(CNN) -- "There is a sense that he is 'one of us,' a true fan of comics." 

That's how John Mayo, co-host of the Comic Book Page podcast, describes Geoff Johns, the chief creative officer at DC Comics and one of the most influential figures in comics today. 

All those trailers you've been seeing for the upcoming "Green Lantern" movie? A good chunk of the credit should go to Johns. He's a co-producer on the film, but he's also responsible for giving the character top billing recently in comics and, ultimately, in pop culture. 

Johns brought Hal Jordan back to life in the "Green Lantern: Rebirth" series and went on to cast the emerald warrior's world as the focal point of the DC Universe in the popular "Blackest Night" comic event. 

Now, he's taking on DC's newest large-scale series: "Flashpoint," a world in which everything you know will change in a Flash. The first issue hits shelves Wednesday. 

"I didn't want to take the DC universe, put it in a box, shake the box and pour it out," Johns said. "I wanted to take the major characters and show what they could be like if they were put on a different path." 

The one constant is another fan favorite that owes his recent reincarnation to Johns: the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen. 

Some Flash Facts about the scarlet speedster: Allen is a police scientist who, thanks to an accident, was imbued with the Speed Force, an energy that turned him into the fastest man alive. He sacrificed his life during one of DC's first mega events, "Crisis on Infinite Earths," back in the 1980s, but returned in recent years as a regular fixture in the DC world. 
And who is he?
Flash, Barry Allen