Marvel Television as we know it is dead. With Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige now in charge, it's been rebranded "Marvel TV Studios" and the future is looking bright, as we enter a new era of storytelling on Disney+ with stories that actually tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than being adjacent to it (or not really connected at all).
As the man in charge, Jeph Loeb brought
The Defenders to Netflix, continued Agent Coulson's story in
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and told stories we definitely won't forget for a long time to come.
However, he also made a lot of terrible mistakes during his reign, and with more bad decisions during his time at Marvel Television than good ones, we're glad that his time is over. In fact, we've managed to compile an entire feature made up of the mistakes that can't be forgiven!
We think you guys will find a lot to discuss after reading through this recap of Loeb's worst decisions, so simply hit the "View List" button below to take a look at
everything that went wrong...
Being Scared Of Costumes
There was a time when superhero movies seemed to shy away from costumes, as studio execs didn't seem to believe that people would pay to see a film where the leads are covered up in spandex. For some reason, that's a mentality that Jeph Loeb decided to bring to the Marvel TV shows he took charge of across platforms like ABC, Hulu, and Netflix.
It took Daredevil twelve episodes to get a suit and even then it didn't include his iconic "DD" logo. Iron Fist never suited up in anything more than a hoodie, while Bullseye just wore the Man Without Fear's old costume and Black Bolt never got anything resembling his familiar mask.
They're just a handful of examples, but with those recent set photos for
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier proving that even TV shows can pull off costumes that look like they belong on the big screen, there was no excuse for Loeb not to put so many iconic characters - Cloak and Dagger instantly spring to mind - in outfits resembling what their comic book counterparts wear.
Pretty Much Everything About The Inhumans
Where do we even begin? When it was revealed that Marvel Television was partnering with IMAX for this series (thereby giving
Inhumans a significantly higher budget than other Marvel TV shows), it really did sound like we would get a show similar to what Feige now has planned for Disney+.
Unfortunately, it was a disaster from the very start. Inhumans looked horribly cheap, the cast was mostly made up of nobodies, and to save money, Lockjaw made only sporadic appearances and Medusa's hair was cut off so that she couldn't use her powers.
It was baffling to say the least. and such a disaster that IMAX scrapped plans for any future collaborations and moved away from promoting TV shows on their screens.
Inhumans just didn't work, and Loeb played a huge role in that, especially as he decided to appoint Scott Buck as showrunner...
Dropping The Ball With Iron Fist
Ah, Scott Buck...what a great decision it was by Loeb to put him in charge of not only
Inhumans, but
Iron Fist as well. While the character's series started off strong, it took pretty much no time at all to fall apart and we spent almost an entire season watching Danny Rand struggle with performance issues as he failed to get that pesky Iron Fist of his working.
Honestly, it was about as effective as him putting on some brass knuckles to fight people, and there was no real reason why he couldn't have suited up or had full use of his newfound abilities.
Finn Jones did his best with what he had to work with, but nothing much about the series worked and while fans hoped for an improvement in season two, the decision was instead made to take Danny's powers away from him altogether - despite the fact he was finally getting a handle on them. To say Loeb is incapable of spearheading a cohesive story feels like an understatement.
Too. Many. Episodes
This was an issue that plagued the Marvel TV shows on Netflix from day one, as the seasons frequently started out strong before falling apart in the second half.
Exploring Daredevil's past with Elektra was great until season two sprinted to the finish line and killed her off in an underwhelming fashion. Remember how good Luke Cage's show was before he went to war with the silly looking Diamondback? Simply put, these shows were all too long and Marvel Television clearly didn't know how to tell a story spread across that many chapters.
By the time they attempted to learn from past mistakes, it was too late, and even
The Defenders didn't quite gel across only eight episodes (that crossover remains a major disappointment).
Agent Coulson's Resurrection
Marvel Studios killed Agent Coulson in one of
The Avengers' most shocking moments, but just one year later, he was back among the living. It's possible that Kevin Feige played some role in this, but it's hard to believe that he was happy with the character's resurrection when he was the one who suggested killing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent off to Joss Whedon in the first place.
Heck, if you're still not convinced, why do you think
Captain Marvel ignored the ABC series? Still don't buy Feige's lack of interest in this show? Well, he destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2014.
