These are big-time days for comic-book writers, and right now no one is bigger than Geoff Johns, the scribe who had the surreal experience this year of walking on the same stage as Keith Richards, Johnny Depp and the cast of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon"  at the Scream Awards. The 36-year-old Detroit native picked up the Scream trophy for best comic-book writer. This year, Johns wrote the six-issue miniseries "The Flash: Rebirth," which chronicled the return of Barry Allen, the most famous Flash. Today, DC announced that Johns and artist Francis Manapul would take the mythology further in March with "The Flash: Secret Files and Origins." It's a one-shot that leads up to a creative team taking over "The Flash" series, which already looks like one of the most promising runs of 2010. I caught up with Johns to talk a bit about the Scarlett Speedster.

GB: Tell me about your memories, as a reader, of Barry Allen getting killed off in 1985. It was such a jolting moment for DC readers and a pivotal point in comics history...

GJ: I had just started reading comics when the DC-altering "Crisis on Infinite Earths" came out.  One of the first comics I ever bought was the death of Barry Allen. I had seen the Flash before in animation and had really been drawn to the character, and then he died. Ironically, his death might've even been the trigger that really sucked me into the world of DC Comics. When I got to the end of "Crisis," and Wally West took on the mantle of the new Flash, I followed him into his book.  Barry's death really hit the DC Universe hard, it changed the entire makeup of it, and decades later his return is ushering in a new direction for the DC Universe.

GB: Do you feel restricted by the thicket of mythology that surrounds these characters? Even when it "doesn't count," you have to compete with it in some sense.

GJ: No. We all have a "thicket of mythology." You meet someone and they have an entire back story. A city they were born in. A best friend they lost touch with. An event that affected their whole family. A first job. Everyone has history. And every character has history. We don't meet characters the day they're born. We meet them years later. To me, it's the same thing. I think people can over-complicate the mythology, but I believe in highlighting the important parts -- that is, the events that affected them emotionally -- and moving on.

GB: Tell me about Barry Allen's voice compared to some of his heroic peers' -- what's his personality and mien?

GJ: Barry is a man who, despite what life throws at him, continues to step forward with a clear purpose and sense of who he is. He believes in justice, sometimes looking at it in black and white. He has no tolerance for those who victimize others. Before he became the Flash, Barry had trouble connecting with people emotionally, he was letting life pass him by. As the Flash, Barry found that excitement in life again and rejoined it with a vengeance. The most frustrating thing for Barry is related to his job as a member of Central City CSI. He investigates crimes that have already happened. Murders he can't stop. No matter how fast he is, that's the past.

GB: What did you want to avoid with this incarnation? In other words, what needed to be left behind for the character to run on?

GJ: Really, I look at something like "The Flash" as a long-term mission. "The Flash: Rebirth" was the knot to untangle in the shoelace before we could run. I wanted to clear the board, reexamine some key elements of Barry Allen and re-introduce a threat that would play throughout the next several years. Much in the same way as Green Lantern, I'm committed to a long-term story with the Flash and the universe around him. There's nothing that really needs to be left behind, so to speak. However, "The Flash" No. 1 that will start in April -- post-"Blackest Night" by Francis Manapul and I -- will be extremely accessible.  It's Barry Allen a.k.a. the Flash, Central City and the Rogues.

GB: Were there any lessons in Lantern experience that you can point to that helped you here?

GJ: Green Lantern is a very different beast, but if I learned anything, it was patience.  As soon as I came up with "Blackest Night," I wanted to get to it as soon as possible. But I knew I wouldn't have the proper buildup to the payoffs unless I rolled it out in the correct way. The same thing goes for "The Flash."  There are so many amazing villains and concepts within the Flash, they all deserve the proper time to explore.

GB: What are the compass points here as far as art? Flash has such a storied history, especially those Carmine Infantino years, how does that affect the present?

GJ: There are a handful of iconic Flash artists to me -- Carmine Infantino, of course, being among the top.  But speaking with Francis about his approach to the Flash and the world, thinking about the layouts, and specifically rethinking how to approach the power of speed and illustrate it in the best way possible is an ongoing conversation we're all having. But I have a very clear idea of showing the true power of super speed in a way we haven't really seen before. The Flash has always been a book at the forefront of where the rest of the superhero universe is going, and Francis Manapul and I intend to do our best to continue that tradition, yet we're starting with a very basic concept -- it's superhero "CSI."  The first arc is entitled "The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues" and it's a murder mystery, Flash-style. Which means it's anything but what it first looks like. He's my favorite character and it's great to be back with him.

