Jupiter's Legacy #1

Felt kind of disappointed with the first issue but I liked the differences in the old and new generation of heroes. Guess we'll have to wait and see where Millar takes the story. I also thought the Blackstar bit was great, beautiful work by Quitely.

I was surprised how much I really liked this, I mainly grabbed it because I was dying to see some of Quitely's new work. Definitely adding it to my pull list!

I'm always wary with Millar. It's a gamble of whether we're going to get something clever or something really really juvenile.

Agreed. I passed on this simply because his name was on it, because I think some of his other works are a blight on comics. Having read this review though, perhaps it bears checking out.

I picked this issue up today mostly based on what I'd heard on CBR. Excited to read it after this review, seems like something I'll really dig.

@cbishop: Did you like Old Man Logan? Its my favorite piece hes ever done.

@cbishop said:

I was planning to pass on it simply because his name was on it.

What solidified the pass, however, was Millar's antediluvian stance on digital comics.

Loved this issue, 5/5 for me.

They ran out of copies at my local store so I did the next best thing Midtown which I like to add I ordered cover B.

I'm really having trouble following this review.

"When creating a new comic franchise, the first issue is often hit or miss."

OK but then you go one to say:

"The next issue or two may be the deciding factor of whether I like this series or love it. This could be a fun ride."

Which makes it sound like you were in the middle of hit or miss.

"When it comes to Mark Millar stories, there's often some good and bad mixed in."

The word "often" waters down this statement to the point where it's unnecessary. Just say Mark Millar is a mixed bag for me.

"We do get that"

Who gets what? Just say Mark Millar is a divisive figure. But what doers that have to do with the faults of this issue?

" It's the long running debate of whether or not certain material is necessary for a comic."

But you've already established in this issue that "It's not presented in an overly crude way" In the previous section, so again how is this a fault of the issue?

"Will we find out more about the mystery in the beginning? What about the argument that took place? And of course there's a tiny cliffhanger at the end."

These are the intriguing elements of a good first issue to hook the reader, so again why is this in The Bad? If a first issue is too obtuse, then that's a fault, but you even use the qualifier "little" to describe the cliffhanger so it can't be that. I've heard you on the podcast, you seem to frequently get hung up on the questions an issue sets up for the future rather than analyzing the merits in the present. A review is more helpful if is focuses on characterization, themes, plotting and pacing

Awesome first issue

I enjoyed this issue.

Enjoyed it. FQ's art has grown on me but sometimes his characters look like dehydrated fruit pieces.

I've never read it. That had nothing to do with Millar though. I just haven't had a ton of money for comics.

Meh. That's going to take time. TV does the same thing with posting show episodes online. They're often a week or more behind, or not there at all. Digital comics that aren't out the same day don't bother me. With the amount of digital piracy out there, if it were me, I'd never offer titles digitally. I don't get digital. I see what's in it for the consumer, but not for the seller.

@cbishop: What's in it for the seller?

People who were really excited about your book not being able to get it, and maybe even getting angry about it (and ignoring future things you make).

People who planned to buy your book pirating it because they're not going to wait three months and inevitably have it spoiled for them in the interim.

The shows that do not have a rapid online access option are the ones that lose the most money. Game of Thrones, because it is so incredibly difficult to watch, is (or was, last I checked) the most-pirated show of all time.

@akbogert: I get your examples, but you're kind of talking to a caveman on this subject. There's much I don't understand about digital. (Igore the boldface - that's random CV formatting).

@cbishop: Caveman, eh? Haha. Well I did say "antediluvian."

The key is, people will be reading whatever they want to read online. So companies can either sell it to them there (and reasonably), or they can choose not to -- but it will make its way into people's hands, and the harder they make it for that to happen, the more likely it is that they are robbing themselves of profits that people would happily have given them had the avenue been available.

There were people who woke up this morning planning to buy a digital issue of Jupiter's Legacy and who are going to bed tonight having pirated it because Millar didn't put it online.

There were also people who woke up this morning planning to buy a digital issue of Jupiter's Legacy and who are never going to read it because getting physical copies just isn't an option based on where they live (no LCS, high cost of shipping).

Two groups of people who wanted to pay Millar for something and who were unable to do so.

And that is why he needs to get with the program, because digital is HUGE, and extremely important.

@FastestBlender Great job breaking down this review. You are not annoying at all and probably lots of fun to hang out with.

