Jupiter's Legacy

Jupiter's Legacy
Cover to issue #1 by Frank Quitely
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
Schedule	Bi-monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre
Publication date	April 2013 -
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mark Millar
Artist(s)	Frank Quitely
Letterer(s)	Peter Doherty
Colorist(s)	Peter Doherty

Jupiter's Legacy is a 2013-2014, bi-monthly, superhero comic book miniseries written by Mark Millar, drawn by Frank Quitely, colored and lettered by Peter Doherty and published by Image Comics. It is to date the longest series that Millar has published as part of his Millarworld line of creator-owned comics, spanning an issue run three times as long as his then-most recent series, Super Crooks and Nemesis.^[1] It is also the first collaboration between Millar and Quitely since their work on The Authority in 2001^[2][3] and Quitely's first long-form work with a writer other than Grant Morrison.^[3]

The story, which is influenced by Star Wars, King Kong, Roman mythology and origin stories from the Golden Age of Comics, is written as Millar's treatise on superheroes' connection to the American ideal. The story explores the generational conflict between a group of aging superheroes who used the powers they gained in 1932 for the betterment of mankind, and their children, who are daunted by the prospect of living up to their parents' legacy. Other conflicts and themes in the book include sociopolitcal and economic differences among the older heroes and the end of capitalism, which were inspired by Millar's reaction to the Great Recession.^[4]

Millar's projected schedule for the series is for it to last 10 - 12 issues, broken up into two parts, with each issue published every six weeks, and a break of a few months after the fifth or sixth issue, which represents the first part.^[5] The first issue was released on April 24, 2013. Each issue of the miniseries is priced at $2.99 USD.^[1] The series has received mostly positive reviews from Comic Book Resources,^[1] IGN,^[6] Newsarama,^[2] and Bleeding Cool,^[7] with praise given to Millar's writing, Quitely's art and Peter Doherty's colors, though more than one reviewer regarded the series' take on realistic superheroes as derivative.^{[3][6][8][9][10]}

Publication history

Writer Mark Millar signing copies of issue #1, featuring the Frank Quitely and Bryan Hitch covers, at Midtown Comics in Manhattan.

Jupiter's Legacy was initially to be titled Jupiter's Children.^[11][5][10] Writer Mark Millar created the series as a "big, weighty tome that happens to be about superheroes", which examines the connection of superheroes to the American ideal. In writing the series, Millar was influenced by sources such as Star Wars, King Kong, and origin stories from the Golden Age of Comics. He was also influenced by Roman mythology, as in the name Jupiter, which Millar chose because it evoked a grand, mythological scope to the story, which he hoped to contemporize by blending those themes with modern imagery, and a Wagnerian story structure. Millar also described the story as evoking the generational conflict of Hamlet, and would explore, as one of its themes, the question of "what it would be like to grow up as Wonder Woman and Superman's kids", in particular the difficulty in living up to the legacy of previous generations. Other themes and motifs explored include the dawn of man, the origin of Earth, and contemporary concerns about the current economy and the end of capitalism. Millar explains:^[4]

As someone who grew up with an American flag in my bedroom, I watched from across the Atlantic in the past few years to see something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime: poverty in the States. It actually touches my life because a lot of my friends who are comic book fans or freelancers will tell me stories I could never have imagined happening in my lifetime, like how their local gas station is closing down because no one in town has the money to run a car anymore. It's a country that, growing up, I always associated with things getting bigger and better, and so to see it contracting is actually quite terrifying. That served as the inspiration for the backdrop to this story. The superheroes are impotent in the face of this complex situation, and that's where things kick off...This story is my love letter to America. That idea of democracy and everyone having an equal say is such a fundamentally decent one and something we should cherish...And for me, the United States has always been tied up with superheroes as well. Maybe that's because Wonder Woman and Superman are wearing the American flag. It seems a nice analogy to tie in the end of the American Empire with this big, grand twilight of the superheroes kind of story.^[4]

