It has been announce earlier today that Jeph Loeb will be the EVP, Head of Television for Marvel’s new division, Marvel Television. That’s right, Marvel has created a new addition to their already big line-up moving into the small-screen. According to Marvel.com:
In this new role, Mr. Loeb will work alongside Dan Buckley, Publisher & President of the Print, Animation & Digital Divisions, Marvel Worldwide, Inc., to translate Marvel’s popular characters and stories to the television medium, in both live-action and animation formats. In addition to these responsibilities, Mr. Loeb will oversee the development and distribution of live-action, animated and direct-to-DVD series.
He will be reporting to Dan Buckley and Alan Fine, Executive Vice President, Office of the President and Chairman of Marvel Studios’ Creative Committee. Mr. Fine was the one who made the announcement, and goes on to say:
“It’s with tremendous pride that I announce the creation of our Marvel Television division and the appointment of Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President. His work in the comic book field is in a class of its own, showing his passion and talent for bringing Marvel’s finest characters to life in an innovative manner. Jeph’s work on multiple award-winning television series and popular films has shown fans worldwide his ability to deliver thrilling entertainment in a number of media. With Jeph as our EVP, fans will experience the highest quality and most exciting television projects featuring their favorite Marvel characters.”
To this Loeb replies:
“I couldn’t be happier to accept this new position at Marvel Entertainment, working with both Dan and Alan to deliver exciting, cutting edge television projects, Marvel continues to break new ground in storytelling in both their comic book and film ventures, so, along with everyone here, I’m excited to bring the same brand of excitement into homes across the globe.”
To those of you who know Jeph Loeb through his comics, you will know that he was a Marvel-exclusive Eisner Award comic book writer. Winning multiple Eisner Awards for hi work. He’s written comic books for the likes ofalmost every major super hero in comics, including Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Daredevil, Spider-Man, the X-Men and a lot more on that list. Though some fans could argue that some of his latest work is “stuck in the past” and could be a lot better than it is, like it used to be.
The same may go for his television writing experience. For those of you who don’t know of Mr. Loeb through his comics, you may recognize him for his work on television. He is the Emmy nominated writer for his work on the show Heroes, which he was also an executive producer for. His other works include being a writer/producer on television series Smallville and Lost; and writer of hit films Commando and Teen Wolf.
This may be a great start to Marvel Television, but who knows, we might be seeing more of the Heroes flop now that he’s on board, but then again he did great work for Smallville, Lost, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer as well. So I guess the better option for now is to look for writers and directors who aren’t so stuck in the past, and look forward to help the stories move along at a good steady pace. We do not want to see another Heroes show get run down to the ground because of how ridiculous things got. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
