Book / Week 22 – Jupiter's Legacy Vol 1-5
2024/06/12
Book / Week 22 – Jupiter's Legacy Vol 1-5 (2015 - 2022)
Written by: Mark Millar
Artists: Frank Quitely, Wilfredo Torres, Davide Gianfelice, Chris Sprouse, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Matthew Dow Smith
Ok, so right off the top I realize now that tackling five volumes was a little optimistic on my part, considering the one-book-a-week timeline I’ve self-imposed. I think The Incal broke my weekly routine, and I’ve been struggling a bit to get back on track. Also one thing I failed to verify before I started was if this series is now done? Turns out it is being concluded in volume 6. But also there’s been no news on that front for 2 years. In the meantime, Mark Millar has released a few more series within his connected universe, and had the Big Game books to kind of bring them all together, a crossover between every Millarworld property. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Vol 6.
For now I can talk about these five, the weird release pattern and name change, the story as we know it, and also weirdness with the branding, switching from Millerworld to Netflix.
The Pull List
Let’s start with the release order.
Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1 was released between 2013 - 2015. This is the version I have, under the Millarworld imprint. This book co-created by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. This is the current day story of these heroes, including the original generation and now their kids.
Jupiter’s Circle Vol 1 followed later in 2015, written by Mark Millar, and illustrated by Wilfredo Torres and Davide Gianfelice. This jumped back in time and started with the origin story of the first generation group getting their super powers.
Jupiter’s Circle Vol 2 followed in 2016, written by Mark Millar, and illustrated by Wilfredo Torres and Chris Sprouse, plus others. This was a sequel to volume one, still following the original generation.
Shortly after this in 2017, Netflix acquired Millarworld and the books were rebranded for consistency, now under the Netflix brand. Jupiter’s Circle Vol 1 and 2 now became Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1 and 2. The original Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1, is now Vol 3, and the sequel, Vol 4, in 2020, written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Frank Quitely again.
Lastly, at least as of now, Vol 5, Requiem, released in 2022, written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards and Matthew Dow Smith.
I’ve been a longtime fan of Millar and his various works, dating all the way back to Wanted and Kick-Ass. He’s always viewed superheroes through a different lens. More mature, more violent, and with more personal conflicts and complex themes than what we get from Marvel or DC.
The Story
For the purpose of this column, I read these books in the volume order proposed under the Netflix imprint, with the prequel series (Jupiter’s Circle) first, then Jupiter’s Legacy Vol One and Two, and then Requiem.
In Jupiter’s Circle, the first generation, mostly focuses on the two brothers, Sheldon (The Utopian) and Walter (Brainwave) Sampson. Sheldon and Walter were two of the original six friends that got their superpowers from a mysterious Island, and who initiated the voyage from a dream vision. The Utopian is basically the Superman of the group. Whereas Brainwave is the brains, has the power of flight like his brother but also has psychic powers. The Utopian views the United States as the best country in the world, the greatest idea in human history, and takes it upon himself as a civic duty to protect the world but not get involved with the politics. Brainwave is the opposite, and feels that because he is smarter, that he knows how to run the country and feels like it is their duty to do so, as they are superior to the human race.
Sheldon’s first marriage ends as his first wife is unhappy being in such a perfect marriage, with such a perfect man as Sheldon, who can do no wrong. There’s never any conflict or fighting, and she feels that no matter what she accomplishes with her life, it can never be at the standard that he sets. He moves on and marries Grace who is known as Lady Liberty, another one of the superheroes of this first group.
This first generation takes place in the 1950s, and there are other mature themes strung through, like one of the heroes is closeted gay, so he is basically leading three lives: his hero persona, his civilian alter ego, and also keeping his personal relationship private from everyone on team as he fears they will not accept him if they knew – plus how would the public react to a gay superhero.
Another thread through the first generation series is the story between George Hutchence (Skyfox) and Walter Sampson (Brainwave). Skyfox was always the playboy of the group, due to his public image he becomes quite the sex symbol. He has a lot of childish, immature behaviour issues and likes to bully his teammates, and also has alcohol abuse issues. He falls for a young super model named Sunny, and after proposing, she declines and says she can’t spend her life with someone so immature. But shortly afterwards she starts a relationship with Walter (Brainwave). After this betrayal, George starts to turn into a supervillain, disparaging the police, involving himself with the war riots on the side of the rioters, and doesn’t want to become a pawn to the government’s agenda. He kidnaps the Vice President to try and force an end to the Vietnam War. It is later revealed that Walter used his psychic abilities to make Sunny fall in love with him instead of George - he tells this to George directly with no one else hearing him. This results in a fight with Walter and he is imprisoned. Sheldon (The Utopian) takes the side of Walter over George, as Walter denies all allegations.
