Wally West is readily apparent. However, half of Johns’ run is no longer in print, so I can understand why many aren’t as familiar with the great stories he told as one would hope. Of particular interest in Geoff’s run on the title was his masterful handling of the Rogues’ group dynamic, as well the introduction of the new Zoom, who was the best new villain of the decade (in my opinion, of course). Logically, the story that introduces Zoom is one of the ones that are out of print, but hopefully DC will reprint those trades that aren’t in circulation at the moment sometime soon (maybe tweeting at Jim Lee would speed the process along).

Hawkman

People often forget that Geoff Johns had a 25-issue run on the fourth volume of Hawkman. So, here I am to remind you! One of the things Geoff tried to accomplish while writing the title was to make sense of one of the most convoluted character back-stories in the history of DC comics. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but I don’t think anyone could have done better without a complete continuity reboot. I include this title particularly for the heavy referencing to it that occurs in Blackest Night, especially in regards to Hawkman’s relationship with Hawkgirl and the Atom.

Teen Titans

Continuing his trend of reviving books that had all but been given up on, Geoff Johns started a new volume of Teen Titans that featured a mixed cast from the Wolman/Perez era as well as many members of the Young Justice team. I’m not going to mince words: this is the only time, other than the Wolman/Perez era, that I have had any interest in the Teen Titans. Other than the odd shoehorning of Bart Allen into the role of Kid Flash as opposed to Impulse, Johns had a good grasp of each character that lead to an enjoyable read. I would stop after Infinite Crisis, however, because his last few issues are mainly set-up for the (rather disappointing) next writer.

Green Lantern

Without a doubt, what Johns is currently most well-known for is his revitalization of the Green Lantern franchise. The roots for the now-famous Green Lantern: Rebirth were laid in Day of Judgment, one of Johns’ earlier works that made Hal Jordan the new host for the Spectre. Rebirth and Recharge helped reignite the interest in Green Lantern that had been lost since Ron Marz’s departure from the title, and the critically-acclaimed Sinestro Corps War cemented the book’s position as one of the best titles DC had published in years. Post-Sinestro Corps Wars, Green Lantern Corps became quite important to Johns’ epic Blackest Night, even though it wasn’t penned by Geoff himself. I insist on picking it up if you haven’t read it, but if you’re going by just Johns-written works I guess you can skip it.

Continued below

Infinite Crisis

Johns first massive event was Infinite Crisis (sure, Day of Judgment was an event, but hardly on the same scale). I gave it some discussion in my previous post which gave the proper reading order for this massive event, but I will warn you that it contains a lot of reading that isn’t by Geoff Johns. The absolute most I would say you could trim off the list would be the Batman and Nightwing titles, and maybe Wonder Woman after the story arc Sacrifice (though why you wouldn’t read the end of Rucka’s excellent run is beyond me).

This has been mentioned at least briefly in every one of these lists for DC. Geoff Johns was one of the four co-writers of this weekly epic, which was about as important to the DC Universe as Infinite Crisis itself. Not mentioned in previous articles, however, is Johns’ incredibly enjoyable (though brief) run on the new volume of Booster Gold that spun out of 52. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend picking it up for a mostly light-hearted (but sometimes incredibly serious) and well-told story.

Superman

Geoff Johns loves Superman. Pure and simple. While he had done a few single issues for the big blue boy scout early in his career, Johns really got to explore the character after Infinite Crisis (and I still believe that Up, Up and Away!, which Johns co-wrote with Kurt Busiek, is one of the best Superman stories ever written). The reader might note with curiosity that Brainiac and New Krypton, the climax of Johns’ time on the title, are marked as optional, but these stories lead into the massive New Krypton epic that has been spanning the Superman books for over a year, and well past Johns’ departure on the title. I love New Krypton, but if you’re not good with leaving things unresolved I would pass these by (but only in terms of this list, as both stories are A+ quality).

Blackest Night

Recently off the presses, Blackest Night was the culmination of Geoff Johns’ work at DC. I don’t mean to imply that you need to read this massive list to “get” Blackest Night like you would with Final Crisis; indeed, you can understand it fine if all you read is Green Lantern. However, as Johns is a writer of serial fiction in a massive universe, you can bet that he is going to reference previous things he has written, such as the aforementioned throwbacks to his time on Hawkman. While the event can be fully understood, it isn’t a bad idea to read the tie-ins that were penned by event architects Johns and Tomasi. Disclaimer: I consider Blackest Night to consist of the event mini, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, though the former two are technically tie-ins. At the very least, Green Lantern is essential, and putting the Blackest Night mini and the Green Lantern tie-ins in two separate trades is an awful idea on DC’s part.

So here we have, on a trade-by-trade basis:

The JSA Returns!*
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. vol 1
Day of Judgment
JSA vol 1: Justice be Done
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. vol 2
Beast Boy (in Teen Titans vol 3: Beast Boys and Girls)
JSA vol 2: Darkness Falls
Flash vol 1: Wonderland
JSA vol 3: The Return of Hawkman
Flash vol 2: Blood Will Run
JSA vol 4: Fair Play
Flash vol 3: Rogues
JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice
JSA vol 5: Stealing Thunder
Flash vol 4: Crossfire
Hawkman vol 1: Endless Flight
JSA vol 6: Savage Times
Hawkman vol 2: Allies and Enemies
Flash vol 5: Blitz
JSA vol 7: Princes of Darkness

Continued below

Hawkman vol 3: Wings of Fury
JSA: All-Stars
Teen Titans vol 1: A Kid’s Game
Flash vol 6: Ignition
JSA vol 8: Black Reign
Teen Titans vol 2: Family Lost
JSA vol 9: Lost
The Flash vol 7: The Secret of Barry Allen
Teen Titans vol 3: Beast Boys and Girls
Teen Titans vol 4: The Future is Now
Green Lantern: Rebirth
JSA vol 10: Black Vengeance
The Flash vol 8: Rogue War
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge
Green Lantern vol 1: No Fear
Infinite Crisis (add in the first 3 issues in Green Lantern vol 2: Revenge of the Green Lanterns after Mongul’s defeat, and remove the Batman and Nightwing tie-ins if you would like)
52 (in 4 volumes)
Booster Gold vol 1: 52 Pick-Up and vol 2: Blue and Gold
Superman: Up, Up and Away!
Teen Titans vol 6: Titans around the World
The rest of Green Lantern vol 2: Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Green Lantern vol 3: Wanted – Hal Jordan
Superman: Last Son
Justice Society of America vol 1: The Next Age
Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War vol 1
Superman: Escape From Bizarro World
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War vol 2
Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come (in three volumes)
Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
Green Lantern vol 4: Secret Origin
Green Lantern Corps vol 3: Ring Quest*
Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
Green Lantern vol 5: Rage of the Red Lanterns
Superman: Brainiac*
Superman: New Krypton (volumes 1 and 2)*
Green Lantern Corp vol 4: Sins of the Star Sapphire*
Green Lantern vol 6: Agent Orange
Green Lantern Corp vol 5: Emerald Eclipse
Justice Society of America vol 5: Black Adam and Isis
The Flash: Rebirth
Superboy: The Boy of Steel
Blackest Night