Asked about the pulp era opening scenes of issue one, in which the group of protagonists charter a boat to journey to a mysterious island, Millar explained that King Kong is his favorite film, and that the sequence in which that film's characters travel to Skull Island is "one of the greatest ever". Millar further explained that he wanted to give the characters a superhero origin that was more both mythical and simple, such as the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Silver Age Flash, instead of grounding it in real world science. The mystery of what exactly happened to the protagonists of Jupiter's Legacy on the island in 1932 is gradually revealed during the course of the miniseries.^[4]

Millar's intention for the series is to have it produced as closely as possible to a monthly schedule, which he predicted would mean an issue published every six weeks, and that after the first five or six issues, which represents the first part of the story, there would be a break of a few months for the creative team to catch up, before resuming with the second half. Millar announced that the entire series would be released over the course of 20 months, for 10 - 12 issues in total.^[5]

The first three issues of the series are collected in Jupiter's Children: Giant-Sized Edition #1, which will be published on December 26, 2013 for $3.99.^[11][12]

Synopses

Characters

• Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian - A patriotic American who lost everything in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and who in 1932, charters a boat to a mysterious island 600 miles west of Cape Verde, after the island appeared to him in a dream. Sheldon, who believes that the United States was the greatest idea in human history, and for whom the United States Constitution is sacred, is convinced that the island holds gifts that will return the country to greatness. After journeying to the island with his brother Walter and a group of five old college friends, including his future wife Grace,^[14] he becomes a Superman analogue^[16][3][9] capable of flight and of great strength named The Utopian,^[14] who is regarded as the greatest superhero on the planet.^[19] He can fly between the Earth and the Moon without a spacesuit^[19] and is immune to his brother's psychic abilities.^[17] He approaches crises reactively and leads by example, though he is criticized by Walter and the younger generation as old-fashioned and out of touch.^[3][16] He and Grace are the last two heroes who still maintain secret identities.^[14] As a civilian, Sheldon runs an auto repair shop in Los Angeles because he says an honest day's work keeps one grounded.^[19] Sheldon leads the other superheroes according to a strict moral code, suspending Walter's son Jules from the main team for dating a woman that he rescued from a fire. He also believes that superheroes should not unilaterally interfere in the actions of their government but obey their elected leaders, which puts him into conflict with his brother Walter.^[14] Sheldon is disappointed in his children Chloe and Brandon, whom he views as shallow celebrities, and feels that he has failed them as a parent.^[17] Sampson was named after the winner of the charity auction that series writer Mark Millar held at the launch of the book, an event he holds every time he launches a creator-owned book.^[4]

• Walter Sampson - Sheldon's brother who, after visiting the island in 1932, obtains the power of flight and psychic powers that enable him to separate another person's mind from their physical body and imprison them in a "psychic painting" of his own creation,^[1][3] which is his "favorite trick".^[19] He can also create psychic illusions^[17] and kill a person by psychically inducing aneurysms in them.^[19] The only person on whom his powers do not work is Sheldon.^[17] Like Sheldon, he can travel to and survive at the altitude of orbital satellites.^[19] According to Millar, "He isn't as strong or as handsome as his famous sibling and lacks charisma, but he's thoughtful and very aware of his legacy as he hits old age. He's looking around at the financial crash and wondering if he can help in ways other than rescuing kittens from trees and all those nice things superheroes do."^[21] He advocates more direct political activism on the part of superheroes, and feels they need to fix the ailing economy and tell President Obama what he should be doing in his second term.^[14][16] Walter's blueprints for fixing global problems involve climate engineering, eliminating the income tax, underground homes, and a ban on all religions.^[19]

• Grace Sampson/Lady Liberty^[14] - Sheldon's wife,^[3] who journeyed with him to the mysterious island in 1932, and as a superhero, goes by the codename Lady Liberty. Like Sheldon, she has superhuman strength, and the two of them are the last two heroes who still maintain secret identities.^[14] Her degree of invulnerability is such that her flesh can be penetrated by the edged weapons wielded by her fellow superheroes, which they use to kill her.^[19]

