Before his Forever Evil comic signing at Barnes and Noble in Los Angeles, CA, Geoff Johns sat down to talk about his comic book projects, including Justice League , Superman, and -- of course -- the recently released graphic novel collection of Forever Evil.

Hear what he had to say -- including an enticing tease for The Darkseid War -- and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Justice League #36 cover by Jason Fabok

Superman by John Romita, Jr.

Luthor, by far. I think that was always the plan, to put Lex Luthor in a more complicated spot in the DC Universe. So the whole story was designed to force Luthor to step up and save the world and experience all these emotions that we've never seen him experience in a way that would dot his journey the Justice League. I think that's the biggest ramification. I like when the ramifications are about characters instead of things, so for me I'm really proud of that story that David and I did. This could have been called Lex Luthor: Forever Evil.Well, I'm writing Justice League, which a lot of the stuff that happens in Forever Evil continues in Justice League. Lex Luthor is a part of the team fighting alongside Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman, reluctantly on their parts. We're about to do a storyline this October called The Amazo Virus that really delves into Luthor trying to put the past behind him. But because of all the things he's done, the past catches up with him, and the Amazo Virus is one of those things, but also there's someone trying to kill him. He doesn't know who it is. All these things he's done that he thought he could shove aside and erase, it's not as easy as he thinks it is. So the ramifications of that are really explored in the Amazo Virus.At the same time, on the plot side, the Justice League is getting ready and getting prepared for whatever destroyed the Crime Syndicate's Earth, which is on its way here, from Forever Evil. We know that Darkseid's returning to the Justice League too, and those two are set on a collision course. So we're essentially building up to a big storyline next year called the Darkseid War that will kind of be the end cap to the first big chapter of the New 52 Justice League. Out of that will be -- that's going to be a pretty massive storyline, and that's Darkseid versus the Anti-Monitor with the Justice League caught in between, which is a pretty big story.No, it's a Justice League event. It's in that book.No, it's going to be a Justice League storyline -- but it's a big one.Well, Luthor's more attracted to Bruce Wayne as a kind of an ally because he's human, and Lex thinks, "Well, we have this in common, and we can bond over it," and that Bruce might understand Luthor and his point of view point more than anyone else on the team, which sometimes is true and sometimes isn't true. But having that dynamic grow organically in Forever Evil, those two together, between Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp, and what drives Bruce and what drives Lex and how intelligent these two men are, how they see one another -- it just sort of became the center of the team dynamic. That relationship continues as we move forward.She will be brought into the Justice League, yes.Eventually, yes, you will. I can't say when and who, but yes.Yes, there are plans for Simon. He's a great character, and I have a lot of plans for him moving forward. I hinted at Jessica and Simon's relationship in Green Lantern #20 a long time ago, and that will develop into something with Justice League as Simon comes into his own a bit more as Earth's Green Lantern. I don't want to spoil what happens, but, yes, he'll be a very prominent character in the book.Well, the take on Superman, really, it came out of -- we've seen the analog Superman, I guess, before in a lot of different ways, since Superman existed. But this started out as a character story. I went back and read every issue of Action Superman in the New 52, since it started, and kind of got a perspective on what they were doing and where they had taken the books and the character and what I was thinking about doing with Clark, Lois and Jimmy. I really thought that there was an opportunity to put the spotlight back on the human side of Clark. In order to do that, I wanted to find a character that would connect with that side of him and really explore the isolation I felt that Superman had been put in with the introduction of this take on him in the New 52 and the fact that nobody really knows he's Superman outside of some other superheroes and that his parents aren't with us anymore.I wanted to introduce a character that could let me explore that isolation and see him connect with somebody, because I think that's a huge part of the character -- Clark connecting with other people. I think we've seen it in every iteration of Clark and that he struggles to do it, because he can't quite be himself when he's Clark Kent. He's more than what people assume, and, for me, I needed to explore that and introduce a character who he could connect with on a level that's so deep and so, in an ironic way, he's more human than Ulysses is because this character Ulysses was a baby who was born on Earth and sent away and came back now and is experiencing Earth for the first time. He's human, but he doesn't even really consider himself human or understand what it is to be human -- and to have Clark show somebody else how to integrate into Earth and how to connect with him and how Ulysses doesn't sleep; he doesn't dream. Clark does sleep; he does dream.There's a lot of parallels to their journey, and there's a lot of differences too, as we move ahead. But front and center, I wanted to slow the pace down and spend some time with the character, with who he is and who Clark is now, and just open that back up a little bit -- then also put some more of the inspiration and a dash of Boy Scout back into Superman. Like, it's cool that he's a fighter and he's tough and he's younger and whatever they want to do, but for me, I need just a dash of that Boy Scout. I need the "What would Superman do?" and it's unquestionable, you know what Superman would do. So Ulysses allows me an opportunity to explore that, "Who is Superman?" and impart some of his morality upon him.He's got a lot of strengths. John is a legend. He's a professional -- him and Klaus and Laura -- to work with. It's a dream team, honestly. I wouldn't go back to the character of Superman unless it was for a really great opportunity to tell some wonderful stories with an amazing group of collaborators. So when this organically came about and I started thinking about the book, and if I had something I could really say about the New 52 Superman and Superman in general.I went back and read a lot of John's stuff, and in particular a lot of his Spider-Man stuff and the things that John does so well, beyond being an amazing storyteller, which is not easy for a lot of folks. But being an amazing storyteller, the two things that he does so well -- and they're a bit on opposite ends of the spectrum -- are insane-level action and spectacle, and heart and emotion. So I can turn the dial down on the action and up on the emotional exploration of the characters, and John nails it every time.When Ulysses meets his parents and you see that look on Clark's face of happiness and then also a little bit of sorrow because he'll never experience this himself, John nails it. I can end an issue on that, because it's so emotionally powerful. On the flip side of that, there's a scene coming up in an issue where John kind of gets to cut loose on the action. I just got the pages, and it's unbelievable to see Superman, no holds barred, against a bunch of robotic vulture-like creatures -- but just to see the sheer power John can deliver. Like, he can deliver the power of Clark Kent, the power of Superman.So those two things allow me to tell a story that can have the epic, larger-than-life scope that a Superman story needs and demands and, at the same time, I think the heart and the humor and the warmth a Superman story, in my opinion, should always have.I do want to say one more thing about the new artist on Justice League, Jason Fabok. He's coming on issue #36 with part one of the Amazo storyline. Issue #35 is a prologue to it. I can't wait for people to see his pencils. I tend to work with the same artists a lot, because there's nothing more important than a collaborator when you're working in comics. To be able to work with someone like Jason who's this quickly rising star -- his work, his detail, his character stuff, his scope -- it's so amazing, the passion he's putting into it. He loves comics as much as I do. I think it's going to be really fun to see this new era of Justice League.Oh, he's killing it. He's killing it -- and wait 'til you see this stuff. It's out of control. The Amazo Virus storyline explores, again, some things that are skeletons in Luthor's closet, that get out, and this virus attacks Metahumans. It's really creepy. It's intriguing, and he manages to capture all that and make it a big action storyline at the same time. But yeah, he's such a guy to look out for.

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