Jeph Loeb Fired From Heroes

Jeph Loeb and Heroes co-writer Jesse Alexander have apparently been handed their pink slips on the set of Heroes. Here’s the story from Cynthia Littleton of Variety.

Big shakeup on the staff of NBC’s “Heroes” came down on Sunday with the axing of co-exec producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb.

Both scribe-producers had been with the show since its first season and were known to have led the day-to-day production operation under the direction of creator/exec producer Tim Kring.

“Heroes,” produced by Universal Media Studios, has struggled in the ratings its third season.

It’s understood that Alexander and Loeb were let go because of Peacock execs’ frustration with the creative direction of the show. The show is also said to have been grappling with hefty budget overruns this season that are going well beyond its already sizable $4 million per-seg pricetag.

Reps for NBC and UMS declined comment.

So what do you think? Feel free to discuss the matter on the Forums of Awesome

Awful Artwork - Hulk Smash Credibility!

Back when Jeph Loeb started up the abomination that was, and still is, the Hulk comic, I was pretty much looking for a reason to hate it. I mean, the idea sounded really cool but I knew that, like Loeb’s work on Ultimates 3, the comic would probably be pretty terrible. That was until I heard that Ed McGuiness was going to be doing the artwork. I figured that they might balance each other out and maybe bring us a comic that was poorly written but looked amazing.

Apparently, I was wrong.

What you see above this is the culmination of one bad idea, drawn out into an even worse idea. There’s something about Hulk beating up the Watcher that just doesn’t sit well with me. Is the idea of the comic just to have Hulk beating the crap out of anything with a pulse? Where’s the intelligent storytelling and writing of the Greg Pak run? M.I.A. apparently.

Not to mention, the drawing is easily one of McGuiness’ worst. Something about the way that Hulk’s body is moving just doesn’t, for lack of a better word, work. As for watcher’s face, don’t even get me started. For all these reasons and more, Hulk fighting Watcher is the latest entry into the Awful Artwork archives. To save at least a little bit of McGuiness’ credibility, it was probably Loeb’s idea to make Hulk fight the Watcher in the first place so it’s really not Ed’s fault this turned out so poorly.

I’m cringing just thinking about what Loeb will do to Thor in Hulk #5. I’d advise any real Thor fans to avoid that issue like the plague.

Discuss this in the Forums of Awesome!