• Chloe Sampson - Sheldon and Grace's daughter.^[3][8] She inherited superhuman abilities from her parents but did not follow in their footsteps as a superhero, explaining that as a Buddhist and a vegetarian, she refuses to hurt someone because they contradict her belief system. She believes she is frequently in conflict with her mother because her mother is irritated by Chloe's nonconfrontational nature, and instead engages in charity work, thinking it will please her, but Chloe's brother Brandon believes she cynically participates in indiscriminate endorsement work for personal gain and to curry favor with their mother. Chloe also laments how perfect her parents are, regretting that she will never be as "cool" as her father or as attractive as her mother. She prefers dating "disappointing bad boys" rather than superheroes because the latter would be akin to "dating her father", and according to her therapist, she does not maintain proper relationships because she always compares her relationships to her parents' idealized marriage.^[14] According to Millar, Chloe and Brandon are in their twenties, and live completely in the shadow of their parents. He created them because, as he explains, "I like the idea of exploring what it would be like to grow up as the kids of the two most famous and beloved people on the planet. This side of things has a very Postcards From The Edge feel and there's enormous tension between them all."^[22] Chloe uses narcotics, and overdoses at the end of issue #1 after snorting an extraterrestrial drug.^[14] She possesses a sonic scream with which she can shatter durable materials,^[17] and a degree of invulnerability that allows her body to easily being slammed at high speed into vehicles.^[19]

• Brandon Sampson - Sheldon and Grace's son.^[8] Like his sister, Brandon uses his celebrity status to obtain endorsement deals. He also enjoys dalliances with superhero groupies. Despite his father's urging to do more altruistic superhero work, Brandon feels that there is no one "cool" to fight any more and that the great battles are in the past, with the best villains having died ten or twenty years ago.^[14] He also feels that his father was never there for him growing up, which Brandon's therapist thinks is the reason Sheldon is so critical of Brandon. Like Chloe, Brandon laments that he'll never been as smart or as perfect as his father.^[17] Brandon possesses the power of telekinesis, which enables him to fly, allows him to lift objects as massive as a fully loaded freighter, and can also survive in outer space like his father.^[17] He also has superhuman hearing,^[14] and can project a yellow energy from his eyes that is powerful enough to dissolve his father's flesh, which he uses to murder his father at the end of issue #3.^[19]

• Jules - Walter's son who works alongside him and the other heroes. Jules was suspended from the main team by Sheldon for dating a woman that Jules rescued in from a fire, for which Jules feels Sheldon is questionably old-fashioned. During one battle between his elders and an escaped superhuman convict named Blackstar, Jules deliberately maintains his distance from the melee, intending to land a few blows near the end of it in order to avoid getting hit, and later complains of a cut knee, for which he is criticized by Sheldon.^[14]

• Hutch - Chloe's boyfriend and the father of her child,^[17] whose nickname is derived from his surname, Hutchence. He is a drug trafficker^[19] and the son of the greatest supervillain of all time, and thinks that Chloe's interest in him may be motivated by a desire for rebellion against her parents. He can teleport himself and others to any point on the planet by merely speaking the name of the location.^[17] He also carries a hand-held cylindrical energy weapon called a power rod, which can be used to briefly repel other superhumans like Walter.^[19] Millar describes Hutch as "our Han Solo. Incredibly funny, cool and likeable."^[23] After Walter and Brandon lead the other superheroes against Chloe's parents, Hutch rescues Chloe and the two become fugitives.^[19]