@fastestblender: You make some valid points, but are you really going to critique almost every aspect of the review. I just got in to comics last year & I love this site. I find it very amusing though how everyone critiques the reviews in some way. You often hear Tony, Sarah, & Corey comment on it. It might annoy me more than them. It is a review take it for what is.

If this is Millar in his Superior style and not in Kick-Ass/Nemesis mode, I will check it out.

Well, to be honest, since its Frank Quitely I will buy the hardcover anyway. He is my favorite artist bar none. Sadly he isn't doing very much lately.

Just pointing out that someone created an account with the express purpose of criticizing this review. That is the account's only post.

@akbogert: The biggest thing I've been confused about on digital is: do you think the legitimate sales outweigh the (apparently easily) pirated copies enough to justify that option? Or is it a matter of make it available digitally, or someone will just scan it and make pirated copies available anyway?

@cbishop: Someone will scan it. It will be pirated. The ease of producing a pirated copy is, I think, rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Films and albums were pirated long before digital distribution became an industry mainstay. Heck, I remember knowing people with mod chips in their Playstation One -- and I think it's fair to say pirating media was a bit harder twenty years ago. If they did it then, they'll do it now; scanning a few pages is comparatively easy.

This really ought not be confusing: there are many people who want to be customers and are being kept from doing so. People who want to give the creators money and can't. The people who are going to pirate will do so whether or not a digital option is available, so this can really only help to increase their sales.

For what it's worth, I personally have bought VERY few physical comics. The hundreds I've read are entirely because they were available digitally. A person like me -- hardly alone, and becoming more prevalent as tablets and mobile devices become more ubiquitous -- is the justification. Someone who will either buy digital comics, or won't buy comics at all. A potential reader whom Millar considers irrelevant.

I picked up the issue based on this review, and I enjoyed it. However, I am a bit concerned about where this series is headed. Most of these characters aren't terribly sympathetic. All the young characters are whiny, vapid, and self-obsessed. Of the older characters, the Utopian's a mix of the totalitarian by-the-book leader and the "these damn kids today" old man. The only character worth latching on to at this point is Walter, another one of the old superheroes.

@akbogert: No, what you're saying makes sense. I've just been trying to figure digital distribution out, without having partaken in it (I don't have the devices to allow me to do it - on someone else's computer now). What it has seemed like to me is digital is used to help spread the word, then pirated copies get out there. It seemed like it was killing a legitimate buyers market. If that's not the case, great.

Personally, I've only recently started thinking about moving over to digital, because I'm just tired of moving my physical comics around with me. I can definitely see the appeal - I just wasn't sure if it was a win-win for both parties. Thanks for the more informed view. ;)

@cbishop: Quite understandable, the concern about storage. I said I've bought few comics, not that I have few comics, because a friend of mine who was moving and is tired of dealing with the collection legitimately just mailed me over 250 issues and is sending more. And I have no CLUE where to put them, haha. They take up a lot more space than my iPad mini, for sure.

In any case, I'd just say to consider other industries. iTunes hasn't killed music, though it has over time killed brick-and-mortar record shops (thrift stores remain popular though, especially with the whole indie/hipster thing). I think because the collector aspect of comics still drives a lot of people (and because, as with books, there will always be a demand for the physical object), digital may steal and thus shrink the print market, but it will not kill it.

And actually, LCS's have been reporting record sales lately, despite the growth of digital. So it seems like more people are reading comics in general, both digitally and in print. For now, at least, digital isn't cannibalizing. Down the road, as pricing models (inevitably) change, maybe that will happen, but again that's not unique to comics and the collector/art angle of comics will dampen the effect moreso than with most other media.

I suppose I don't have as much of an issue with physical comics taking up room because I give so many of them away down the line. I can understand Millar's point of view however and, as with other types of media, I feel like the people that will pirate something aren't your potential customers. They are either going to not experience it at all or they will pirate it.

@spinningbirdcake: Right, which is why I used myself as an example: a person who is not reading this because it is not available digitally. I was a potential customer, and Millar disregards me and people like by refusing to adapt. And while I don't personally endorse piracy, I know there are plenty of people who are like me in that they wanted to read the book and were disappointed it's not digitally available -- but unlike me, they will go ahead and pirate the book (which, again, they would have purchased had that been an option).

The fact that Millar considers digital-only consumers somehow second-rate or irrelevant is outrageously pretentious to me, and it actually has turned me off to seeking out other books of his past or future. And I think it's important that that be said -- that his attitude does cost him support, financial and otherwise.

@akbogert said:

Interesting! On second thought: Who cares?

