Jeph Loeb Goes Corporate as Marvel’s Executive Vice President, Head of Television

It was announced today that Jeph Loeb, writer of massive sellers like Red Hulk and others, has been appointed Executive Vice President, Head of Television for Marvel Entertainment.  This office is a new division and will oversee production and development of live action, animated television, and direct to DVD properties featuring Marvel properties. He'll report to Dan Buckley, Publisher & President of the Print, Animations & Digital Divisions.

This is a fairly significant move, and the press release specified nothing about whether Loeb will continue to script comics.  He really is someone who straddles the line of entertainment media, being an extremely successful and Eisner Award winning comic book writer, but also a former staff writer on multiple television shows, such as Heroes, Lost, and Smallville.  And lest anyone ever forget, Loeb wrote both Teen Wolf and Commando as well.

This position makes sense, given Loeb's track record, and at the very least, the man knows how to move units and find the thing that excites readers in his Marvel stories.  Combine that with his vast television and film experience, a veteran of decades in the industry, and you've got the makings of an executive. 

The move is also interesting considering Loeb shares a writing studio with another creator turned executive, Geoff Johns, with the Empath Magic Treehouse.  Johns was recently made DC's Chief Creative Officer, in addition to his other writing duties.  They also both spell "Jeff" slightly differently than normal.

Comments

  1.  "Give me. A keg. Of beer."

    Teen Wolf is one of my favourite movies of all time. No joke.

  2. This does seem like a good fit for him.  I really think that the guy could help a lot in the animated direction.  I do not feel too confident in his abilities in live-action though.

    Does this mean that we are not getting ‘Captain America:  White’, now?? 🙂

  3. You probably should have given up on Captain America: White a long time ago.

  4. guy can do whatever he wants just as long as he’s not scripting.

     sometimes i love him…and sometimes he makes a giant splash page of sabretooth telling captain america to "suck it"

  5. @Josh, why did you remind me of that?

    LOOOEB!! *shakes fist *

  6. Originally, I wanted to take the "NOOOOOOOOOO" approach, in that this was a guy who seemed to be fired from Heroes, and if you’re fired from that show, that’s saying something. However, it was raised in the article that he has a lot of experience with television, film. I’m not crazy about the man’s work on comics lately, but this might give him some room to play around a bit. So, rather than jump to conclusions, I’ll say Marvel took a bold step and I’m interested to see what Loeb does. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, but it could possibly work.

  7. No matter what he does, we can’t forget The Long Halloween, and some of his other now classic works.

  8. Jeph Loeb has produced a large amount of very good comic books.  There were hits and misses.

  9. I can see this working for Loeb.  Perhaps he just needs to start fresh again given his sub-par efforts on Hulk lately and what better way to do it then to get back into television.

  10. WTF?!?! Why has this guy not been fired from everything associated with comics? I like anyone else will agree there was a point in history where this man made a few decent comics (i.e. Batman: HUSH). However with that said he has single handedly ruined SOOOO many great comics recently. Anyone remember Ultimates 3? Ultimate Power? Seriously just Google Jeph Loeb and look at any comic he’s made past 2005 and your computer will literally start to smell like a steaming pile of crap from just having to display the titles of these books. SOMEONE FIRE THIS MAN!

  11. He sells more comics than almost anyone in the industry. From Marvel’s point of view, he has an enormously successful track record. You might think he ruined them, but he’s always in the top 10. You might want to google that.

  12. I like Jeph Loeb’s comics, but not his TV work (didn’t actually know about his film work til now), so I don’t know what to think. I’m torn.

  13. Citing sales successes doesn’t make up for his critical failures. I can’t blame Marvel for employing him as a writer, obviously, but as a reader, I’d still rather see something well-written as opposed to just something that’s in the top 10.

    Anyway, I’m still interested in where this going and what those TV properties would be.

  14. Agrees  w/ thompsonlive.

    In my Donald Trump voice:

    You’re Fired Loeb.

     

     

     

  15. Finally, proof there is no god.

  16. @josh-I gave up on Cap: White a long time ago, except for the joke.

  17. @josh I dont doubt he sells lots of comics. Thats not my point, it’s the same principle as stuff like Transformers 2 everyone agrees it made a crap ton of money but ask any self-respecting nerd and they’ll tell you Transformers 2 is a vomit flavored milkshake that got poured over our childhood memories. It’s the same thing with Loeb, yeah im sure he sells books but it doesn’t make up for the fact that he smears his own feces on pages and stinks up franchises with his TERRIBLE writing.

  18. Not only does Jeph Loeb sell a crap ton of comics, which I thank him for doing, but he’s also been a producer on some great shows.

    Smallville, LOST, Heroes

    He was a producer on those three shows during good the times, not the bad times.  This just makes a ton of sense to me. 

  19. If you think this is about anything other than how much money Jeph Loeb adds to the Marvel/Disney bottom lines, you’re deluding yourself.

  20. so who’s getting the "drama queen of the week" freakout award?
     
    even Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron struck out every once in a while…point being the greats have big hits and some solid misses. So what? When Loeb has a hit, its epic. He has a good TV track record. Seems like a smart choice. 
  21. @thompsonlive-The "self-respecting nerds" you mention make up an insignificant fraction of the people that watch those movies, so it really doesn’t matter what they think. Those movies make money, Loeb makes many, Marvel wants money, this works for them and I’m fine with that.

  22. The only question they need to answer is, will he still be scripting Ultimate X? Not a huge Loeb fan but he’s kicking ass on that title and I’d hate to see it derailed, before Loeb has a chance to derail it in his own special way.

