When Geoff Johns was just a boy, moving into his teenage years, so too was Wally West maturing, moving from being Kid Flash to The Flash after his mentor and uncle’s demise in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Johns, already an avid fan of The Flash, was anxious to see Wally’s first issue in his new role (and costume), so anxious, he risked parental punishment.
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“I’m such a big fan of Wally West, I remember buying his first issue [as The Flash]. I was grounded, actually,” Johns told Comicbook.com in a sit-down interview about the future of DC Comics after DC Universe Rebirth #1. “My friend came to the window, and I opened the screen – it would always stick, it would take forever. And I gave him 75 cents and he went to the drug store, down the hill, got it, then came back and gave it to me through the window.”
The young Johns was risking a lot of extra punishment – because he was specifically already supposed to be staying away from what, even at a young age, was already his favorite storytelling medium.
“And I was grounded from buying comics (laughs)! That’s the worst. My mom took my shortbox, I had one shortbox of comics at the time, and she took it away because she knew how much I loved it. His name was Mike Crowley, I’ll never forget giving him 75 cents to go get Flash.”
Johns would go on, of course, to write the adventures of Wally West for years before bringing back Barry Allen to the pages of DC Comics as well. The writer has a few Flash surprises in the pages of DC Universe Rebirth #1 (spoilers in the preview pages below), which will be the last comicbook he writes for the forseeable future. He’ll be taking a step back from comics to focus on his role as DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer and reportedly having a larger hand in DC Comics based films at Warner Bros.
“I’ll write comics again,” he told us. “It’s not forever – just for now.”
Read our full spoiler-free review of DC Universe Rebirth #1 here.
