Jupiter’s Legacy: is the new Netflix series worth it?

The new Netflix series comes from the Millaworld and is a cross between The Incredibles, Watchmen and Umbrella Academy, but does it work?

Jupiter’s Legacy brought Millaworld to Netflix with a story not about superheroes, but about what would happen if the most powerful characters in the world had children and those children were not what they expected, and they did not necessarily want to be part of a family. of powerful vigilantes.

We currently have series like Doom Patrol, The Boys, Invincible, The Umbrella Academy, and Watchmen, with stories and great productions that show that not everything is Marvel and that the best of the genre could be on television, and Jupiter’s Legacy wants to continue by that same line.

The series inspired by the comics of Mark Millar is, like many others, a portrait of the “American dream” through superheroes who represent the ideals of morals, ethics and, to a certain extent, to perfection, but in a story of two generations in which the heroes are on their way out and it is their children who must carry the weight of their legacy, whether they are ready or not, whether they want it or not.

The story focuses on the character of Sheldon Sampson, a kind of Superman who years ago created the first team of superheroes and, later, a powerful family that is not as harmonious (when he finds his rhythm) as that of Bob Parr in The Incredibles.

There’s always room for a new superhero series, but is Jupiter’s Legacy worth it?

There is clearly no place for the perfect heroes of the past, even Superman is changing, and Jupiter’s Legacy takes a step in the right direction by showing The Utopian (Sheldon) grappling with the reality that things are not the way they used to be. , that the world is not black and white and that their children are reacting in very different ways with the weight and responsibility that they placed on them since they were children.

The series isn’t exactly groundbreaking, Watchmen did better on HBO , and the theme, while it sounds good on paper, isn’t revolutionary or purposeful beyond the fact that it also talks about family dramas, decaying heroes, and having to give way to a new generation.

Even with that, Umbrella Academy masters the subject of dysfunctional families, and by not taking things too seriously, its plot is much more fun. On the other hand, The Boys is still the series that understands what we want from superheroes today, but that doesn’t mean that Jupiter’s Legacy doesn’t work or isn’t fun.

The story has great moments that allow us to learn more about the “secret” lives of heroes when they are not working, when they are at home and have to cook, clean and live with each other without having to solve a problem or destroy a villain .

Josh Duhamel and Leslie Bibb are the “leaders” of the group and should be the stars of the series, but it is Elena Kampouris who steals the show with the role of Sheldon’s daughter, Chloe, who decides not to play her family’s game. And she has more trouble trying to deal with what her parents want to stop her, which leads her to have a relationship with Hutch Hutchence (Ian Quinlan) the son of her family’s worst enemy.

The success of the series is to show the pain, wear and tear and loneliness of a hero’s life, even as a family. The series is divided between the past and the present, and the part of the present ends, almost always, surpassing the one of the past, which is the one that should show us how it is that Sheldon became the tired and broken hero that we know in the present (with everything and a look that is dangerously close to the terrain of Fat Thor, with a very fake beard).

The series is not perfect, but it is not terrible either, there are better options of superhero stories, but you can see it if you have already gone through all the previous ones and need a little action in what the new seasons arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4qyBjfCRwThe great fault? It is impossible not to feel that we have already seen this and that the rest of the world is somewhere else. The series says “someone still needs to defend something”, but it is not The Utopian and it is not like this, before it was, but now we have better options and stories that show us that you do not need superpowers to be a hero, and there is not only one way to get it ( The Mitchells v the Machines is a better hero story).