-- Geoff Boucher

READ MORE ABOUT "THE FLASH: THE SECRET FILES" AT THE DC COMICS BLOG

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FOR THE RECORD: I referred to Barry Allen as the "original Flash" in an earlier version of this post but, of course, there was Jay Garrick in the Golden Age. I meant the "original guy in the cool all-red suit" but just to make it more precise it nows says "the most famous" Flash.

Geoff Johns is one of only a few writers who have been allowed to shape comic book icons (the Flash, Green Lantern, Superman), and tonight he dips his toe into television as writer of an episode of "Smallville" featuring the Legion of Super Heroes. He talked to Jevon Phillips, who wrote up this Q&A for Hero Complex.

JP: You have an office with Jeph Loeb and Allan Heinberg, two comics-to-TV guys.  This isn't your first foray into TV, but would you consider it your biggest?

GJ: Yeah, absolutely, and it's definitely the most fun I've had. I've had offers to work on other shows as staff writer or whatever, but I don't really have a lot of interest in it.

JP: That's different.

GJ: Well, I like TV.  I worked on "Robot Chicken," and I'm working on another show with those guys, and it's OK to do stuff here and there because it flexes a different muscle. But to be a staff writer, there's just not a lot of shows that I really want to work on.  If there were more shows I'd like to work on, maybe I would pursue it more.  But to do a live action Legion, obviously if you're a comic book fan, well, that's just too cool. My first passion is comics, so the stuff I get excited about would be TV and film projects that have to do with comics.

Welcome to your post-Thanksgiving edition of Everyday Hero, the roundup of handpicked headlines from the fanboy universe...

Superman, back to the beginning: A few months ago, Richard Donner told me he that he wishes Hollywood would allow writer Geoff Johns to script the next Superman film. Well, if some studio executive is curious about how Johns would handle a reboot of the franchise all they will have to do is pick up a copy of "Superman: Secret Origin," a back-to-Smallville series that will premiere in the early months of 2009. Johns gave Matt Brady the lowdown on his vision for the Clark Kent series, which sounds extremely promising to me: "We haven't seen a modern-day retelling of Clark's first adventure as Superboy with the Legion of Super-Heroes, or the day Superman met Jimmy Olsen or the origins of Superman's longtime enemies like the Parasite and Metallo. More importantly, Clark Kent himself will be explored in his earlier years in a way I don't think he's ever been explored before. And freaking Gary Frank, one of the greatest Superman artists in history already, is illustrating it. Every cover, every panel, every line. For longtime readers -- with the inclusion of the Legion of Super-Heroes back in Superman's history, General Zod introduced and all the other changes made post-'Infinite Crisis' nearly three years ago -- they've been requesting a definitive secret origin. 'Man of Steel' was brilliant and 'Birthright' was a beautiful book, but 'Superman: Secret Origin' will be what lines right up for the modern-day monthly books. It will feature new looks at the origin of not only Superman, but some of his greatest allies, enemies and supporting cast and it will tie into everything Gary and I have done so far on 'Action Comics' as well as setting the stage for the future." The entire article is well worth reading and, again, it's right here. [Newsarama]

Logan's run: The always interesting Empire Magazine from across the Atlantic has a first-look image of Hugh Jackman from next year's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" film and he looks ... well, pretty much the same way he looked in the three "X-Men" films. That's not a bad thing and, according to my wife, it is in fact a very good thing. Here's the promotional blurb from Empire: "It's that time again, and the new issue of Empire is about to hit the shelves. And this month we have a very exciting, news-packed feature from the set of 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine,' which is why the glowering mutant himself adorns our front cover. We got the lowdown from star Hugh Jackman, director Gavin Hood, Liev Schreiber (who plays Victor Creed) and many more for the full picture from the film's set, and here's a taster of what they're going for. 'There's a scene in the first "X-Men movie," ' said Jackman, 'where Wolverine's introduced in a bar, fighting in a cage, and you felt that he did this every night of his life. If this movie is successful, you should feel that this guy can walk straight off the end of this film and into that bar.' We also heard a little bit from Danny Huston on his take on the sinister William Stryker. 'The thing about Stryker is that he feels like he's got this God-given right, that he's on a crusade. He both loves and hates mutants, because his son was a mutant and murdered his wife. So he understands what they're going through but despises their force, their potential danger. It's wonderfully complicated.' 'In Logan and Creed,' continues Huston, 'Stryker finds his children and hones their powers like racehorses. But as in the world of horse racing, when your horse breaks his leg and is suddenly useless, he has a very cold way of looking at them. And he's also a mad scientist excited by the possibilities of what he can do to mutants.'" [Empire]

