Jupiter’s Legacy Prequel Follies

It’s time for another feature on everyone’s favorite hit-or-miss author: Mark Millar. This is yet another in a larger series of features I’ve done on this particular figure, because he’s always coming up with new ways to surprise readers. This time it has to do with the woefully delayed Jupiter’s Legacy.

 

  Well, that isn’t exactly the truth, this has way more to do with the announcement of a Jupiter’s Legacy prequel. The very base idea of it, to be specific. Jupiter’s Legacy is a series that isn’t even half-way done and the major players are still not set. The first three issues were nothing more than “setting the stage” and the fourth was the very beginning of that stage. There’s nothing really solid to hang onto. The series, as perceived by the readers, is in a stage of flux. An unstable state that it has been in for almost the entire year. With no real sense of the world, or its major characters, how can one really get that excited about a prequel? The story has yet to reach a very definable groove, or accumulated momentum around itself.  

  The main premise of the prequel is, by itself, standard and decent. Just the story of the main characters of Legacy’s parents when they were up and around. It’s not ground that hasn’t been broken before, showing the “golden age” of a world before the main story where it all falls into disarray. Yet this same problem rears its head up once more – it is set in the 50’s. Why is that such a problem? Well, it’s too far away from the present point of the main story to be really relevant and too little away from having that edge that origin stories have. There are thematic connotations available, for sure, but it’s weirdly distant. It creates a bubble around the prequel, making it two stories rather than two halves.  

  Really the actual draw of the series has nothing to do with the story it links to nor the characters it is using. It has to do with Millar himself. While many would scoff at Millar being a main draw, due to his still well-known infamy, there is an aspect that only the thickest of heads can deny. Millar can do some superb straight super-heroics. It’s one of his fortes and a cornerstone of his best works. Superman Adventures, Superior, and the magnificent recent Starlight are all set upon that foundation. Starlight in particular is special in showing that he still has that magic touch. So having an ersatz “Super Friends” in the 50’s during a supposedly happier period is very encouraging. On that alone could this title find a great audience, since so many can go “I used to like Millar but then he wrote…”.  

  A real return to form was only intimated by Starlight and this could be what really uplifts Millar in the public eye again. So long as he doesn’t extend beyond his reach. So, does the story really hold any interest as a prequel? No, not really, for a story that hasn’t gotten to the good stuff yet. But it has the aces Wilfredo Torres and real potential so let’s hope that it doesn’t fall flat on its face.