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Whenever it's time for a superhero-licensed RPG, a favorite trick of the development house in question is to heavily advertise story material written by honest-to-God comic book writers. For instance, EA's Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects fighting game advertised a storyline written by Ultimates scribe Mark Millar. This didn't stop Marvel Nemesis from being a massive pile of failure as a game, or Mark Millar from making fun of gaming as a pastime for pedophiles, but that's another story entirely.

For the upcoming DC Universe Online RPG that's been much-discussed in these parts lately, the guest comic writer handling script duties is going to be Geoff Johns. Now, this is actually a very big deal. Geoff Johns is one of the most consistently commercially successful writers working at DC Comics today. His run on Justice Society of America with Richard Goyer (who went on to help develop Batman Begins) is a fan-favorite, and his current runs on Action Comics (starring Superman) and Green Lantern are smash hits.

But...

(There's always a but, isn't there?)

While Geoff Johns is a man who is very good at selling DC comic books, he's got certain... let's call them writing tics. These writing tics are not necessarily things I want to see crop up in DC Universe Online, and whether or not we see them is going to depend a lot on what rating SOE wants.

1. Flying Killer Psycho-Gore

No, no, not a Fallout 3 Achievement. Geoff Johns loves old-school DC characters, but his comic reading consciousness seems to have solidified in the late 80's. That's when grim n' gritty, hyper-violent takes on superheroes like Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and Miracleman became all the rage. As a result, Johns tends to veer between mellow nostalgia and writing stories where an evil Superboy from another universe punches a hero so hard her head flies right off her head, flies across the panel, and bounces off the dirty pavement. That's probably not going to fly in a T for Teen game, but could make for good Joker missions.

2. Geoff Johns Hates the Future

Remember what I said about Geoff Johns's comics-reading consciousness solidifying in the late 80's? Another result of this is that Johns tends to take extremely little interest in characters who were created after, roughly, 1992. If you were hoping to see a lot of Doomsday, Kyle Rayner, or Impulse in DCU Online... uh, do I have some bad news for you. That said, we have seen Harley Quinn who also dates from this period, so Johns may not have the final say on who shows up.

3. Superheroes are Celebrities, and You're Not on the A-List

This is the Geoff Johns writing trope that bothers me most as something that could potentially show up in the game itself. Superhero fans tend to group characters onto A, B, C, and D-List tiers based on power level and popularity. Geoff Johns, being a superhero fan at heart, tends to write the characters as if they also followed this practice. Basically, you're never going to see anyone pretending that Aquaman's a useful guy to have around 90% of the time in a Geoff Johns book.

We know DCU Online is going to have us creating our own heroes and interacting with the established DC characters. Are our no-name guys going to be doomed to being treated like B-grade heroes in a story that glorifies the NPCs? Here's to hoping that SOE steers Johns away from any inclination to write in this vein.

All told, though, I'm happier we got Geoff Johns as the writer for DCU Online than I would've if it had been someone inferior. It could've been, say, the horror duo of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, who in the span of one year managed to write the worst DC comics series in a very long time (Countdown), the worst TV cartoon I've ever seen (Speed Racer: The Next Generation), and then get named the writers of the latest entry in gaming's ever-onward march toward being a serious and relevant medium, Mortal Kombat vs. DC.

Geoff Johns loves writing the DC heroes so much that he's one of the very few modern comic book writers who is genuinely a company man, with no ambitions of doing a bunch of creator-owned indy work or moving on into the realm of film or TV writing. That kind of affection never hurts a game like this, and may help him prevent SOE from making any serious missteps with the IP. Still, if I end up having to fight Superboy Prime or Johns's absurd Rainbow Corps in that game, I'm gonna scream just a little before I get on with it.

Now, who would I have personally picked to write DCU Online? Well, my choice would've been Grant Morrison, who's currently writing DC's big Final Crisis summer crossover and has done epic wonderful DC runs with the likes of JLA, Animal Man, Superman and Doom Patrol. Who wouldn't love to run into Danny the Street in an MMO, or visit the version of Bizarro World that he dreamed up? I think you'd put an end to all of the CoH and Champions comparisons by making it clear that DCU Online would be about letting you interact with the greatest and weirdest DCU stories ever told, but that's just me.

I wonder who you guys would've picked? Sound off, comics geeks, I know you're out there. I can hear you arguing about Frank Miller.

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