I don't get all the fuss about this guy's rant on G-Man's review. It's certainly not necessary to comment on each and every sentence and expression in G-Man's review, however this review isn't G-Man's best in terms of his choice of words and confusing what's good and bad. It seems what's good is also what's bad, and then good again in the final verdict, or not?

"This could be a fun ride."

This could as well be cancelled before the end of the year!

Last not least...

...this is a very good point!

@donfelipe: This is why it matters.

The account has only one post. It was created specifically for that post. Typically, you'd assume a new user is new to the site, but by commenting on "frequent" things G-Man does and various trends in reviews, the poster indicates familiarity with the site.

Nine times out of ten when you see that on a site (on any site), it means a current user created a second account for the reasons of saying something they are too cowardly to have tied to their own name (or because they are intentionally trolling -- but hey, the two aren't mutually exclusive). And I'm calling that BS out.

On the rare occasion where it actually is a long-time reader who finally felt compelled to join because some instance or other prompted it, one of two things should be true. Either they address their newness -- "hey, first time posting here but i've been reading for a while and i noticed something, of which this review is a prime example..." -- or they make a point of also, you know, contributing to the community before or after posting something critical of the people who run it. This account has done neither.

So when I call it out, I am either calling out a fellow community member for cowardice, or I'm cautioning a new member that this is not an ideal way to "introduce" oneself into a new community. Either is relevant.

Much potential here, much. Not a fan of Millar, I'll give this a few more issues.

@akbogert: Yeah what you said is true. But I think there are more people who are going to pirate it no matter what medium it is using, print or digital, than people who are pirating it only because they can't purchase it digitally. For the most part pirates are pirates because they either feel entitled and don't want to pay or they don't have the money and can't pay, neither one is Millar's target audience. He may have lost digital sales but I don't think he's really increased the piracy of that comic too much. It was going to get pirated to hell and back even if it was available day and date digitally.

@spinningbirdcake: Right, people who are going to pirate are going to pirate either way.

What I am saying is that "audience" should mean "people who are interested in reading your book and will pay you for it."

And Millar is intentionally ignoring part of his audience by that definition, the result of which being either they lose the "interested in reading it" part or they lose the "will pay for it" part -- they either don't read it, or they pirate it. Both parts of that group would have given money for a digital version.

And because there are people who would have paid but can't, and who will pirate, then yes, he did increase the piracy, because he generated a situation in which lawful readers were stripped of a lawful avenue to reading.

@akbogert: If they are truly lawful readers then they would simply choose to not read it instead of pirate it. I don't think the category of people who will pirate it because they can't read it their way is anywhere near as big as people who will pirate it no mater what. I can understand the frustration with not being able to buy something in your preferred format, and Millar may come off as a caveman, but I completely understand his point about digital sales hurting LCSs. so I have no problem with what he's doing. People can either buy a physical copy, not buy it, or pirate it which they were going to do anyway.

Yeah, I definitely am gonna pick this title up today. I'm really not a fan of Mark Millar, and lord knows I've tried; read both Wanted and Kick Ass because everyone told me they were so amazing, apparently I didn't see what they were seeing. I just feel like he's over hyped. But Frank Quitely is amazing, and I can't pass up anything he's worked on, even if it's for a mediocre writer.

@spinningbirdcake: That's just it: He doesn't have a point. LCS's are doing better this year than they've done for over a decade. I have even asked store owners the few times I've had a chance to go into a physical shop, and they said it honestly doesn't affect them in the slightest.

Anyhow, this has all been a massive diversion, I suppose. The main point is that there are people who'd love to be talking about what happens in this series/where it's going but don't have the opportunity to affordably read it.

<p>Really enjoyed this issue, very much looking forward to the next. Im personally not a big fan of most of Millars' work outside of his DC/Marvel stuff, Quitely was the draw for me. I felt this was a great first issue that laid seeds for as I understand it 10 issues that could be very enjoyable.</p>

I like so much of what happens here, but none of it fits together very nicely from a pacing angle. I know each plot point will come back in the future, and likely to great effect, but as of the end of issue one, it did not feel like much substantial happened. And while I loved Quitely's art in the issue, I thought the costume designs were severely lacking. I guess my expectations were just set too high, number one issues often read like this. Still very much on board.

I recommend you checking out Millar's Superior. It's one of my favorite stories done by him.

Thank you for the recommendation, I will look for the trade.

Didn't care much for the first issue. I know it was a build up issue since it's the first issue but I didn't care much for the story nor the characters. Have no idea where the story will go just hope it gets interesting soon.