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.
The
OCD zone-
This
is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials of
physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or
women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest
convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.
Paper
stock: Medium weight coated stock with a slight sheen.
Binding:
Perfect bound trade paperback.
Cardstock
cover notes:
Laminated
cardstock cover.