The explanation for Coulson's return was confusing and silly to say the least, and the fact that he never hunted down Earth's Mightiest Heroes is just plain dumb. Throw in how convoluted things have become with him in recent years and it's fair to say that bringing him back really wasn't the smartest idea, especially when there were so many other ways to delve into S.H.I.E.L.D.
An Apparent Lack Of Understanding Of These Characters
Loeb spent years writing comics, so how could he get it so wro... oh yeah, he's the guy who had The Blob eat The Wasp and killed off half the Ultimate Universe in one of the worst events of all-time.
Ultimatum aside, Loeb had a pretty good track record in television (remember that stellar 100th episode of
Smallville?) so the fact that The Punisher's origin story became a conspiracy theory and Hellcat was, well, we're still not sure, speaks volumes when it comes to him not
getting these characters. He tried to reinvent the wheel and missed the point of what fans love about the MCU.
With Loeb in charge, we were never going to see the versions of heroes like Black Bolt and the Runaways we wanted, and while some reinventions were great (Cottonmouth, for example) the vast majority fell flat.
Failing To Work With Marvel Studios
In fairness, there may be more to this story than meets the eye. Initially,
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tied into what was happening on the big screen and even enhanced it in some ways (that was certainly the case with the events of
Captain America: The Winter Soldier). That didn't last for long, though, and the divide between Marvel Studios and Marvel Television has only widened over the years.
Feige may be to blame for that as well, but Loeb's decision to seemingly go off on a tangent has hurt these small screen stories, particularly those he trapped in a post-Avengers world.
Not referencing the MCU at all would have been better than constantly referring to that alien attack on New York City, but failing to touch on the Sokovia Accords or the Civil War that tore this shared world apart. Ultimately, trying to take matters into his own hands and create a new shared world linked only loosely to the big screen proved that Loeb simply wasn't capable of being like Feige.
Getting Even The Simplest Of Things Wrong
Seriously, how do you get The Hand wrong? Designed as the big bad of the world the Defenders lived in, this clandestine group of ninjas became a convoluted creation made up of old ladies and businessmen. As a result, the team's final battle against them proved to be a major let down.
We have to speak in Loeb's defence here, too, as The Kingpin, for example, was a truly great character and it's hard to imagine even Feige delivering a better version of Wilson Fisk on screen.
However, for every good creation, there are ten bad ones and the likes of Foggy Nelson, Trish Walker, Deathlok, and even the entire Kree race serve as proof of that. Whereas Marvel Studios has taken obscure characters and made them great, Loeb somehow took beloved fan-favourites, reinvented them, and delivered results every bit as terrible as the comic books he wrote.
An Inability To Create New Shows
If the old saying about throwing sh*t at the wall to see what sticks is particularly relevant to anyone in Hollywood, it's Jeph Loeb. A
Daughters of the Dragon series? Nah, waste money on ordering a pilot revolving around Mockingbird and her irritating ex-husband instead! You know, seeing the Defenders again might be cool, but screw that...give the New Warriors their own failed pilot.
Throw in a number of other projects that got stuck in development hell, and it's fair to say that launching new shows was not Loeb's strong suit.
Marvel TV Studios scrapped plans for
Ghost Rider, more X-Men TV shows no doubt as bad as
The Gifted, and that weird new attempt at a supernatural Defenders as soon as Feige took control, and it's not hard to see why. An ideas man Loeb ain't, and while he was no doubt under pressure to continue launching new shows, not giving enough thought to the ones already on the air may have been his downfall and was almost certainly one of the main reasons he's now vacating his post.
He Damaged The MCU
Whereas Feige was able to tell Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter where to go when he tried to push his racist and sexist agendas on the Marvel movies, it seems Loeb either wasn't so lucky...or he just didn't care who signed his cheques.
Whatever the answer may be, being Perlmutter's lacky meant launching that terrible Inhumans series and telling stories that just didn't fit into Marvel Studios' wider plans. As time passed, it became clear that these shows had no bearing on what happened on the big screen, but bad stories hurt the brand and Marvel as a whole came under fire when the likes of
Iron Fist and
Jessica Jones went rapidly downhill.
Whether it's silly versions of the Kree or characters who would have flourished on the big screen but have ultimately been wasted on the small one (we're looking at you, Ben Urich), the existence of these TV shows has, for the most part, been a detriment to the movies - even if it is just to a small extent in the grand scheme of things.
Do you agree with our assessment of Loeb's time as the boss of Marvel Television or are we being too harsh? Let us know your thoughts on that in the comments section below.