The 10 Greatest Jeph Loeb Marvel Comics of All Time, Ranked

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Rarely is it that a comic creator can carve out their own legacy not only at one company, but at both of the Big Two. Jeph Loeb is a standout, having reached acclaim for his Batman trilogy with Tim Sale, only to then go to Marvel and unveil books that rival—and even surpass—his DC work.

Of course, when you look at a catalogue like Loeb’s, much sticks out. Between the fantastic “Marvel Colors” series, his creation of a beloved legacy hero, and an absolutely giant Hulk stint that introduced one of the green giant’s most iconic villains, Loeb’s Marvel tenure is nothing to scoff at. Of course, some books are better than others; you don’t write at a company for thirty years without making some duds.

10

Like It Or Not, Loeb Was Key To Marvel’s Heroes Reborn Initiative

Marvel’s brushes with bankruptcy are an infamous part of the company’s long and tumultuous history. The 1990s had Marvel declare itself bankrupt, the company struggling in the aftermath of the comic market’s big boom and bust. This led to a last-ditch move from the company, one of many at least— they decided to outsource some of their biggest characters and teams to talent over the much more popular Image Comics.

Jeph Loeb was brought on as the writer for three of these Heroes Reborn titles: Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers, all drawn by names like Rob Liefeld. It was a way of drawing eyes to some of Marvel’s once-greatest names and generating sales, and under Loeb’s pen, it worked. Many of these titles lasted for a year as Marvel tried to get back on their feet, and if it wasn’t for the drawing power of the creatives behind these books, the strategy likely wouldn’t have worked as well.

9

X-Man Was A Series Emblematic Of The 1990s’ Issues

Many fans joke that those unfamiliar with the X-Men franchise assume that there has to be a character simply called X-Man, or refer to a member of the team as such. What makes the joke extra funny is the fact that, yes, there is actually a character named X-Man. Headlining his own seventy-five issue series in the 1990s and early 2000s, X-Man is an alternate version of the already confusing character Cable, known as Nate Grey.

Loeb’s X-Man run may not have been the longest, coming in at only nine issues, but it was rather instrumental because those comics were the first nine issues of the series. Within, Loeb would establish the base of Nathaniel’s lore, paving the way for the rest of the character’s solo to take place. It wasn’t the most compelling title, mostly serving as a jumping-off point for a rather convoluted character, but it was a fun ongoing series for what it was.

8

Loeb Reshaped X-Force

Jeph Loeb had a rep for hanging around the most “extreme” sort of characters Marvel was pushing in the 1990s. It’s a funny contrast to what readers would expect from him, what with his legendary stints on characters like Batman, but he did seem to have a fondness for characters like Nate Grey in all his incarnations. This would manifest into a stint on the title X-Force, with Loeb taking over the book after the Age of Apocalypse event.

One of the major moves Loeb made to shift the status quo on the book was to pull back on lots of the bombastic violence Rob Liefeld injected into the comic. X-Force became a lot more streamlined, and as a consequence of that, they also moved in with the X-Men at the X-Mansion.

Cable was a major character in the 1990s for Marvel. Created by powerhouse Rob Liefeld, Nathan Summers represented a lot of the decade’s greatest excesses as a merciless, gun-toting antihero with a tragic, convoluted lore around him. While Loeb didn’t originate the Cable run in the same way he did X-Men, he did write for a solid twenty-four issues of the title.

The run aimed to carve out a solo identity for the time-traveling mutant, capitalizing on his popularity in books like X-Force. Loeb tapped into Cable’s murky origins, expanding his mythology, Askani lore, and ties to Apocalypse. While juggling gritty 90s aesthetics with complex backstory, Loeb helped establish the gritty anti-hero as a solo force of his own.

6

Hulk Was A Wild Ride

The Red Hulk is a character that many would assume to have originated in the Silver Age, but nope, think again— he was created in 2008. Jeph Loeb’s Hulk run began with a format the writer has grown quite fond of, being a mystery: Who is the Red Hulk? Trading the grandiose tragedy of Hulk for sheer spectacle, Loeb went wild with bombastic action, wild plot twists, and Marvel-universe crossovers.

His Red Hulk tore through A-listers like Thor and Iron Man, even knocking out the Watcher, establishing the character as an unpredictable powerhouse before he was later revealed as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Loeb’s tenure leaned into absurdity, embracing a campy, over-the-top energy that split fans. Many criticized the thin plots and chaotic pacing, but the run undeniably left its mark, especially seeing that Red Hulk was adapted in the recent Captain America: Brave New World film.

