Top 30 Geoff Johns Quotes

‘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 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.

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 like collecting comics, I like buying comics, I like looking at comics, but I also read comics on digital readers, so any way people read comics is fine with me. Digital is just helping people who might not necessarily have access to comics help them; that’s great.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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.

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

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.

‘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.

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

I think evil is very relative.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.