Review- JUPITER'S LEGACY VOL. 1

JUPITER'S LEGACY VOL. 1 (Image, First Printing, 2015; Softcover)

Collects Jupiter's Legacy #1-5 (cover dates April, 2013- January, 2015)

Writer: Mark Millar

Artist: Frank Quitely

Colorist: Peter Doherty

Brandon and Chloe are the children of the Golden Age's greatest superheroes, the Utopian and Lady Liberty. The parents are still out there fighting supervillains, leaving the biggest threat that their children face being dropped from their corporate sponsorships. Most of this new generation of heroes are more interested in raising their profile to obtain corporate sponsorships than they are in saving the world.

The main problem is that the old generation of heroes wants to help out, but they want to let the world run as it does. This isn't really a problem, but that doesn't stop the Utopian's brother Walter (Brainwave) from making it into one. The economy and world politics are floundering, and Walter believes that he has all of the answers. Anyone that says that they are never wrong and claim that they have all the answers is someone best avoided, at least in my life experience. Walter manages to reach Brandon in a drunken State and tell him exactly what he wants to hear, manipulating him and the others into doing what he wants.

Chloe is involved in a relationship with Hutch, the son of a supervillain. They keep their relationship a secret until she finds out that she's pregnant. It's at the time that she decides to move back in to her mother's house. Walter's put his plan into action as Chloe arrives there, with her and Jason end up making a run for it when things go south. Chloe and Hutch's relationship has an almost Romeo And Juliet quality to it.

Once Brainwave achieves his goal he finds that things aren't as easy to fix as he believed. Jason and Chloe are hiding in Australia raising their son, who is now of school-age. Their son has super powers and, unbeknownst to them, has been flying to the moon and back. This is when he attracts the attention of the US Government under the watchful eye of Barnabas Wolfe, resulting in the family revealing their location.

I enjoyed the 1932 origin part of the story the most. I love how these space aliens land on Earth and call Americans to them because they want to help only America. That type of faulty logic was rampant in Golden Age comics, and I love it.

The series has a certain post-superhero flavor to it in the respect that things aren't as good as they used to be. It is neither Deconstructionist nor Reconstructionist, however. It could go either way at this point, being somewhere in the middle. Millar uses doppelgangers as reference points in much the same way that Kurt Busiek did in Astro City.

Like all modern comics, the violence is a little over the top and there are adult situations which renders this unsuitable for kids. That's okay, but with a few tweaks of this formula you could actually have a fascinating all-ages comic. This is neither here nor there, just an observation.

Frank Quitely is an unusual artist. He has a subdued style that is not necessarily suited to superhero comics, yet he seems to excel at them. It's strange, but I like it well enough. Mark Millar treads his usual boards to great effect. I am sufficiently intrigued by this first arc and will continue with the next book in the series.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

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Paper stock: Medium weight coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.