  23. to loeb…..have marvel/disney (if disney hasnt already) aquire the rights to teen wolf and make a saturday morning monster of the week kids cartoon

  24. I don’t really like much of anything Loeb’s done since, and including, HUSH. But for all the constant bitching the man sells an awful lot of books. Somebody’s buying them. You can’t blame Marvel for looking at his sales numbers and saying "This guy’s doing good." In the world of commercial art moving units is the measure of success not good reviews. 

  25. @Josh – not sure if that was directed towards my comment or not, but I guess I feel better TV leads to more advertising on those shows and more money.  I think it’s a good thing all around, quality shows and more money for Marvel/Disney. 

  26. Since it doesn’t appear that we’re ever going to get an Arrested Development Movie, I will offer a significant amount of money to Jeph Loeb to make a Teen Wolf Sequel with both wolves, Jason Bateman and Michael J. Fox, and Bateman’s whacky werekid Michael Cera.   Particularly if it ends up going Ultimates 3 dark at the end (the violent parts, not the incest parts).

  27. I don’t give a crap about his track record. This is the era of: ‘What have you done for me lately?" and what has Loeb done lately?

    Crap.

    Count me out on watching anything produced by this man. 

  28. Nice to see some level heads resurface as the "Hating Jeph Loeb" kneejerk is no longer cool.

    Loeb was one of the guys who got me into comics, and especially DC comics, in the first place during his delightful run on Superman with one Ed McGuiness. I’ll definately agree that his stuff has been hit or miss over the last few years, but when I think about stuff like HUSH and even that little back up story in Superman/Batman #26 (go look it up for a good cry) I can’t bring myself to root against the fella. Many, MANY creators are guilty of far worse sins than he, and if the worst we get is a guy who’s actually haveing FUN writing the Hulk (a ridiculous character at the best of times), I think we can all get over the ire.

    I understand the dislike of a man’s work, but the rage always surprises me. Drink less Hateorade.

  29. @CaseyJustice: I will always state that Jeph Loeb’s previous works were always good. Long Halloween, all of his other works with Tim Sale, the first couple of Superman/Batman arcs; all great!

    But once Hush came around…..that was the beginning of the end with him. His stuff has either been mediocre to down right horrible. Don’t tell me that Ultimates 3, Ultimatium, or Hulk is good. Just don’t. It’s horrible pieces of writing that a noob in the industry would get shit for.

  30. @ I don’t neccessarily disagree with your assessment of Loeb’s more recent works. BUT all of those books sold a ton of copies. Someone must being buying them.

  31. Posted by JoseRivera83 "Originally, I wanted to take the "NOOOOOOOOOO" approach"

     I’m gonna do just that… NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

  32. something is nice about comics that are just fun, the red hulk thing is getting old though. . . I miss good hulk  🙁  

     

    cartoons might be a good fit for Loeb 

  33.  A smart move by Marvel would be if they took those 10 minute "mini movies" that they plan on playing before their Summer blockbuster and use those to acquaint the masses with b level characters… then take those characters and roll them into the Loeb led TV shows.

    Good for Jeph.  I hope this new opportunity works out for him.

     

    the Tiki 

  34. @TNC – I will NEVER tell you that Ultimates 3 was good, nor will I ever admit that Ultimatum was anything other than lazy dreck. On this, we can certainly agree.

    However, I will defend Adjectiveless Hulk till the day I die. There is a place in the comic work for big, dumb, fun comics, as long as that last part is maintained. I would argue that, for the most part, Hulk has been consistantly fun. It’s not Genius, and it doesn’t touch some of his other work, but you just get the feeling that he’s having a blast writing it, and that helps me to have a blast reading it.

    "OH! THE! HUMANITY!"

    PS: Is "noob" still a thing? Can we still use that un-ironically? No offense, actual question.

  35. @Casey: Ew, I just noticed I used the word noob….Sorry I tried to get that out of my vocabulary for years now.

    Is there room for ‘big, dumb fun’? Yes there is. But it should also have the love and care of any comic book. The stuff that I read on Hulk is big dumb fun…..but it’s TOO dumb and totally insults the readers intelligence (whether they be casual or not) Besides, when did Loeb become such a big dumb writer? All of his previous work was beautifully crafted and it felt smart to read. Now all of a sudden he’s become well….he’s become a Deadpool writer!

  36. I still think of Loeb as a ‘DC Guy’.. even though I know it’s not true.   So, a little weird for me, but, lets focus on the important things.  … more Marvel tv shows! 

  37. @Crippler – I think of him the same way, mainly because most of his best stuff was written at DC, and his Marvel stuff has been uneven at best, horrific at worst. It’s kinda like thinking of Kirkman as an Image guy as opposed to a Marvel guy.

    @TNC – I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent guy, and I don’t feel insulted. It’s meant to be more fun than thoughtful, and I feel that there is a craft to that style of story as well. Is Loeb opperating at the top of his game doing it? No, I think his best stuff is his most introspective stuff. But the whimsy (as I would call it) is palpable, and it seems less to me like he’s trying to reinvent the wheel and mre trying to just have a good time with an action/thriller, and it works pretty well.

    Ah well, it’s a taste thing at the end of the day. I just never quite understand the anger as opposed to… not being angry, I guess. Bugs me with Deadpool too, but that’s an obnoxious rant for another thread.

  38. Actually Lost became a lot better when Loeb left it (around the end of season 4) and so did Heroes, but "better" is an adjective of comparative degree. Regardless, Marvel corporate does see something in him.