Samuel L. Jackson gets spooky: The world's greatest f-bomber, Samuel L. Jackson, will be honored tonight with the 23rd Annual American Cinematheque Award at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Jackson, who turns 60 this month, is intensifying his focus on his career as a producer, and in a recent interview with Jerry Endling, he told the reporter to watch for a pair of television projects, including one with fantasy themes: "I have two ideas that are about to come to fruition. One's a cop show, and the other one is sort of a supernatural show about these immortal women -- it's four women that were placed here at the beginning of time to guard us against the forces of evil. And they have personal lives that we'll get involved in, which will be strange from women who are thousands of years old and who've had relationships with people throughout history. And the cop show, we're actually trying to figure out if we can set in a city like Atlanta, because that's a place we haven't seen, and there's two very different guys who have just become detectives. One has been a detective who's been in an undercover situation for about five years, and the other one has been a beat cop." [Hollywood Reporter]...ALSO: If you haven't seen it, check out this photo gallery of Jackson's ever-changing hair styles on screen, which was put together in very witty fashion by Hero Complex contributor Chris Lee.

Mediocrity most excellent: The latest issue of Chris Ware's always fascinating series "The Acme Novelty Library" (from publisher Drawn & Quarterly) has reviewer Richard Gehr marveling at its loopy worlds of heartbreak: "Bleak, yet brilliant. The party line on Chris Ware's ongoing Rusty Brown graphic novel is in no danger of wavering with its latest installment ... the Chicago cartoonist's operating trope this time around is low-brow -- even no-brow -- science fiction. Following some typically self-abnegating boilerplate ('The contents of this volume ... should not be interpreted as an artistic response to recent criticisms and/or reviews of this periodical'), the book opens with 'The Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars.' Attributed to one W. K. Brown (one F. C. Ware holds the copyright on the 'Library' itself), the 33-page faux-SF story demonstrates yet again Ware's genius for mimicking the mediocre, exquisitely. A study in blues, oranges, and browns, Brown's 'Seeing Eye Dogs' recounts a romance gone savagely wrong during a mission to colonize Mars." [Village Voice]

-- Geoff Boucher

Photos: "Superman: Secret Origin" art by Matt Brady, Samuel L. Jackson and "The Acme Novelty Library" cover. Credits: DC Comics; Alejandra Villa /For The Times

EXCLUSIVE: The filmmaker talks about "Lethal Weapon," the state of Superman and getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:

Richard Donner, who directed and produced all four "Lethal Weapon" films but found himself excluded from the recent plans to make a fifth, now says that his old friend Mel Gibson has walked away from the franchise revival.

"Mel turned it down," Donner said. "I would like to think that Mel turned it down because I wasn't involved. Knowing Mel, I would like to think that. Would that be the kind of thing he does? It sure would be."

I checked with Gibson's camp on Sunday night and while they were reluctant to make any official comment, I left the conversation with no doubt in my mind that Donner's account is accurate. The 78-year-old filmmaker should have pretty good insight into Gibson; in addition to the four "Lethal" films, Donner directed Gibson in "Conspiracy Theory" and "Maverick" and until recently, the two were pursuing another collaboration, "Sam and George." The pair have a famously mutual admiration society and why not?

For Gibson, the first "Lethal Weapon" in 1987 propelled him to whole new Hollywood heights while for Donner it added luster and longevity to a resume that already included "Superman," "The Omen," "Ladyhawke" and "The Goonies." The "Lethal" franchise eventually grossed $488 million at the U.S. box office and the last installment, released in the summer of 1998, topped $130 million domestically.

In recent months there was a ramping of expectations that, like Indiana Jones, Rambo and John McClane, Gibson's volatile cop-hero Martin Riggs would be back on the screen to remind moviegoers of 1980s cinema glory. Those expectations began when word got out that Shane Black, who famously wrote the screenplay for the first "Lethal Weapon" and co-wrote the first sequel, had a script that would reunite Gibson's Riggs with his old partner, Danny Glover's Roger Murtaugh. He brought it to producer Joel Silver, another veteran of the "Lethal" franchise, who wanted Black to also direct it. (Black made his directorial debut with "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" in 2005.)

The news of the Silver and Black project stirred press coverage and considerable blogosphere interest this summer, especially after actor Columbus Short said he was up for a supporting role and that the project was being fast-tracked. (And, no surprise, there were plenty of people who groaned at the mere mention of another "Lethal Weapon" movie.) It was all frustrating for odd-man-out Donner, who with a separate team had come up with a sequel concept of their own. Donner, who had a falling out with Silver a few years ago, didn't enjoy being excluded from a franchise that he considers his signature work.

"Joel Silver tried to ace me out of it. He tried to put it together but made sure he didn't do it until my  contract was up. You know, it's typical of the man. A guy who wasn't even around at the beginning when we started on the first one. He came in late."