The Lebanese-American Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston. As a child, Johns and his brother loved comics, eventually gravitating toward DC and Vertigo titles, and maintaining an interest in drawing them as well. He later developed an interest in film, and after graduating from Clarkston High School in 1991 and from Michigan State University in 1995, Johns moved to Los Angeles, California.
Film production and comics
In Los Angeles, Johns cold-called the office of director Richard Donner, whose films Johns adored, in particular The Goonies and the first two Superman films, which Johns felt captured the essence of that character, and were among the best films of all time. According to Johns, who called Donner's office for an internship, he was transferred until Donner picked up the phone by accident, leading to a conversation, and the internship Johns sought. Johns started off copying scripts, and after about two months, was hired as a runner, or production assistant for Donner, whom Johns regards as his mentor.
While working on production of Donner's 1997 film Conspiracy Theory, Johns visited New York City, where hed met DC Comics personnel such as Eddie Berganza, reigniting his childhood interest in comics.
Berganza invited Johns to tour the DC Comics offices, and offered Johns the opportunity to pitch ideas, which led to Johns pitching Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., a book based on the second Star-Spangled Kid and her stepfather, to editor Chuck Kim a year later. Johns expected to write comics "on the side", until he met David Goyer and James Robinson, who were working on JSA. After looking at Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., Robinson offered Johns co-writing duties on JSA in 2000, and Johns credits both him and Mike Carlin with shepherding him into the comics industry. That same year, Johns also became the regular writer on the ongoing series The Flash.
After writing The Avengers United in 2001 and Avengers Icons: The Vision in 2002 for Marvel Comics, Johns oversaw the re-launch of the Hawkman series and in 2003, and the re-launch of the DC title Teen Titans.
Johns was responsible for the return of Hal Jordan in 2005 as the writer of the Rebirth mini-series and subsequent Green Lantern ongoing title, helming its critically acclaimed "Sinestro Corps War" storyline. Johns was also the writer of the DC Comics crossover event Infinite Crisis beginning in 2005, a sequel to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this, Johns was one of four writers, with Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka, on the 2006-2007 weekly series 52.
In 2006, Johns reunited with Richard Donner on the Superman title Action Comics, with Donner co-plotting the series with his former assistant. In August 2007 Johns and cowriter Jeff Katz re-launched the new Booster Gold series. At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, DC Comics announced that Johns would be teamed with artist Ethan Van Sciver on the miniseries 2009 Rebirth, which centered on the return of Barry Allen as the Flash. He also wrote the Final Crisis one-shot Rage of the Red Lanterns with artist Shane Davis, and is retold Superman's origin story with his former Action Comics artist Gary Frank in 2009's Secret Origin. Johns and Frank will also collaborate on an original graphic novel starring Batman called Batman: Earth One, an out of continuity story set for release in 2010. It will be the first in a series of graphic novels that will redefine Batman.
Johns was named DC Comics' new Chief Creative Officer on Feb. 18, 2010, a position that Johns stated will not affect his writing.
In a 2010 interview, Johns named Steve McNiven as an artist he hasn't yet worked with who he'd like to do so, J. Michael Straczynski's run on Thor as his then-favorite ongoing comic book, and The Flash as his favorite of all time, as he owns every issue of it. He also credits reading James Robinson's The Golden Age as the book responsible for his love for the characters in that book, and for his decision to accept writing duties on JSA.
Television, film, and computer games
In 2006, Johns wrote the Justice League Unlimited episode "Ancient History", which starred Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Shadow-Thief and the John Stewart Green Lantern.
With Goyer, Johns co-wrote the pilot for the Spike TV television series Blade, which premiered in summer 2006. Johns served as one of the writing staff on the television show.
In the fall of 2006, Johns teamed up with Matthew Senreich of Robot Chicken fame to write the screenplay for a holiday family-friendly movie titled Naughty or Nice for Dimension Films. Johns and Senreich are also billed as directors of the movie, with actor/producer Seth Green set to provide a lead voice as well as serving as voice director on the film. This association also led to Johns contributing material to the fourth season of Robot Chicken.
"Recruit", a 2005 episode of Smallville, on which Johns' studio mate Jeph Loeb was a writer-producer, featured a villain by the name of Geoff Johns. In 2008, Johns wrote "Legion", the 11th episode of the eighth season, in which he introduced the three core members of the Legion of Superheroes. At Comic-con 2009 he announced that he was writing another Smallville episode, titled "Society," based on the Justice Society of America. The success of his first episode and the ambitious nature of his follow-up episode enabled the producers to transform it into a two-part story, which subsequently aired as a feature-length episode titled "Absolute Justice".
In July 2009, Johns appeared on The Write Environment, a direct-to-DVD series featuring interviews with TV and comic-book writers.
Johns is the principal writer of the DC Universe Online massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