Critical reception

Issue 1

Greg McElhatton of Comic Book Resources gave issue #1 four out of five stars, calling it "Millar's strongest new comic in a long time." McElhatton praised out Millar's script, in particular the quite tone of the 1932 sequence that piqued his interest, and the fight scene between Walter and Blackstar, which McElhatton felt represented a unique approach to superhero clichés. McElhatton lauded Frank Quitely's artwork as "elegant", in particular his ability to draw the reader's eye toward the center of panels. Compliments were also given to Peter Doherty's colors, which were used well to differentiate between the 1932 and modern scenes.^[1] Melissa Grey of IGN gave the issue of 9.2 score of "Amazing", lauding the world in the story "immediately familiar and uniquely original", and saying that Millar's examination of "the shades of gray" between black and white regarding heroes struck a chord unlike any of his previous attempts at the theme of incorporating superhumans into the real world. Grey said of Quitely's artwork that it "blends a powerful realism with a sense of the fantastical in a way that is seamlessly integrated with Millar's narrative."^[24] David Brothers of Comics Alliance thought the issue "fell short". While Brothers complimented some aspects of the writing and art, such as the 1932 scenes and the psychic paintings, he felt that Millar's characterization and his take on realistic superheroes in the modern scenes was unoriginal, his dialogue in the modern scenes unnatural, that Quitely's character designs were not well-designed, and that the book lacked the spectacle by Millar that would've given a better opportunity for Quitely and Doherty to have effected better work.^[3] Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool gave the issue a positive review for the depiction of the socioeconomic and political conflicts, Quitely and Doherty's art, and the soap opera plot of the characters' power plays.^[7] Patrick Hume of Newsarama gave the issue an 8 out of 10, calling it an effective, absorbing and smart superhero story that pushes the boundaries of the genre. Hume noted the presence of Millar's trademark black humor and "full-throttle action", as well as "a maturity and thematic sophistication that has not been apparent in other recent work". Though Hume thought some of Millar's delivery of the issue's ideas was at times heavy-handed, he was impressed enough by the book to continue with it. Hume also thought that Quitely's more defined, gritty, more intimate art was better-suited to the story than the large-scale, widescreen action he effected on The Authority. Doherty's subdued color palette was also noted by Hume.^[2]

Issue 2

James Hunt of Comic Book Resources gave issue #2 four out of five stars, finding it easily engaging, better-paced than the first issue, and enjoying the social satire with which Millar employed parallels with ancient Greek and Roman tragedies, and creating a well-rounded and well-realized cast, which was not typified by what Hunt regarded as Millar's usual cynicism. Hunt also called Quitely's art "beautiful", calling him "one of the definitive superhero artists of all time", and seeing elements in his artwork that were similar to Quitely's work on All-Star Superman. However, Hunt thought the coloring was "muddy and muted", and obscured the details.^[16] Jesse Schedeen gave the issue a 7.3 score of "Good", saying that he wished Millar would explore genres other than superheroes in his Millarworld work, and was disappointed that Jupiter's Legacy was not the book to break that trend that it had initially seemed to him. While Schedeen thought the issue's material was interesting, and thought Millar, Quitely and Doherty's handling of it was dramatically successful, the superhero deconstruction did not feel fresh or original to him. Schedeen also did not feel the plot twist at the end of the issue was justified in light of the established characters.^[6] Zach Wilkerson of Multiversity Comics gave the issue a score of 7.2, calling it "A beautiful book hindered by a ho-hum plot." Wilkerson felt that while the "breathtaking" artwork justified buying the book, it lacked any noteworthy or original concepts, and criticized the unlikeable Brandon and Chloe. Nonetheless, Wilkerson felt that the book harbored enough depth and potential to be a modern classic, provided that the creative team properly follow-through on the foundations they laid.^[8]

Issue 3

Wilkerson gave issue #3 a score of 9.2, saying that while the series appears derivative of Watchmen and The Authority, its resonant themes of familial conflict and politics set it apart from those stories, and reassessed his review of issue #2, as "unfair", saying that the third issue's developments, in which the story moves forward in earnest, validates the content of the first two issues. Wilkerson called the story "gut-wrenching" and Quitely's depiction of Sheldon and Grace's death was "visceral".^[10] Anghus Houvouras of Flickering Myth felt that the plot was too obvious, the generational conflict was uninspired, and felt like Millar was recycling ideas he had used in his previous work. Houvouras also felt that there were no characters in the story with which a reader could connect or invest in, as the cast was composed of "stereotypes and caricatures". Houvouras also felt the issue was paced far too fast. Houvouras said that Quitely's depiction of Utopian's defeat was "beautifully staged", but that the lack of information revealed about him made his death "ultimately meaningless" and "at best morbidly hilarious and at worst sub-par paper thin plotting."^[9]

Collected editions

Jupiter's Children: Giant-Sized Edition #1 (Released December 26, 2013).^[11][12]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 4.25.13 Jupiter's Legacy book signing.

Official website