‘Jupiter’s Legacy: Library Edition Volume 1’ (review)

Written by Mark Millar
Art by Frank Quitely, Wilfredo Torres,
and Chris Sprouse
Published by Dark Horse Comics

If you were lucky enough to catch the Netflix series, Jupiter’s Legacy a few years back, you saw, in my opinion, some of the best live-action, revisionist, adult superhero drama done to date, and it came from the mind of Mark Millar.

I just read Dark Horse’s new “Library Edition” featuring the first two volumes of the original comic book stories from about a decade ago that inspired that great TV series…or at least that’s what it says it is.

I was curious as to why the stories bore little to no relation to the live-action version and a little research tells me that the stories in the book are, in fact, confusingly, Jupiter’s Circle, a prequel series set in mid-20^th century, that appeared in between the various iterations of Jupiter’s Legacy, which are set in modern day and beyond.

Jupiter’s CIRCLE, then, this volume, gives us a rather blatant simulacrum of DC’s Justice League of America, albeit as seen though a Watchman-type lens. There are clear versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and others less specific. The Utopian is Boy Scout perfect, has a bit of a spit curl, and wears glasses in his secret identity. If it needed to be any more obvious, the heroes work out of The Hall of Justice. Oh, they don’t call it that, of course, but since the 1970s cartoon version was based on Cincinnati, Ohio’s Union Terminal, they can simply use that same photo reference.

Where they differ from the JLA is, naturally, what makes this particular story interesting. For one thing, everyone smokes. All the time! If you weren’t around in the 1950s and ‘60s, you can’t possibly know how omnipresent smoking was. A very realistic touch.

Then there are the character “quirks.”

One guy is closeted, another is manipulative. One drinks too much and has anger issues, one leads a sad, lonely life, one cheats on his wife and makes his new, young mistress into his sidekick, and the Utopian is just too perfect for his marriage to his version of Lois Lane to last. All of these and more conflict in various soap-operatic ways as we follow our heroes through their day-to-day battles against criminals and alien invaders.

Millar has called the overall Jupiter’s Legacy project, co-created with artist Frank Quitely, his best work and it might well be. To be honest, though, it’s the stories in this volume, the Circle stories, that are my favorites. The writer really captures a feel for the earlier eras, even with a number of in-jokes and references (including a few from Scotty Bowers’ controversial memoirs of being gay in old Hollywood). His characterizations are spot-on, as well, offering valid looks at what DC’s originals might be like in the same situations. Pastiche more than parody.

As far as the art, it’s quite good throughout, despite the fact that who exactly did what is pretty confusing. Frank Quitely’s very recognizable style is present on the cover and in single page art before some chapters, as is the amazing Bill Sienkiewicz, of all people. The actual stories are credited on the cover, though, to Wilfredo Torres and Chris Sprouse, with six other artists credited up front. Whoever did what, it all works quite nicely!

This being a prequel, its ending leads into what seems to have been the earlier—but set later—series, on which the TV version was actually based. Since that series was canceled after only eight episodes, it’s unlikely we’ll see Jupiter’s Circle adapted into live action, which is too bad, because based on what I just read, I think it could have made for great TV. As Jupiter’s Legacy, it certainly makes for great comics, no matter what you call it!

Booksteve recommends.