Look, I like Geoff Jones. I do.
He had a pretty good run on the Flash, wrote the awesome JSA series, AND he is the creator of Stargirl.
But he also did a lot of dumb retcons and changes characters a lot to suit his stories. Wonder Woman is probably one of the characters who got screwed over the most by GJ.
Here are five times Johns thought he knew better than other writers and changed stuff they had worked hard on making.
Jesse Quick is a work-o-holic.
There are a ton of speedsters in the DCU, and surprisingly many of them are names Flash:P
But there are also more unique speedsters, like Jesse Quick, daughter of Johnny Quick.
Jesse was not just a superhero, she was also a businesswoman. She dedicated her life to being a hero and to her company. She is one of my favorite heroes, and I think one of the more interesting traits about her is that she made the choice of not trying to look for a romantic relationship, that she didn't feel like committing to one.
... So Geoff Johns decided that it meant she was addicted to her work, that she needed to be knocked down a peg, have her powers robbed from her, reduced to caretaker of the JSA HQ and become Hourman's girlfriend.
... Nice.
Jesse eventually got her speed powers back, after she came to the revelation that she lost them because she deep down knew she was unworthy of them. But after marrying Hourman who fixed her personality, she was finally ready to be a speedster again.
What a load of crab.
Maxwell Lord sabotaged the Justice League.
"Countdown to Infinite Crisis" is a great read about Blue Beetle who is trying to uncover what could be a big conspiracy against all superheroes. Unfortunately, as the title implies, Infinite Crisis is just around the corner, chaos is everywhere, and all the superheroes are too busy giving a damn about what Ted is investigating.
But Ted is right. Someone IS planning something big that will hurt all the superheroes. The mastermind? Maxwell Lord, former manager of the Justice League.
So... here's the thing.
In "Countdown to Infinite Crisis", Max says that he plans on saving the world from the Justice League, give Earth back to humanity, a very Lex Luthor ish deal. And he also claims that he has always hated superhumans and that he purposely sabotaged the League when he was its manager.
Yeah... no. Just no.
Look, Max is a con-man, a cheap car salesman, a prick. But he is essentially a good guy. Not GREAT, but good. He sincerely wanted to do good, like managing the Justice League he had formed after it had suffered a devastating blow that ended it. Heck, Martian Manhunter scanned his mind when he was in a coma to see if there was anything in him that even looked like evil intent... and there was none.
So Max being an evil dick who sabotaged the League from the inside makes no sense.
Judd Winick later tried to fix it by still letting Max be a villain, but retconed the retcon so that Max started to resent super people after Coast City had been destroyed by Hal Jordan. That it was THAT specific incident that made him slowly grow to resent superpower people.
Hal Jordan as Spectre is bloodthirsty.
So, we all know that Hal went nuts, became Parallex, killed all the Green Lanterns and tried to reset the universe so he could recreate it in his image.
Then he died saving the world and was selected to be the host of the Spectre.
The Spectre is normally an anti-hero who murders criminals in rather brutal and creative ways. But Hal being a superhero was not exactly comfortable about that, so he decided to turn the Spirit of Vengence into the Spirit of Redemption instead, helping sinners find piece with themselves. And when he didn't do that, Halo also fought giant entities that the mortal mind can barely comprehend.
Hal's adventures can be read in the 27 issue long series written by J. M. DeMatteis. Try and look it up, it's good stuff. One of the best parts of the series is how Hal becomes the caretaker of his niece Helen after her parents die in a car accident and Hel is the only member of the family left who is not dead.
... Well, he IS dead, but not dead-dead.
But then Johns began to let Spectre be in JSA and make it clear that he was losing control and shit. Hal then returned to life and became Green Lantern because Parallax made him give in to violence as the Spectre.
And Helen? What happened to her?
We will never know since John apparently forgot about her when he rewrote Spectre Hal completely.
Barry's dad got framed for the murder of his wife.
By now, everyone knows the origin story where Barry's mom got killed by Zoom who framed Barry's dad, all to hurt his most hated enemy. Wanting to clear his father's name was what motivated Barry to become a police scientist.
That... was an origin story Johns made up to justify Flashpoint where Barry resets the DCU.
Before that, Barry's mom and dad lived normal and relatively happy lives. Barry became a police scientist because he wanted to fight crime like his idol, the flash from World War II.
What really annoys me is that Johns once wrote a story about Top taking Barry father and MOTHER hostage. And his mom was very much alive, and his dad not in jail.
It irritates me that Johns a) retconned made an unnecessary dead parent for Barry, b) that he retconed a continuity he used himself since that just seems sloppy, and c) that it was done to give Barry a reason to timetravel.
Black Hand has an interest in corpses that is just plain wrong.
So... Johns wanted to make a new take on this old Green Lantern villain, one that would make him a bit more edgy.
And boy oh boy, did he make him edgy. In a way he shouldn't be!
Why would he even do that?! This is the main DC continuity, not The Boys!
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't google it. Seriously!
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