The Executive Vice President and Head of Marvel Television responsible for live-action drama and animation has had quite a career. He wrote the scripts for ‘Teen Wolf’ and ‘Commando’. He wrote for ‘Smallville’, ‘Lost’, and ‘Heroes’. And on top of all that, he’s an Eisner-winning comic book writer. This man goes by the name of Jeph Loeb, and he certainly knows what he’s doing.
Collider was lucky enough to talk to Loeb yesterday about Disney XD’s upcoming action adventure animated series ‘Ultimate Spider-man’, which will debut alongside ‘The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ as part of the block titled ‘Marvel Universe’ starting on April 1st. The series follows a teenage Peter Parker, voiced by Drake Bell, as he deals with being a superhero and a high school student. The show also features the vocal talents of Tara Strong, Adrian Pasdar, Matt Lanter, Joe DiMaggio, J.K. Simmons, Clark Gregg, and Stan Lee.
During the interview, they also slipped in a question about the different live-action projects that Marvel Television has in the works. Let’s take a look at the list: At ABC, there’s ‘The Hulk’, ‘AKA Jessica Jones’, and ‘The Punisher’. Then, at ABC Family, there’s ‘Cloak and Dagger’ and ‘Mockingbird’. When asked for an update on all of these series, Loeb said:
“All I can tell you is that […] they’re just in development. As you know, as with anything that you’re doing, particularly when you’re starting up a brand new entity, things take time and we want to make sure we get it right.”
That’s not a whole lot to go on right now, but it’s something, right?
Here’s what we know as of now about these series. We know the most about ‘The Hulk’ so far, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything new. What we know is that director Guillermo del Toro and ‘Battlestar Galactica’ executive producer David Eick will produce it. Also, if del Toro is available, he’ll direct the pilot that tells Bruce Banner’s origin story. ‘AKA Jessica Jones’ is based on the comic book series ‘Alias’, which features the former superhero known as Jewel who traded in her costume to become a private investigator. ‘The Punisher’ follows Frank Castle and his one-man war against crime.
Venturing over to a younger demographic, we know that ‘Cloak and Dagger’ is about two teenagers who find each other and realize that their powers both compliment and complicate their lives. ‘Mockingbird’ will chronicle the life of Bobbi Morse as she is recruited from college to be a part of S.H.E.I.L.D. as a super spy.
I don’t know about you, but these shows sound way more interesting to me than anything currently on those networks right now. I’m aware that I might have a slight bias, but all these shows have great stories behind them, and they will be a great way to introduce the non-comic book reading public to Marvel’s smaller heroes. Hopefully, business starts picking up so we can finally step even deeper into the Marvel Universe via our television sets!
