To quote Brian Cronin's I've Been here Before series for CBR:

"nepotistic continuity," which refers to the way that comic book writers sometimes bring back minor characters that they themselves created in the past as characters in their later work (we're talking after a break of at least two years or so)

Comic book scribes have always used, use and will use certain concepts, characters and ideas over and over and over again, whether they, their mentors or their friendly colleagues created them, in an attempt to make the mainline DC canon and lore more akin to what they envisioned instead of adhearing to the status quo (a cynic could perhaps claim that they turn their head canon into actual canon). And sure, creating is the point of a writer's job, but it is quite interesting to see what their idealised version of the DC universe is through their works, to take a small peak into the mind of creators

One could argue that Doug Moench's ideal Batman foe is Black Mask, for, after he created Roman Sionis as an one off villain, after 100 issues of not being used he brought him back, now as a powerplayer in Gotham's mob scene. Or what about Grant Morrion taking their friend Peter Milligan's forgotten Dark Knight Dark City and turning it into an important story in Batman's history in order to get into their huge Batman/Final Crisis epic. But these examples are small potatoes compared to someone like John Byrne, who actively disregards continuity and retcons tons of material in order to make his comics be as close as they possibly could be to how he remembered them as a child (his Demon and Doom Patrol works are obvious examples of that)

But, if one were to discuss DC creators and retcons, one may not need to look any more further than the creator most infamous for using them, Geoff Johns. Making Max Lord evil all along, making Parallax an entity that took over Hal Jordan, making Superboy a clone of both Superman AND Lex Luthor and now making Batman's relation to the Arkhams (an element that only existed in the Earth One books) part of his new Justice Society of America series, the amount of retcons good and bad that this man has made can not be stated

And to tie things together from the opening paragraph, it is apparent to one that Johns is one of the premier examples of nepotistic continuity. By observing the patterns of his works, one can find out which tropes he uses, which themes are repeated in his works, which characters are reccuring in his books, and how by examining these writing tropes of his, one can find out all the ways in which he's altered and enriched DC's mainline continuity over the years

Of course, legacy is a major theme in most of his books. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E dealt a lot with Courtney picking up the Starman legacy, Hawkman dealt with his reincarnations, Teen Titans were the old Titans guard takinf YJ in order to make sure the Teen Titans legacy lives on, his Green Lantern and Flash runs were all about the reestablishmen/importance of GLC and the Flash Family respectively, and JSA is pretty damn obvious. Even his Justice League runs second arc was about Graves and how the JL, who's legacy he played a role in forming, ended up letting him down. But, in dealing with the positive, heroic legacy of superheroes, he also deals with the ways in which superheroes can negatively impact lives and disilussion people, such as the afromentioned Graves or Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime in Infinite Crisis. He also plays with legacy with characters finding out and overcoming the sins of their ancestors, like Earth-One Bruce finding out more about the Arkhams or Conner Kent finding out that he's also a clone of Lex Luthor

But what about recurring characters in his works? Who are the people that one can count on seeing in a Geoff Johns series? Other than Batman, of course, who is pretty much in every comic all the time. You have Stargirl, his first creation and a loving tribute to his late sister Courtney. Billy Batson and Black Adam, to whom he's given more depth than any other modern character. Superboy-Prime as well, always popping in Johns' stories as the voice representing toxic fanbases who are blinded by nostalgia. But there is also one other character who's important in understanding Johns' works, and that's Alan Moore. From basing the Blackest Night event upon a small line of dialogue in an Alan Moore GL short story to making Doomsday Clock, turning Moore's characters and concepts into huge parts of events and epics seems to be the way in which our boy Geoff homages the LoEG scribe

As you may know, I'm keeping track of Johns' New Golden Age that started this November after Flashpoint Beyond. And, after examining all the insances of nepotistic continuity in his works, such as characters, concepts, themes and tropes, this is the first part of the examination into what we could possibly see in the future of DC, courtesy of one Geoffrey Johns