Jupiter's Legacy and the World according to Millar
A first issue, in any comic, faces many challenges. The creators can't delve into any character moment, or story arc and indulge themselves with the same ease as authors of established comics . The creators must establish the characters, the world, and the rules of the world, and still get us caught up in the drama within a very small page count. In one sense it seemed like Brian K. Vaughan was doing us a favor when he wrote a double issue with Saga #1 for the single issue price of $2.99. He was in fact doing himself a favor as well, giving himself more room to lay the groundwork of the world and while still having the space to bring us through some of the challenges Alana and Marko faced - hand in hand.
Unlike Saga, Mark Millar's Jupiter's Legacy #1 covers the creation of superheroes, two generations of superheroes, internal family conflicts, politics, and a number of other issues, in a small page count. My main complaint would be that it feels like a shopping bag that has been stuffed with too many groceries and you parked at the far end of the parking lot. At the same time, the numerous small sequences were well crafted, and he is able to reveal a lot in small spaces. There are four mini-epics in this small issue, and there is no room to breath.
The surface level story in Jupiter's Legacy is strong enough to carry us through the pages, and strong enough to distract the reader from the social commentary, but it seems as if the surface level story is more the excuse that affords Millar the opportunity to explore the world views of different generations.
The first generation of superheroes find their powers during the depression, pre-WW2, when America still had a strong sense of self and a unified National identity. The second group of heroes, the ancestors of the first, come into their own post Vietnam, reflecting the loss of National identity and highlighting the distrust and what that does to the individual - superhero or otherwise. The first group of superheroes had something larger than themselves to believe in, while the second group think of the first group as fools. Their perspective reflects an attitude that the world doesn't deserve saving, and is further reflected in how they treat themselves.
All this is without outlining the large number of characters or the surface level story. As mentioned earlier, Millar does a good job with creating conflict and drawing lifelike characters, so if you are not interested in the juxtaposition of generations for the sake of reflecting the changing worldview and how it effects the individual - you may still be a fan of the comic for everything else it has to offer.
There are men and women in tights. There is violence. There is sexual content. There are depraved people. There are virtuous people. There is conflict both internal and external. There is well written dialogue. There is good art.
Despite the hidden island that beckons the first group of heroes in a way not unfamiliar to island in the show Lost, and despite the sheer amount of information squeezed into a single short issue, this title shows a lot of promise, and has given us a number of characters who I am eager to see explored.
*As a side note, as far as the juxtaposed world views: what makes this ironic, or more interesting to me, is that the popular media reflecting the people's world view has also changed. Television and comic books of older generations were more carefully crafted and more rigorously censored in favor of a positive view of family and country. If you read Tobacco Road, or works by Faulkner, Hemingway, or later by Jack Kerouac, you see many lost and depraved Americans of older generations. Since censorship has dissolved in many respects, a different American has been revealed. So the question is, has the world view changed, or do we just have more visibility of the portion of the population that censorship previously kept hidden?
