I'm still not going to bother with this game, as I am more excited by Champions Online and don't trust SoE to deliver a quality product, but...

Those who are interested? This is staggeringly good news for you. As a longtime comic reader, if ANYONE were to be trusted to craft the overall plot outline of a DC MMO, Geoff Johns would absolutely be my first and only pick. There is simply no writer out there who gets the DC Universe like he does. He's written it all for them and he's written it all well. In a currently terrible and convoluted DC Universe that is being run into the ground by terrible direction from Dan Didio (Editor in Chief) and incomprehensible garbage from Grant Morrison (Final Crisis and Batman R.I.P.), Geoff Johns (With stuff like Green Lantern, Action Comics, JSA, recent Flash) has been the one shining light in an otherwise dismal DCU.

0bsessions

@Bakeroo:

Most of the Green Lanterns have been white. Don't you read the comics?

UkGuru

Damn this is going to be good, hard to believe they're doing a grand story for it too, I'd have thought it would be, 'set MMO in Gotham with DC. watch money roll in'

excel_excel

First dibs on Elongated Man! Second dibs on Vibe.

RiceBandit

This game sounds like a dream come true for me.

Which means it will probably end up getting canceled for some outrageous reason.

Kanik

What's up with the honky Green Lantern?

Bakeroo

Besides Batman I hate almost everything DC does. However, I love almost everything Jim Lee or Geoff Johns does, so that negative bias has now been negated! Count me as "cautiously optimistic" for this MMO. Hopefully it will rekindle the kind of love I once had for City of Villains before I got bored with it. I want to get my ass kicked by Batman! Is that weird? :)

therage33

@VSpeck: Marvel fan I take it?

MehGinla

Oh boy, an artist who's style is stuck in the 90s and a writer who masturbates to comic book continuity.

There is a certain blandness about Johns' writing that should translate quite well to video games.

VSpeck

@MehGinla: Well, most of the ones who aren't featured as the heroes of Earth. IE: Side characters.

I'm actually rather curious about this game now. I really hope they allow players to create not only original characters of their own, but characters with abilities tied tot he DC universe. IE: A random member of the Green Lantern Corps.

CheckersMcGavern

ill keep this game on my radar

castout

@excel_excel:

castout

@RiceBandit:
Not interested in Vibe's brother, Revibe? or was it reverb?

van_line

Per usual, had this yesterday:

[texangamer.com]

Tipped you guys AND PS3Fanboy, alas PS3Fanboy was the only one that saw this as newsworthy when it was announced, and gave me a nice kudos.

On topic, the news is great and it's a shame he wasn't part of the process from the beginning.

The SackBoy

@UkGuru: Ummm... most of the green lanterns aren't even human...

MehGinla

"original Green Lantern Hal Jordan"

But, Alan Scott?

StocDred

Was never into comics...But I am interested on how the developers will execute this game.

charley_mcd

@VSpeck: I'm in the same boat. It's just rare to find somebody that doesn't like Johns and isn't either a marvel fanboi or just not into spandex comics.

MehGinla

@MehGinla: With Morrison writing All Star Superman, Batman , and Final Crisis, I'd really say I'm more of a DC fan right now.

But I tend to follow writers and artists. Not companies.

VSpeck

@VSpeck:That said, when Superboy/man Prime sneezes and blows up galaxies, I will personalty hunt down the writing staff at DC and give them a necktie party.

Foxstar Sixtail

@VSpeck:"The guy with the retcon punch"

God, are you married? Because you make such sexy statements there. I will forever know you for that statment from now on. Because it's true.

"Shit, we need a annoying new villain for Batman who he won't work over in three months."

"What about Jason?"

"But he's dead! We let the fans kill him by a narrow margin! He's so dead that his name is even used as a metaphor, "Only Bucky, Uncle Ben and Jason Todd stay dead."

"What about Superboy/man Prime? He's got all those wacky Silver/Golden Age powers when our writers would simply invent shit to get the character out of crap they wrote him into, like being trapped in a kyptonite lined rocket that's going towards a red sun and Lois needs him to get new panties for her date tonight?"

"...FANTASTIC. GIVE HIM THE RECTON PUNCH!, We won't have to be creative at all for at least two years, he can stir up all the shit that writers before us fought tooth and nail to bury!"

..or something like that happened at DC.

Foxstar Sixtail

@Foxstar Sixtail: Ah Superboy Prime, ok didn't know he was called Superman Prime now. The guy with the retcon punch.

@0bsessions: "All hype with absolutely zero substance."

With that bit of insanity, I think I'll get off this ride. I wouldn't want this board to degenerate into a buncha fanbois making snide comments to each other... oops.

VSpeck

@VSpeck:The biggest asshat in tights to hit comics in years.

[en.wikipedia.org]

The Wiki does not do him justice, you have to be exposed to the horror.

And as for Batman killing Ra'Ah'Ghul, he didn't, he just didn't save him + Batman has done that before + Ra'Ah Ghul is as hard to kill as a 10 foot cockroach.

Foxstar Sixtail

@Foxstar Sixtail: Who is Superman Prime and why do you want him dead?

I don't ask for continuity. I ask for consistency. If Batman doesn't kill people then why did he kill Ra's Ah Ghul in that movie. That type of thing. But if some villain that was killed twenty years ago suddenly reappears I don't need an entire issue explaining it. Villains come back to life all the time. That's enough for me.

Look for a video game like DCU Online following "continuity" will be a great thing. So Johns is a pretty good fit.

VSpeck

@0bsessions: Oh, and that first bit I said was poorly worded. I am well aware Morrison had nothing to do with Countdown.

