I have a theory. I think Jeph Loeb signed an exclusive deal with Marvel with the sole purpose of destroying the immensely successful Ultimate imprint. He’s covertly doing some sort of Secret Invasion on behalf of DC.
Jeph Loeb is the Eisner Award-winning writer for several of Batman’s best stories (The Long Halloween, The Dark Victory, Hush arc), Superman For All Seasons and his “colour books” (Daredevil: Yellow, Spiderman: Blue, Hulk: Gray) together with his partnering artist Tim Sale. Thus, he’s one of my favourite writers.
However, since writing exclusively for Marvel, his work in the Ultimate imprint had been less then stellar. “Shitty” is one way to call it.
Cases in point (spoilers abound):
1. Ultimate Power (#7-9)
Next to Ultimate Adventures, Ultimate Power stands as the most useless and unneeded Ultimate title ever. What else did it do besides introducing Squadron Supreme into the Ultimate universe and showing off Greg Land’s copy–paste drawings?
2. The Ultimates (vol. 3)
A lot of wonky and controversial subjects was introduced: an emo Hawkeye sans-bow, Tony Stark’s sex-tape, a Thor smitten with the always near-naked Valkyrie, and Wanda’s too-easy death. The third volume re-imagining The Avengers lacked coherence, and the issues seemed weakly cobbled together to serve as a prologue for…Ultimatum.
3. Ultimatum
Just TWO issues in, Loeb has managed to polarise Ultimate fans. Many considered that the task of writing such a big (first) cross-over should’ve fallen on Brian Michael Bendis or Mark Millar’s shoulders, who laid down the cornerstones of the Ultimate universe. The rest, wished that Wasp shouldn’t have died again…and certainly not by being fucking eaten by Blob.
4. Ultimate Captain America Annual
T’challa is a foolish and mute Wolverine knock-off. Worst, he’s not even a leader. Then we found out in The Ultimates that the Ultimate Black Panther turned out to be not black at all. Obama effect? What Obama effect?
And the last straw for me…
5. Ultimate Hulk Annual
Power Princess. And Ultimate Hulk. Fucking each other. Yes, big boy Hulk, NOT Bruce Banner. With a panel of Hulk saying “Mmm..Hulk like Zarda.” Now try to get that ghastly image out of your mind.
In contrast, Loeb’s recent works in the mainstream Marvel universe include the much-loved Red Hulk and the much-waited Captain America: White.
With only Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate Spider-Man left to carry on, let’s hope the Ultimate universe does not collapse under its collective popularity—what with these shoddy supports from Jeph Loeb.
Coffee Conversations 
‘Loeb’s recent works in the mainstream Marvel universe include the much-loved Red Hulk’.
Much-loved? Much sold, sure – but it’s utterly mindless nonsensical tripe.
Loeb’s ‘Colour’ series with Marvel has been good. But I note that none of those are really original stories – they’re all rather wistful reimaginings of old canonical stories, arranged through the (admittedly nice) plot device of having heroes reminisce about the past. They’re done very well, but as far as I can see, Loeb hasn’t provided any evidence that he can produce a good original story with Marvel characters.
When he tries, we get ‘all animal-powered super-heroes come from an ancient wolf-race’, even if their powers are cat powers, or wolverine powers, or magically acquired – if it’s furry, in Loeb’s world, it’s a wolf.
Or we get ‘Red Hulk wants everyone to see him killing Green Hulk, so when he knocks greenie out, he keeps him alive, because, uh, if he kills him when he’s unconscious, then, er, nobody will see… um… or is that ostriches…? Anyway, it’s a really cool shot of Hulk’s face when he wakes to find he has a gun in his mouth!!’
Or we get, ‘The evil mastermind, who caused the deaths of 10 million people and made Reed Richards his fall guy, knocks Richards unconscious. Evil mastermind then spends considerable time explaining to the comatose Richards how the whole scheme worked. He is unpleasantly surprised to find that Richards was only feigning unconsciousness and now knows the whole story, because, er, the evil mastermind has just explained it at length, which he wouldn’t have done if he had, um, realised there was somebody listening while he was running his mouth off… er. Anyway, see how the too-cunning villain outdumbs, um, I mean outsmarts, himself!!’ (Loeb does the same thing in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies – President Luthor, having turned the whole world against Superman and Batman, tells the two heroes exactly how he carried out his whole evil scheme, only to realise that his whole speech was being transmitted to the nation. D’oh! [Note to leaders of comic writers’ workshops: make each member of your class write on the board 100 times each day, ‘The villain’s monologue can be a useful, though very clumsy, means of exposition for explaining things to the reader – it should only extremely rarely (and ideally never) be used as a plot device, because it’s lame and lazy writing’])
Loeb just doesn’t seem able to write about these characters intelligently when someone else hasn’t done the basic plotting for him. Are his DC pieces as good as they say? (I read Hush a few years back and must have found it inoffensive but unimpressive, since I can’t recall anything about it, good or bad.) If so, what happened?
Haha when you put it like that, it makes his works seem all the more ridiculous. :D
I agree with you, Loeb does work best when he’s writing about heroes getting sentimental, with all the flashbacks. This is essentially what his works in the “Colours” books are about. As does his run on Superman For All Seasons.
Batman: Hush was not bad, but mostly because of Jim Lee’s great art. The story was a bit predictable, but it made for a good run of Batman I guess.
Strangely enough, Batman: The Long Halloween, The Dark Victory and Catwoman: When In Rome are all original stories, and they are critically acclaimed. It shows that Loeb can make good noir stories, but maybe not in another setting. Even then, all his works without Tim Sale backing have faltered.
The only explanation I can suggest is that his quality went down after his son Sam’s death, but even that doesn’t convince me.
Jeph Loeb successfully ruined the ultimates v3 series… After being thoroughly disgusted with his writing and handling of characters, I’ve sworn off the rest of his work…
[…] not too sure that Jeph Loeb have heard our plea for not fucking up the Ultimate Universe anymore, but the #4 is probably the best Ultimatum yet. Which means it is still crappy, but it’s […]
I do agree with the rest of the Ultimate line, Ultimates Vol.3 was all about Joe Mad returning to Marvel & Hulk getting to “poke” is so freaking wrong.
No matter what “they” the civilians say. “I” the writer liked Ultimatum, killing all those heroes was bad but Good!
Its like Heroes. He kills off characters like flies. “I” the writer likes that part. No matter the mistakes, “I” the writer still likes Ultimatum. Nuff Said!
P.S Thanks for the info about the Ultimate universe ;)
[…] Ultimate Comics Avengers #1: UC Spider-Man is definitely not the only good title in the new line. We get Mark Millar back! Fuck you Jeph Loeb! […]
I agree with you. The Hulk Annual made no sense. Enough about the ending but seriously she beat him way too easy don’t you think? He nearly took on an entire invasion by himself and this version of Hulk still gets stronger with anger but you don’t see it here. I know this version is also a sex maniac as well as a killer. Why are the writers letting her win? Sure Hulk is a murderer out of rage and is not really hero like but she kills people when she notices any imperfection like a grey hair.
Loeb’s contribution to the Ultimate stamp have been nothing less than substandard. It’s not his stories that are messed up, it’s his lack of caring about what arcs have come before and his inability to execute a good enough script, it feels as if he’s always trying to fit the best part of a movie into a single issue.
He really just doesn’t get the Ultimate Universe. But when you’ve been in the business for as long as he has, who’s going to tell the great Jeph Loeb that he’s wrong. One of the best parts of the whole Ultimate imprint was it had been built ground up by “indie” writers, giving the whole superhero genre a new slant. Jeph just doesn’t seem to get it.