Geoff Johns Quotations

My sister was the inspiration for the character, the good qualities instilled in the character. The initial inspiration was there, but Stargirl has taken on a life of her own. She's her own character now.

The truth is, we're all cyborgs with cell phones and online identities.

Evil is relative - and what I mean by that is that our villains are as complex, as deep and as compelling as any of our heroes. Every antagonist in the DC Universe has a unique darkness, desire and drive. And the reason for being of 'Forever Evil' is to explore that darkness.

I really explored self-awareness and emotions through 'Green Lantern.' It might sound goofy, but I do believe that emotions have power. We're all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction. For me, it was about recognizing my self-awareness.

'Forever Evil' is my love letter to DC super villains. It's my chance to take all of the villains I've worked with and all the ones I've never worked with and put them into one gigantic, epic story that will bring together the bads of the DC Universe.

I think every writer doubts themselves, every day. You procrastinate because you're afraid. You're always afraid it's not going to be as good as you want it to be.

We are finding new areas in the ocean every day. It's as alien as going to outer space.

I love Captain Cold. I have him on my door at the office. He's grounded; he doesn't want to rule the world. He's not necessarily driven by ego, which a lot of villains are.

Every villain in the DC Universe wants something different, and not all of them want to rule the world. Or at least, not all of them want to rule the world in the way the Crime Syndicate do.

Batman and the Flash have a whole lot in common behind the mask. They've both experienced loss, know forensic science, and are both a bit introverted. In 'Flashpoint,' Thomas Wayne thinks Barry is crazy, but Barry thinks Thomas is crazy. It'll be really fun seeing those two trying to figure things out.

There's a famous tension between Green Lantern and Green Arrow in the comic books. Those guys have always been friends. They started off as not on the same page, and then they quickly became best friends.

The Green Lanterns are very forward and very courageous, very forceful. The Red Lanterns are out of control, and they're not in their right mind because when we're angry or in rage, we say things and we do things we wouldn't normally do.

The thing about Green Lantern rings is they pick whoever has potential to overcome great fear.

Clearly, Simon Baz brings such a different viewpoint to 'Green Lantern.' The very nature of the corps concept of overcoming fear, I felt Simon was a great character to explore, while getting a different viewpoint on things.

I am always a sucker for the underdogs. I love Batman and Superman, but when it comes to the guys who don't stand in the front of the line, Aquaman is one of the key guys for me. He's so much fun to work on.

I think supporting casts in comics are missing. I think a lot of the time in comics, all we have are people in costumes talking to other people in costumes, superheroes talking to superheroes and supervillains, and that's it.

The DC Universe has the best villains in fiction, right? I don't think there's any group of villains collectively or anywhere else that come close to DC's. Joker, Cat Woman, Lex Luthor, are all staples. A lot of the comic book icons are fiction icons.

As long as Green Lantern is still dealing with fear, it's going to be relevant. 'Rebirth' really grew out of 9/11. 9/11 happened, and then two years later, I was writing about fear. It was obviously connected.

Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg are fantastic producers and showrunners, and they lead a very, very positive, fun, creative environment to work in and to work with.

I'm really proud of all the stuff we've built with Green Lantern - from Larfleeze to the different corps. The universe has expanded and will live well past my run. It was more than just telling another story, but really giving back to the character by expanding and adding to their mythology.

'The New 52,' I was really excited that new people got to jump in on books. In particular, on 'Aqua Man.'

Any character can find an audience and work if you have passion for that character. You might have to just scrape off the dirt and the barnacles and pull it out and highlight it.

I've been writing 'Green Lantern' for a long time, and one of the reasons I've enjoyed it is because the depth of stories you can tell is pretty endless with space and everything.

I don't know who made the first Aquaman joke. I'm sure it was comics readers; maybe we all did. But it's the idea that the perpetuated story of Aquaman is that he only has powers in water, and he talks to fish. I think it's the idea of him in the middle of a city just doesn't make a lot of sense to people. It's just the character itself.

