Long before the streaming waters became muddied by endless middling Disney+ series, Marvel fans were getting their small-screen fix via Netflix. The streamer hosted an array of shows that, while not all great, provided a ground-level, grittier alternative to the blockbuster Marvel Studios offerings. “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist,” “Luke Cage,” “The Punisher,” and the team-up spectacular “The Defenders” (which was less spectacular and more disappointing) might not have become as big a part of pop culture as the movies, but in the years since they were cancelled, many fans have grown nostalgic for the age of the Netflix Marvel series (especially in light of the aforementioned Disney+ nonsense). Or perhaps that should be “the age of the Marvel Television series.” Former head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb, would rather fans use the latter to refer to the erstwhile streaming shows and, in fairness, it’s not hard to see why.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Loeb talked about the Netflix shows and downplayed the streamer’s involvement in their production. “One thing that I’d love to clear up,” he said, “while it’s an easy shorthand to call them the ‘Netflix’ heroes — the plain truth is Netflix was our network. They aired the shows that then Marvel Television created, produced, wrote, cast, shot, edited, scored, etc. — hours and hours of some of the most brilliant people who worked on those shows for Marvel TV.”
It seems Loeb feels that referring to Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Punisher as “Netflix heroes” does a disservice to the Marvel Television staff who brought those shows to fruition behind the scenes. That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to point out, and probably not something many viewers, especially those of the casual variety, might have thought about. Loeb continued, “It was such an incredible team who have since gone out there and made names for themselves on nearly every other network/streaming service as executives/writers/producers – the works! Those folks are the real heroes of those six series!”
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Marvel Television deserves as much credit as Marvel Studios
Mike Colter’s Luke Cage stands next to Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in The Defenders – Netflix
Before his TV career, Jeph Loeb was best known for his comic book writing, having produced such celebrated classics as “Batman: Hush” (with Jim Lee) and “Batman: The Long Halloween” (with Tim Sale). But he also found success in film and TV, writing and producing on a raft of high profile series including “Smallville,” “Lost,” and “Heroes.” In 2010, Loeb took over as Head of and Executive Vice President of Marvel Television and stayed in the role until 2019, leaving a solid legacy behind upon his departure (he also oversaw the creation of “Agents of SHIELD” and “The Punisher”).
At the time of Loeb leaving, the Netflix shows, which were arguably his biggest contribution to the company, had each been canceled. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige had been promoted to chief creative officer, and Disney was eager to capitalize on the success of his film franchise for its Disney+ streaming service. Soon, fans had too many options to choose from. Feige started strong with critical hits that also played well with fans such as “Loki” and “WandaVision.” But as the shows kept coming, the quality kept dropping until we ended up with “She-Hulk” and perhaps the biggest blunder of all, “Secret Invasion” — an underwhelming series that ended with a whimper in 2023.
At that point, the halcyon days of the Netflix shows seemed like even more of a golden age. Heck, even “Iron Fist” was preferable to the offensively innocuous streaming shows of the early 2020s. It’s a big part of why Marvel chose to bring Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock into the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper with “Daredevil: Born Again,” which improved on the Netflix show in one big way. As such, you can see why Loeb might be disappointed to constantly hear Netflix being given perhaps more credit than it deserves for some of the shows it hosted in the 2010s. Loeb and the Marvel Television team were responsible for their production and are just as deserving of the credit as Marvel Studios is for the films’ success. At the very least, then, he can feel glad he wasn’t responsible for the recent state of Marvel’s streaming affairs.
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