Jupiter’s Legacy Volume 1 is the first season of a superhero action-adventure streaming TV drama created by Steven S. DeKnight. This adaptation is based on the comic book series of the same name created by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. Jupiter’s Legacy Volume 1 recounts the origin story of the Union of Justice – set in 1929 – and develops the generation gap threatening to tear apart the contemporary group of heroes.
Jupiter’s Legacy Volume 1 is quite different from the comic book it is based on, choosing to expand the origin story – delving deeper into the personalities of Sheldon Sampson/the Utopian (Josh Duchamel), his elder brother Walter/Brainwave (Ben Daniels), wife Grace/Lady Liberty (Leslie Bibb) and best friend George Hutchence / Skyfox (Matt Lanter). While the origin story flashback is richer for this expansion, it seems to take the gloss of the contemporary storyline, which pales in comparison.
READ OUR ANALYSES OF THE BOYS
Thus, the modern day plot comes across like a prologue to the real story – as the true antagonist behind the scenes is revealed in the season finale, functioning as a setup for Volume 2, presumably. This is our main disappointment with the series, even though the writing is much stronger than what Millar managed in the comic book series.
While the characterisation of Brandon Sampson / The Paragon (the son of Sheldon and Grace, played by Andrew Horton) differs wildly from the comic books, rebellious daughter Chloe (Elena Kampouris) is quite faithful to the comic book character. However, both were under-developed somewhat in Volume 1 and in the case of Brandon, his conflict with his father is only really hinted at and left simmering by the end of the season.
READ OUR REVIEWS OF INVINCIBLE SEASON 1
As mentioned above, overall, the plot and characterisations are an improvement on Millar’s threadbare writing in the comic book. The superhero costumes only work half of the time – to be fair, Frank Quitely’s gorgeous artwork is difficult to replicate in real life. That all said, we would highly recommend Jupiter’s Legacy Volume 1 for its brilliant interpretation of the deconstruction trope and a worthy addition to said superhero TV canon, alongside The Boys and Invincible.
Now streaming on Netflix.
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