2008 Comic Book News Archives

Action Comics #867

April 14, 2008: Geoff Johns on Reshaping the DC Universe

IGN.com interviewed writer Geoff Johns to ask him about his writing process, his work on Superman, and reshaping the DC Universe. Here's an excerpt from the interview...

    Q: You said you wanted to reestablish the Legion's place in the Superman mythos, and vice versa, and I think you accomplished that to great lengths in your latest Action Arc. Why was it important for you to give the Pre-Crisis Legion a place in the Superman mythos?

    Johns: Because Superman has a mythology that extends in so many different directions that should be celebrated, because its part of who he is. Writing him, that stuff is just in my head. When I write him, I already have a background of who he is and where he came from, and where he learned a whole lot of this stuff. Like Ma and Pa Kent taught him how to be a good man, and the Legion of Superheroes taught him about the "Super" part of that. So that, to me, is just an important part of who he was. He didn't grow up alone. For me, he's not a football star. For some reason, my head just can't wrap around him being a football star. But at the same time, Clark Kent wasn't a loner. He had friends. And I think most of the friends he related to were other aliens in the Legion of Superheroes. Other teenagers who can fly.

    Going back to the JSA arc when I first reintroduced the Legion into Superman's world, he comments on how everyone of them could fly, and that was the thing that made him feel like one of the gang. We've all been in classrooms or whatever, and there's always the kid who's the class clown, who we all hung around with and got in trouble with. To me, that was Lightning Lad for Superman. As kids, Superman was sort of the straight man to Lightning Lad, who showed him how to have some fun. And Cosmic Boy was always the one who set the rules, more of a straight arrow. And Saturn Girl was always in between the two. But I felt it was important to reintroduce the Legion because I thought, to me, it was an important part of who Superman is and where he came from.

Read the entire interview at the IGN.com website.

Thanks to Kwas for the lead on this story.



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