Jupiter’s Legacy is a generational comic series by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. Jupiter’s Circle is its prequel, written by Millar and illustrated by Wilfredo Torres. I read both series for the first time over the weekend, not in the order they were published, but in the order they occurred. That was a mistake, but I suspected that might be the case before I began. It wasn’t just too difficult to get interested in the characters who make up “The Union” in Jupiter’s Circle, but it would have been a whole lot easier if I had read Jupiter’s Legacy first. The prequel was written as if the audience were already familiar with the characters. Those who read Jupiter’s Legacy first would have been, but Jupiter’s Circle must lose a few points judged on its own merits.
Briefly, I would describe Jupiter’s Legacy as a cross between Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen and Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men. I would describe Jupiter’s Circle as a cross between Watchmen and Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier. I would give Jupiter’s Legacy a full five stars, and Jupiter’s Circle three or four (four for those of you who have previously read Jupiter’s Legacy, three for those who haven’t).
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I like both series but I see more soap opera than super-heroes. Some of the revelations that are supposed to be "shocking" have been done several times already. I'm grateful that the characters are not complete homages/pastiches/parodies of the Justice League.
Looking forward to future prequels/sequels.
It's Millar. I've seen some scans, and it's Millar. What he does well is big dumb action. He's not so good at more nuanced, \more subtle storytelling.
I didn't want to like the "Jupiter" stuff because Moore did "what if superheroes really existed" thing really well, and I didn't want to see a lesser writer like Millar try the same thing. But I ended up liking it.
I think some of it is that I'm a Silver Age guy, and when someone is aping the Silver Age -- even to savage it -- I'm engaged. Secondly, the art is really good on both series, especially the second one.
Jupiter's Legacy strikes me as satire. Millar is writing with a ramrod pretty much all the time there. It is a deeply nihilistic book, IMO.
After reading the recommendations here, I bought and read the first trade collection of each title. Thanks for the heads-up that it's better to read Legacy first.
I plan to get the next collections. I like Legacy better, but the prequel does a decent job of setting up the relationships.
The nihilism is there to some extent, as it was in Millar's Wanted. It bothers me a little but not as much if the writing skill is there, which I believe it is. I don't agree that it is big dumb action.