The next generation series, Jupiter’s Legacy, focuses on the kids. Vol 1 takes place in 2013. The Utopian and Lady Liberty have two kids, Brandon and Chloe, who are both in their twenties and live in the shadow of their parents. While both kids have superpowers, neither really follow in their parent’s footsteps of being superheroes, as the Utopian and Brainwave are still active, so Brandon feels he can’t compete with his dad, also he thinks being a superhero is only about fighting supervillains and feels there’s no one left that’s cool to fight. And Chloe is more into nightclubs and drugs, but also does a lot of charity work.
George Hutchence also had a child, Eddie Hutchence, who just goes by Hutch. He and Chloe are dating, and in Vol 1 we find out that she is pregnant. Hutch has no superpowers, but his dad made him a power rod, that mimics his abilities. The rod can project repulsive energy, grants the user the ability of transportation, and controlling vehicles.
Brainwave gets into Brandon’s head, and convinces him that the United States is still struggling and that they should be the overseers, not the elected government. He convinces Brandon to kill his dad and together they can lead the country.
There is a jump forward of about 8 years. Hutch and Chloe and their son Jason are hiding out in Australia. Jason has super powers similar to his mom, and the Utopian. Brandon and Walter have turned the United states into a police state.
Vol 2 sees Hutch and Chloe starting to build a rebellion among some of the heroes and supervillains in hiding. Jason has created a scanner to search for these heroes and villains, and finds Hutch’s dad, the original Skyfox. This force is gathered to take Brandon and Walter down, free the United States, and return to being normal super heroes.
Volume 5, Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem, focuses on the 3rd generation. This series takes place 30 years after the events in Vol 4. Jason, the first born of Hutch and Chloe, has become the 2nd generation Utopian. Chloe and Hutch have two other kids as well, Otto and Sophie. Chloe and Hutch have separated for kind of the same reasons that the original Utopian’s first marriage fell apart. Hutch doesn’t have superpowers other than his power rod, and just can’t really compete with Chloe’s power and altruism.
This book expands a little more to the origin story, as Chloe is off-world assisting an alien race who also received the same superpowers, just from a mountain instead of an island. Their plan was to convince Earth’s heroes to help them with their galaxy issues, but secretly to trap all of Earth’s superheroes and kill them so that they could inherit the Earth and avoid the conflict they were having in their own galaxy. This book ends on a cliffhanger with Hutch sacrificing himself by teleporting most of the villain aliens into the heart of a black hole, leaving Chloe still captured.
Between the Pages
As I mentioned above, I’ve liked Mark Millar for a long time, and his mature complex take on superheroes. I’m caught up on some of his more recent work with The Ambassadors, the Nemesis reboot, and the Big Game crossover, but I still want to go back and read some of his previous works like Space Bandits, Empress, and the Magic Order. I have them all, just haven’t gotten around to them.
Co-creator Frank Quitely, I’ve loved his style for a long time as well. JLA: Earth 2 and The Authority, Jupiter’s Legacy, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin are some of his works that I own. As well as most recently, Ambassadors issue 1 (as this series had a different artist for each issue).
Thought Balloons
Throughout, these books are really good. When I first started the series, it was with Vol 1 of Jupiter’s Legacy, now volume 3 (the 2nd generation of the family). Illustrated by Frank Quitely, and this, unfortunately for the prequel series, kind of set the bar visually for me. Jupiter’s Circle is still good story-wise, but visually not the same. Frank Quitely has a very unique eye for action and staging, and leaves everything very easy to interpret. Simple in a way – just clean art, not overly rendered in anyway. He also has a distinct character design and clothing style. Vol 5 also changed up the art style drastically with a painter style for issues 1-4, and then back to the previous style seen in the prequel series, Vol 1 and 2, for issues 5-6.
I guess now I can give the Netflix show a chance.
Fan Art
As I mentioned a few posts ago, I wanted to start doing some fan art for these readings, just to keep me warmed up, and also draw some characters I probably wouldn’t normally draw. So tonight, Lady Liberty. Hope you like it.
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Next read:
Suicide Squad: Get Joker (2023)
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Art by: Alex Maleev
Bonus:
Wolverine: Rot (2012)
Written by: Cullen Bunn & Ivan Brandon
Art by: Paul Pelletier, Rafael Albuquerque, and Jason Latour
Previously read:
Week 21: Head Wounds: Sparrow
Week 20: The Incal
Week 19: Hexware
Week 18: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Week 17: Superman: Men of Tomorrow