0bsessions

@Parsifal: 52 was great and one of the works I can fully admit Morrison knocked out of the park. Countdown was an appalling mess from start to finish, though. I gave Final Crisis a shot on the merits of Morrison's JLA run, which was fantastic, and have been left wanting. It's just...utterly mediocre. It's not terrible by any means (I'd call R.I.P. terrible), it's just not good at all. The majority of it straddles the line between convoluted (You need a PhD in DC Continuity to know half of what's going on) and anticlimactic (The three biggest storyline elements so far have occurred off panel).

0bsessions

@Parsifal: I will give you that. Johns' biggest failing is that he seems completely anti-progress, as evidenced by his involvement in Green Lantern Rebirth and Flash Rebirth (Characters that were long since dead and replaced). He at least writes them well, though I'm unsure of how much of the anti-progression is Johns' idea and how much is editorial mandate.

0bsessions

@0bsessions: Unfortunately DiDio lost the reigns towards the end on the whole "Crisis" thing. What started as a well-coordinated, streamlined project just got more and more lopsided. Towards the end thing just started contradicting themselves. I got all of 52 and Countdown, but I'm presently debating getting "Final Crisis".

Still, it gave us stuff like "Adam Strange" and "Villians United", so there's that.

Parsifal

@MehGinla: Then I'd say it's the latter. I'm a Marvel fan and I know very few Marvel fans who don't respect what Johns brings to the table for DC. He's pretty terrible with Marvel work, but he's got a true knack for anything DC he touches.

I can't wrap my head around anyone liking Morrison's Batman and Final Crisis, though. All hype with absolutely zero substance. I also can't get someone calling Johns someone who "masturbates to continuity" and then turn around and sing the praises of Batman R.I.P. or Final Crisis, both critically derided for their steep continuity requirements.

Johns does use continuity heavily, but in a friendly and engaging way. Whereas Morrison's work seems to scream "You didn't read a Batman comic from 1956? Screw you! Just TRY to figure this crap out," Johns references continuity while still keeping the reader somehow attached. While not an avid DC reader, both Rogues' Revenge and Legion of Three Worlds have, thus far, outshone Final Crisis to a high degree.

0bsessions

@MehGinla: No, just as likely a DC fan. Johns sort of gave the DCU a good crack to the sack recently. As the mutliple Crisis storylines wrap up we're seeing the return of a ton of stuff that the last reality-bending storyline fixed...references to the super pets, Batwoman, the Atomic Knights.....He's bringing all the silly stuff back into main continuity....Do you know who Proty is? [en.wikipedia.org]
...How about Proty II?....[www.direman.com]

I'm not going to say he's a horrible writer, but he's become so enamored with "The way things were" that it's overshadowed original thought.

Parsifal

@VSpeck:Honestly, I'd rather have a writer who sticks to continuity. I'm sick of resets. I'm stick of them going back to screw up canon that was nicely set in stone 5, 10, 15 years ago just because they can't think of anything new for that month.

Writers who can't stick to continuity is why we always end up with Women in Refrigerators or some other crap each and every year.

If Morrison kills Superman Prime and removes him from all DC continuity, none of this crap "Oh he's gonna be a great hero, he just needs to get over the fact his balls dropped and no one likes him" tripe that writers use to make creating a complete asshat in tights okey, then he will have me as a reader for life.

Foxstar Sixtail

This news makes me giddy as a comic fan. Geoff Johns is behind some of my favorite DC comics. His JSA run has been spectacular, he had a fantastic run on Teen Titans, and his work on Sinestro Corps War and the regular Green Lantern runs were phenomenal. I also have enjoyed every issue of his and Jeff Katz's Booster Gold run. All in all I find it very hard to take this news as a negative in any way.

GKFinns

Fuck fuck fuck! I can NOT stand Geoff Johns. His stories are boring and unoriginal, he just swings by the dicks of stories written by much better writers, and then he tries to re-write them and fails. It would be nice if actually paid even the slightest bit of attention to past continuity, but he doesn't.

I'll check the game out but that is some real disappointing news

Syre

As long as they tighten up the gameplay animation then count me in. So far much of the footage looks rigid, clanky, and sloppy but it's still too early to comment on that stuff.

Let's hope it comes out all right.

BallPtPenTheif

@Syre: seriously? are you not reading Green Lantern right now? dude's writing his ass off there, books better than its been in forever. i cant see this being anything but good news.

TheIrishNinja

I think Geoff Johns means only good things for the upcoming MMO. You need someone who is as liberal with continuity as Johns is, while still maintaining the spirit of the Game and the overall plot of where the game is headed.

Look at WoW for example, and how Blizz themselves have had to shoehorn in new aspects to the Lore in order for certain changes to work effectively in the game.

Geoff Johns does have talent, his Green Lantern work is frankly the best we've seen of the series since Kyle Radner appeared. True, not every story he writes is groundbreaking, but they are entertaining and he's proved himself able to venture into other froms of media.

Archmagnus

Geoff Johns is pretty much responsible for every good thing that has happened in DC over the last several years.

Within the DCU continuity there is pretty much nothing aside from Paul Dini's Detective Comics and Gail Simone's Birds of Prey/Secret Six, that I enjoy reading besides Johns work.

Lackshmana

damn it john...where is the blackest night?

icko

@TheIrishNinja:

GL Corps is a LOT better then GL right now.

arstal

@icko: summer '09 as i recall.

TheIrishNinja

@arstal: ...it is? i honestly havent read it since the Sinestro Wars. mebbe i should pick it up again.

TheIrishNinja

Oh great, Geoff Johns...so now we can have an MMO where he goes around re-writting past continuity to suit his Fan-fic level nergasms.

Kaijumaster

Oh yes, thems is some cuh-RAPPY graphics.

Spiderkid

TITANS GO!

chozo_hybrid