5

Daredevil: Yellow Is A Compelling Cleanup Of Silver Age Daredevil

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s color series are truly wonderful comics, the series has to be some of their best work together. All four titles within the line deal with grief and loss in some capacity, all while being framed as throwbacks to the early Silver or Golden Age days of these characters. Loeb and Sale would modernize these stories while keeping their classic aesthetics in place, and perhaps the story that did this best was Daredevil: Yellow.

It’s been said that Daredevil’s early days aren’t the best. That’s true. The character was meandering and aimless for many years, but Loeb sought to inject some pathos and emotional depth into Daredevil’s Silver Age stories. He greatly improved elements of his backstory and his relationship to Karen Page, all while implementing some interesting foreshadowing for her and Matt’s futures. While the book isn’t perfect— nobody could make the Silver Age comic love triangle between Matt, Foggy, and Karen look good— it has a strong center with some of Sale’s best art.

4

Captain America: White Was A Retrospective On Bucky

Bucky Barnes is the defining Marvel sidekick—one of the only, at that. Over the 80 years since his introduction, he’s been looked back on as a product of his time; a child soldier enlisted by Captain America surely wouldn’t happen now. That being said, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, in their final collaboration at Marvel, teamed up to tell the story of Captain America and Bucky—in the form of a comic inspired by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon’s 1940s war pulp mags.

Similar to the rest of the Colors series, the mini is formatted with narration by the protagonist reminiscing on the “good ol’ days” of knowing the secondary main character. In this case, with the specific phrasing at hand, a lot of it feels like trauma-riddled war flashbacks from Steve Rogers, looking back on the choices he could’ve made with Bucky that might have saved him. The book was tragic, fun, and deeply nostalgic for anyone who’s enjoyed a 40s war comic.

3

Nova Was A Loving Tribute To His Son

In 2005, at the very young age of seventeen, Jeph Loeb’s son, Sam, tragically lost his battle with cancer. The news shook the comics industry and led to a series of shocking, emotionally-driven comics from Loeb that turned people off from his work for years. When this happened, twenty-five writers and artists showed up to tribute Sam in an issue of Superman/Batman. After a few years, the time came for Loeb himself to make a tribute to his son—which he did by immortalizing him as a superhero.

Introduced in Marvel Point One in 2011 and getting his own series in 2013, Sam Alexander was the all-new Nova, a cosmic superhero equipped with a high-tech helmet. Loeb’s original Nova story is, to say the least, deeply earnest and sweet. It was a story about legacy and fatherhood, with Sam doubting his father until the time came to step up and take his place as Nova. While the series is, ultimately, a silly superhero comic for young kids—as evident by Sam only being about twelve to thirteen when it started—it was a fantastic and fun ride nonetheless, and a perfect tribute to Sam Loeb, who can now never be forgotten thanks to his father’s creation.

2

Hulk: Gray Is A Tragic Return To Inspirations

The Hulk is, to say the least, a deeply sad character. Beneath his emerald exoskeleton is a broken man, lashing out at the world after years of trauma and heartbreak morphed him into a monster. Few knew this as well as Jeph Loeb, and when it was time to make the third installment in his and Tim Sale’s Marvel Colors series, he chose the Hulk to star.

Hulk: Gray was a definitive comic that felt like a return to the inspirations behind the character, adapting the first night after Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk for the first time. It took the reader on a journey similar to the second act of the film Frankenstein, watching a gentle giant bumble his way through the world with hate being thrown at him—eventually becoming the monster they wanted him to be. There’s even a loose adaptation of a scene from the novel Of Mice and Men, doubling down on the literary influence of this miniseries in a way that breaks the reader’s heart.

1

Spider-Man: Blue Laid Gwen Stacy To Rest

The death of Gwen Stacy is often considered where the Dark Age of Comics truly began. The Dark Age was a period from the 1970s to the 1980s in which comics got significantly more serious, socially conscious, and mature. The original story, “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”, was all that and more. The book featured an overdose, the horrific death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man threatening to murder the Green Goblin, and the accidental death of Green Goblin. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, however, took a much lighter approach on the revisit.

Spider-Man: Blue was a miniseries that attempted to tackle Gwen and Peter’s relationship without recapping her death. Instead, the book is gorgeous retellings of Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. Spider-Man stories, with a heavier emphasis placed on Gwen. In this book, the love interest is given much deeper personality and much more love and attention than ever before, shining a spotlight on why she made that era of Spider-Man comics so perfect—all to be whisked away from under us in a heartbreaking finale, as it’s revealed the entire book was just the memories of Peter Parker being spoken into a tape recorder, nearly ten years after Gwen died.

“}]] Jeph Loeb may be tearing up the Distinguished Competition with H2SH, but the legendary writer also made quite a splash with his various Marvel Comics.  Read More