Jupiter’s Legacy Season 1 review

Jupiter’s Legacy represents the first of the planned Millar Verse based on original and conceived for Netflix comic books from acclaimed writer Mark Millar.

Millar has had a solid cinematic track record already with his original series, Kick-Ass, resulting in at least one great movie. His Marvel Comics tale of the war of the heroes led to one of Marvel Studios’ best projects with Captain America: Civil War.

Bottom line, in the growing superhero franchise arms race, Netflix striking a partnership with Millar was a savvy move that reaps immediate benefits with the immensely binge-able Jupiter’s Legacy. And unlike streaming rival Disney+, which releases episodes on a weekly basis, you can knock out Jupiter’s Legacy over the course of a weekend or a very focused work shift.

Josh Duhamel (Safe Haven) stars as Sheldon Sampson, the Superman-esque superhero known as The Utopian. Sheldon heads the Union of Justice alongside his wife, Grace (Leslie Bibb, Iron Man 2) and his brother Walt (Ben Daniels, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Over the decades they’ve fought the good fight against evildoers and have in most cases come out on top save their betrayal by one of the Union’s founding members.

The first episode offers the most superhero excitement with an impressively staged action sequence with The Union battling the Thanos-like menace Blackstar under slo-mo that would make Zack Snyder proud. This is a standout battle with terrific special effects and a weight behind the on screen action.

As impressive as the battle is, it’s the fallout that guides the rest of the season as The Union deals with the consequences of the fight from the losses, growing philosophical divide over how to be a hero and public sentiment.

Have the heroes’ methods become too outdated as the villains around them have grown more violent and deadly? And the next generation of Union members have noticed as more of their friends keep getting killed in the line of duty. If only they could play for keeps like their enemies…

This is the core issue of the series and brings up that classic argument of why Batman doesn’t just kill The Joker. Both sides have strong arguments and it really does make more sense that the heroes match their foes if it’s a matter of life and death.

Sheldon values the code the Union created and won’t compromise. A constant theme of the series is Sheldon keeps his distance from the younger generation Union members and doesn’t know any of them beyond their code names.

Caught in the fray is Sheldon and Grace’s son, Brandon (Andrew Horton). Brandon aspires to make his parents proud, but Sheldon casts a wide shadow and has lofty expectations that even his superpowered son can’t hope to match.

That’s not the case with his train wreck sister Chloe (Elena Kampouris), who embodies the fashion model drug addict cliché that’s happy to disappoint her family at every turn.

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Chloe is an exhausting character. She’s a full mess and fully squanders any potential goodwill.  Sheldon is all levels of judgmental and overbearing, but he’s at least coming from a good place.

Chloe’s self destructive path isn’t enjoyable. She’s just miserable and drowning in her daddy issues until she meets up with Hutch (Ian Quinlan, Gotham), a low-level criminal trying to keep a low profile as a result of his heroic father.

Arguably the standout subplot and the one that takes Jupiter’s Legacy to another level is the extended flashbacks detailing how Sheldon and The Union gained their powers. These scenes are shot with a sepia, golden hue to evoke the 1920s and 30s time period. It’s a compelling origin story as we learn the dynamics of Sheldon, Walt, Grace and Sheldon’s best friend George (Matt Lanter, Star Wars: The Clone Wars).

This provides valuable insight into Sheldon’s traditional values. While his family and friends have evolved and adapted with the time, Sheldon is still holding on to the sentiment of being a virtuous role model that also reveals his own unresolved father issues.

Too much of Sheldon’s flashback screen time is spent conveying his descent into madness and the strobing shaky cam is the biggest visual misfire. It goes on too long and isn’t as convincing as intended. These sequences go a little long by the midpoint of the season, but the storyline evolves into a classic Indiana Jones style quest with some elements of both It and Lost thrown in as well.

Like a lot of comic book series adapted for TV and movie, there’s a greater effort to be more inclusive with the cast. Not only does that help make the series feel more contemporary, but also allows for some deeper subplots like the closeted character in the 1920s compared to the couple in modern times.

Retired hero Fitz (Mike Wade) can vividly recall being discriminated against as he paved the way for a pun intended brighter path for his superhero daughter Petra (Tenika Davis).

One of the potentially risky choices that pans out is having the cast play both the Union founders and their older contemporary versions. The makeup and hairpieces staff did solid work in creating realistic looking older prosthetic pieces allowing the cast to credibly convey their battle-hardened heroes.

It’s wild that Duhamel hadn’t been scooped up to play a superhero previously as he’s got the classic protagonist chiseled chin, sturdy build and charismatic demeanor. This is one of his more challenging roles as he’s not asked to just get by playing the generic action hero. Sheldon requires a level of introspection and conviction that Duhamel is able to grab and make his own.

Bibb is fantastic initially channeling a Lois Lane style character and then evolving to the kick-tail matriarch of The Union. Lanter has an undeniable swagger. He really would make for an excellent Hal Jordan in a Green Lantern movie as rumored. Daniels is probably the star of the series as Walt evolves from the stiff by the book character to the cool, hip uncle.

Lizz Wolf’s costume design is amazing. It’s a perfect blend of adding enough details to avoid a flat looking suit while avoiding making the costumes too busy.

Nicole Hirsch Whitaker and Danny Ruhlmann’s cinematography is dazzling with a strong sense of superhero imagery and framing. That’s especially true in the action sequences. Action isn’t a heavy focus of the series, but there’s at least one solid fight each episode. And with the bonus of super powered characters actually using their abilities.

The (hopefully) season finale ends on such an insane cliffhanger that Netflix would have to at least give Millar and company a movie to tie up some of the plot lines. Clearly, the better option is a second season as there’s still so much more of these characters to unravel. Netflix might just have found its big superhero franchise.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix

Check out Jupiter’s Legacy volume 1 on Amazon and visit www.netflix.com/JupitersLegacy to watch the series.