Quarter Bin #33 "Loeb & Sale in Yellow, Gray, & Blue"

DAREDEVIL: YELLOW #1 (Marvel)
From August 2001:
Much has been made about how Marvel, the “House of Ideas,” focused its big boom creations of the 1960s on accessible characters who were more relatable to readers who might have considered themselves a little more vulnerable than those who’d grown up on the mythic dimensions of DC’s superheroes. And, on a slightly different note, that Jeph Loeb is overrated. Believe it or not, but the latter opinion was not always true. In his heyday, during the late ‘90s and early 2000s, he was arguably the hottest writer in comics. Known for his partnership with artist Tim Sale, Loeb delivered a succession of iconic stories, including BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, “Hush,” and SUPERMAN: FOR ALL SEASONS. It was around the time of SUPERMAN/BATMAN, actually, the bestselling book of the early millennium that opinions started to shift. Caught in between was a trio of reunion projects for Marvel in which he and Sale took intimate looks at some of the company’s most recognizable characters. Until that point, Loeb had been known as a DC man. He joined the writing team on HEROES (for which Sale also produced distinctive art), starting playing with the Hulk (in red!), and faded more or less into the background of the conversation. (For some reason, his return to filmed entertainment, from which he’d come to produce the masterful CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN MUST DIE! with Sale, signaled not only the end of his popularity, but the beginning of the end of the HEROES phenomenon, too.) The Marvel “color” books (which CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE was to continue, until it was aborted) were some of Loeb’s most directed character work, in a career that had dedicated itself to exploring the men behind the masks, as it were, figuring out the narrative thrust as it had been shaped by others (and only sometimes moving it forward). DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, for instance, takes the shape of a letter from Matt Murdock to Karen Page, one of the Man Without Fear’s primary love interests, who became embroiled in the thorny mess of his career, and had been killed off only a few years prior. Our hero (who originally dawned a yellow costume, hence the title) reflects back on his origins, including the fate of his father, his main source of inspiration, a boxer whose career was revived by a thug trying to make money on the sport by fixing contests, with the senior Murdock paying the price for his scruples once he figures out what’s going on. In Loeb’s version, Matt’s already in law school when this goes down, and the subject, at least in this issue, of how he became blind isn’t even relevant. It’s taken for granted that his need for justice leads to a cowl, and it’s not a weakness of Loeb’s so much as the idea that Marvel characters need only one extraordinary circumstance to thrust them into a dangerous and insane career as a superhero. Loeb and Sale can make anything seem like it’s a classic, and it’s a little exhilarating knowing that they get to do what few Marvel creators ever get to do, which is restate an origin and try to make it relevant to new readers. The exercise is like getting a perspective on Daredevil’s whole career. And you’re left to wonder, what would Loeb do if he were writing this character on a regular basis?

HULK: GRAY #s 1 & 6 (Marvel)
From December 2003 & April 2004:
The answer can be extrapolated from Loeb (and Sale)’s work here and in his subsequent Red Hulk work, the long anticipation about who exactly the new Hulk was, something I know bugged a lot of readers to have to wait so long, but something I happily had a look at when it finally happened. I don’t typically read Hulk comics, and the main reason being, other than Bruce Banner’s story, Hulk is really just an idiotic monster who smashes things, meaning that he’s far more interesting from the vantage point of others, or how Banner manages to survive the transformations and actions he can’t control (which is why everyone loved Bruce Jones for that one moment, when he wrote the comics equivalent of the old Lou Ferrigno TV show). Like DAREDEVIL: YELLOW (and the next book), HULK: GRAY follows our lead character as he reflects on the inexplicable love interest whose relationship he is still trying to reconcile years later, in this case Betty Ross, daughter of Hulk and Banner’s arch-nemesis (and, SPOILER, eventual Red Hulk) Thunderbolt Ross. Again, Loeb and Sale are unimpeachable, and fans at the time cherished these comics the same way they did Loeb’s work with DC. The problem is that the stories reflect on the past more than they do the present, which is the only real way Loeb and Sale could have done their stories at Marvel, because that’s what a culture that obsesses over building an artificial sense of continuity has to rely on, and can’t really handle random stories of the past (although to be fair, SUPERMAN: FOR ALL SEASONS was like this, too, and pointedly is not as popular as their other work) that could do the same thing as HULK: GRAY in quite the same way LONG HALLOWEEN did for Batman, crafting a new story along the process of illuminating the past. Even though he still works at Marvel, Loeb does not find these books as perennial trade paperback printings like he does for the work at DC.

SPIDER-MAN: BLUE #s 5-6 (Marvel)
From November 2002 & April 2003:
If there’s one constant source of nostalgia for True Believers, it’s Gwen Stacy, the dead girlfriend who’s lived on for decades in the fond memories of perhaps the same fans who became outraged when Peter and MJ were split up a few years ago. (She can also be seen in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-MAN 3, and yes, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, this summer’s relaunch of the film franchise.) So it was only natural for Loeb and Sale to revisit Gwen in their Spider-Man effort, with much the same framing narrative, of Peter pining over his lost love (today it can be done with Mary Jane!). Of the three projects, this one’s the closest to what they did at DC, since Spider-Man is the closest Marvel has to a DC style hero (even though he’s the prototypical Marvel creation; it’s his inability to actually grow up, even when he does, that keeps him in the realm of characters who by definition are able to deal with their angst, because he does in name only). When grounded by an inner monologue, Peter Parker is able to seem more mature, more cerebral than his typical manic portrayal allows, making this a book that should serve as an example and counterpoint to his usual depiction, and, as LONG HALLOWEEN was for Christopher Nolan’s Batman, a good gateway for fans interested in seeing how Andrew Garfield will deal with great power and responsibility.

If you want to know the influence of Jeph Loeb (and Tim Sale), that’s all you need to know. The material is there. Sometimes talent needs to be rediscovered to be appreciated.