The ocean is 90% unexplored. It's a great canvas to paint Aquaman stories across, just like Green Lantern has space. It's more organic, which makes it different and interesting. It's alien, but it's terrestrial.

'Flashpoint' is a showcase to demonstrate why the Flash is a major character, just like how we've done with Green Lantern. It's important that the Flash can hold his own.

One of the things that I thought really worked was that you have 'Smallville' on television and 'Superman Returns' come out in the theater, and it was fine. Nobody freaked out; nobody thought they were competing.

I didn't want to take the DC universe, put it in a box, shake the box and pour it out. I wanted to take the major characters and show what they could be like if they were put on a different path.

I absolutely love Aquaman, and the character has been a passion since 'Blackest Night.'

Hopefully this is the payoff of all the work everybodys been doing for where were taking the DC Universe into 2006 and beyond. Everythings story-driven. Were all trying to do the best stories we can. These villains have to be real threats. Theyve got to be as tough as the heroes are, or tougher, because that makes our heroes stronger. Theres nothing better than having a hero go up against someone more powerful and smarter than them, and winning anyway because theyre doing the right thing. Thats why I like making villains capable, powerful, and nasty because it makes our good guys look that much better.

'Justice League' takes place in the past, and Aquaman has a lot more to prove. He's just starting out. The perception is already beginning, and all these super humans are just showing up, and here's Aquaman. The perception is, 'What's next? Now we've got a guy talking to fish. What can be next?'

I think Aquaman feels - and deservedly so - like an A-list, premier DC hero. I hope that carries on; it certainly will carry over to Justice League.

I think he's going to be a fantastic new character.

The problem is there are so many stories out there where I can pull that superhero out, put any other superhero in, and the story works the same. For me, that's broken. I have to write a story that no one else but Aquaman or Shazam can be in, and as soon as you pull that character out and out someone else in, it doesn't work.

I started at DC with Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. and I've never stopped having fun, ... I'm working with the best people in the business -- my fellow writers, artists and editors. And with Infinite Crisis just about here (finally!) and Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka and Keith Giffen on this insane jam series known as 52, I'm really excited for what tomorrow brings. Thanks to everyone, the readers and the retailers, for their support. My family and I appreciate it more than words could ever say. I would also like to take this opportunity to ask if anyone can help with the Red Cross's efforts throughout the South, and my wife's home city of New Orleans in particular, please go to www.redcross.org and give what you can. Thank you so much.

Deathstorm sees Power Ring as a fascinating experiment. Deathstorm is a scientist who's been merged with the dead body of his lab assistant. It's given him a cold demeanor and a clammy touch.

I love finding balance. My favorite thing to do is action-driven, emotionally-charged scenes.

I'm just thrilled people are checking out POWER GIRL. She's one of the greatest heroines in the DCU alongside Wonder Woman, Oracle, Supergirl and Black Canary. The book has been a lot of fun and working with Amanda and Jimmy has been the highlight. Thanks to everyone reading the book!

I love every character in the DC universe, except for Rampage. Rampage is a She-Hulk rip-off, and I like She-Hulk.

In the Teen Titans one year later we want to introduce like 20 mysteries and make them feel as fresh and new and exciting. I wanted to use the DOOM Patrol in the first arc. Tony Daniel does the art and you'll see that he stepped his game up big time.

I tend to like writing long stories in comics. I worked on 'Flash,' 'Teen Titans' and 'JSA' for years. I always like diving into characters.

I put my comics that are really valuable into regular mylar because I like to look at them. Once they're in those clam shell boxes, they're impossible to open up.

Aquaman has the ability to be a huge character, and I think we really brought him to a new level in comic books, and I'm hoping that new level continues to everything that is DC Entertainment. Certainly, that's the goal. He's one of our most recognizable and most important characters, and it's going to continue to stay that way.

Aquaman is one of the greatest characters at DC Comics and one of my favorites.

The idea of introducing the Seven Seas is absolutely to challenge Aquaman on an emotional and personal level. His responsibility is unification of the world, and that just became a lot more complex when he learns about the fall of Atlantis and the splintering of the kingdoms.

