Jupiter’s Legacy: A TV series review

Jupiter’s Legacy is yet another superhero comic book adaptation. Television and film seem to be awash with these and whilst is nice to see authors other than those at Marvel or DC coming to the fore I do feel a saturation point is coming.

It was with this mindset that I approached this series. It had the feel of a series which explored, perhaps, the darker side of superheroism. How did having powers change a person? With the third series of The Boys underway I felt that this was an unnecessary addition. You can’t compete on the horror and evil corruption of Homelander, can you?

The answer is undoubtedly no, but this series did have merit in and of itself. Josh Duhamel was a surprisingly strong lead, both as the principled leader of the team and the crazed mad man trying to pull them together. Splitting the story line between their origin and the present day is what made this story worthwhile. We are shown how but not why the cast got their powers and this for me was the greatest mystery.

I liked the family dynamic even if it was a little cliched and there weren’t too many surprises that weren’t telegraphed during the series although the central mystery was ultimately satisfying and I was left wanting more at the end.

Standing at just 8 episodes it was just long enough to keep the core of the story and still show some characterisation, by the last episode you really do get a feeling for things being on the brink of collapse, something that we may never now see resolved. The last few days have revealed that the author and creator Mark Millar has accepted a Netflix deal to develop his Supercrook series in its place although he did mention they may pick up the series again later.

At the end of the day if I want to learn more I will have to delve into the comics and I am not sure I am that invested. The show has potential but given its short run and ending I would suggest that at this time it would be best to skip this series and go straight to the source material.

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