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When Rob Liefeld As Deadpool Asked Jeph Loeb About Rob Liefeld

When Rob Liefeld, as Deadpool, asked Jeph Loeb about Rob Liefeld, Absolute Batman and The Batman cover, Jeph Loeb got Rob Liefeld to draw



Article Summary

  • Rob Liefeld, masked as Deadpool, asked Jeph Loeb what he thinks of Rob Liefeld and Absolute Batman on camera.
  • The encounter riffs on Liefeld and Loeb’s long comics history, from Heroes Reborn and Awesome Comics to Onslaught Reborn.
  • Jeph Loeb candidly answers about Marvel, new characters and why DC launched Absolute Batman despite earlier Absolute branding.
  • Their bond is clear: Loeb even got Liefeld to draw a Batman: Long Halloween: Last Halloween cover despite his Batman stance.

Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb have a long history together. Their first major work together began with Marvel's Heroes Reborn event in 1996, when the studios of Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee relaunched core Marvel titles in a pocket universe. Liefeld was contracted to plot/pencil Captain America, scripted by Loeb and to co-write The Avengers with Loeb. After Liefeld was fired/quit from Image Comics in 1996 and was dropped from Heroes Reborn halfway through, the two partnered on Awesome Comics/Entertainment, launched in 1997 with investor Scott Rosenberg, whom Loeb helped bring in, and Loeb was a central creative and business partner. They adapted unused Captain America/Heroes Reborn ideas into the Agent America series, then, after legal pressure from Marvel Comics, shifted to the public-domain-adjacent Fighting American character created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.

They reunited in 2006–2007 for the five-issue Marvel limited series Onslaught Reborn, returning to the Heroes Reborn universe, with a substantial portion of proceeds benefiting the Sam Loeb Scholarship Fund, named after Jeph's son Sam Loeb, who died from bone cancer in 2005, aged just 17. Liefeld was among the many creators who contributed to the memorial Superman/Batman #26. And at a recent comic book show, Rob Liefeld tried to find out what Jeph Loeb really thought about him….

@realrobliefeld Do you think Jeph Loeb recognized me🤔? #deadpool #marvel #comics #spiderman #batman ♬ original sound – RobLiefeld

With Jeph Loeb telling Rob Liefeld, wearing a Deadpool mask, that he does not create enough new characters for Marvel, and that he should work on Metamorpho for DC Comics, in light of James Gunn's Superman reinvention of the character. Liefeld doesn't seem to share Loeb's opinion, then asks why DC Comics has created a new Absolute Batman, when Absolute was also the name of the DC/Wildstorm format created by Scott Dunbier, so that Jeph Loeb already has an Absolute Batman volume of his work on the character, totally separate from the Absolute Universe. Jeph seems not to realise that this is Rob Liefeld and answers candidly, though he knows he is being filmed…

Rob Liefeld Wore a Deadpool Mask To Ask Jeph Loeb About Rob Liefeld
TikTok screencap collage

It does remind me of the time I saw Quentin Tarantino at NYCC meeting Jim Steranko while wearing a hastily grabbed V For Vendetta mask to express his admiration for Steranko's work, never revealing his identity to Jim or the crowd around…

But what's the real proof of the Liefeld/Loeb friendship and admiration for each other? Well, Jeph Loeb is the one man who can get Rob Liefeld to do a Batman cover these days without costing him a million dollars, such as Batman: Long Halloween: Last Halloween #5 from last year, itself a tribute to Tim Sale.

Rob Liefeld Wore a Deadpool Mask To Ask Jeph Loeb About Rob Liefeld
Batman: Long Halloween: Last Halloween #5 Rob Liefeld cover

As we recently saw, that is no mean feet! Maybe if they let Jeph Loeb write an Absolute Batman comic, that might do the trick?


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of comic books The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne and Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from The Union Club on Greek Street, shops at Gosh, Piranha and Forbidden Planet. Father of two daughters, Amazon associate, political cartoonist.
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