The characters that have greys are the more interesting characters. The hero who sometimes crosses the line and the villain who sometimes doesn't are just much more interesting.

'Forever Evil' is, ultimately, a Lex Luthor story. And everything in there is reflecting who Lex is and what he's going through. And we continue to learn more and more things about him that we might not know, and he's going to continue to experience things and do things that are surprising, I think, to even him - especially us.

Everyone knows Aquaman, probably from all the animation he's been in over the years from the '70s and the '80s, entering him into the pop culture.

I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I am dumb enough to try anything.

We look at it as the multiverse. We have our TV universe and our film universe, but they all co-exist.

Were really trying to make Crisis as accessible as possible, which is extremely difficult to do because it involves so many characters. But, again, you dont need to know all the details. Obviously the mainstays are there Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and heavily focused on. There are a ton of great characters, and a lot happens to them over the course of Infinite Crisis . Some change and evolve, others fall, but it really is about trying to bring everybody on stage. We probably have 90 percent of the DCU showing up, if not more but without losing focus on what the story is.

Overcoming fear doesn't have to be skydiving, if you're afraid of heights. Overcoming fear is an everyday thing. We do it all day long.

My favorite thing to do is action-driven, emotionally-charged scenes. If it's not just two people talking in a room, but it's on the move and things are happening and it's chaotic, and emotion comes from the characters and from the action, and the fall-out ultimately changes the character relationships, that exactly the kind of stuff I like writing.

In life, there's a lot that I'm afraid of. Death is always scary. My sister passed away. I'm not scared to die, so much as I was scared to not have her in my life, and it took a long time for me to reconcile that. There are fears everyday, and things that I'm afraid of. I fear everything, but I keep going.

The more that we self-analyze ourselves, the nicer we are to people and to ourselves, and the more we understand each other.

I've always been attracted to the characters that I didn't know anything about. If you do anything in life with passion and love, then it's worth trying.

The best thing about my job is that I work with the best creative people in the business in their fields.

Re-introducing Aquaman and getting him to a place like that and then ultimately having him headline a Justice League storyline that crosses over between his book and Justice League really is the culmination of where we've been going with the character since the beginning. His role in this will change the Justice League storyline, it will change him, and it will send them both in new directions.

Aquamen is unique in the sense that he does it without ego. He doesn't always have to be right. He's made a lot of mistakes, and he really takes those to heart.

With Aquaman I worked with such talented guys, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado. And he's a great character. I mean, Aquaman's a great character, he just hasn't been positioned in a role of importance in a long, long time. We tried to do that in this series; give him this platform because he deserves it, and give a very different perception of Aquaman while at the same time staying true to who the character is. Showing his power level, his fortitude, his sense of honor and commitment and responsibility, and hopefully showing everything that makes a hero a hero.

I'm excited for everybody to see the books. In Justice League #15, there's a lot of other stuff too that's setup in this storyline that's going to explore Superman and Wonder Woman and Cyborg. Cyborg has a huge role in this story, actually, that sends him on a new path as well.

We always knew that we wanted to keep Atlantis off for a while and when it did show up, to make it a big story. The goal for Aquaman was to position him as an A-list character; position him as an important member of the Justice League.

I want to do character driven epic storylines with Throne of Atlantis kicking off.

I don't care how people read their comics, I want them to read comics. I don't care if they read them on an iPad or a phone or in store, I just want them to read comics.

I know a lot of people that still buy comics, go to the shop every week, I know people who read them on an iPad. My brother reads on an iPad every week, he downloads his comics every week.

You're always learning about yourself, if you're honest with yourself. It's very tough to be honest with yourself. We all are dishonest with ourselves, a lot of the time. We don't want to deal with something, so we compartmentalize it.

It might sound goofy, but I do believe that emotions have power. We're all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction.

I like collecting comics, I like buying comics, I like looking at comics, but I also read comics on digital readers.