I have a lot of thoughts about this. https://twitter.com/ghosttgray/status/1304683796525015040

This is a good thread. I think that Johns’ work is informed by the 80s period, but I don’t think that he’s nostalgic for it. I think he is very interested in the ways the creators + editors who created stories published by DC in the 80’s engaged with/commented on DC’s Silver Age.

I don’t think he’s looking to restore or indulge, but much of his work is in dialogue with the work from the 80’s.

There was a sense that many of those creators (Wolfman, Moore, Miller, etc.) were criticizing, if not outright rejecting the values and tone of the Silver Age for something more sophisticated and nuanced and modern.

Johns’ work seems to reject that conclusion in favor of an effort to embrace the spirit of the Silver Age with modern storytelling techniques. For these purposes, spirit =
SA as a set of ideas/symbols rather than the actual stories published during the 50s and 60s.

I have problems with almost everything Johns has written for DC, but am fascinated by the fact that his work seems to be premised on the idea that Crisis/Dark Knight Returns/Watchmen were wrong, but he can’t help but write stories in the ‘grim/gritty’ style.