After disappearing, Jupiter’s Legacy by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely has returned. With a fresh new 2 next to the title, let’s see what the team has in store for the characters and their story. Is it good?
Jupiter’s Legacy 2 #1 (Image Comics)
The Lowdown
It’s time to fight back! Hutch, Chloe, and Jason are rounding up a team of Hutch’s old cohorts and are planning on taking back the world from Walter and Brandon! They’ll need the best of the best… which are mostly just villains that have gone under the radar for years now.
The Breakdown
So it’s been a while since the series was last seen, which I assume was to allow the creative team to get a bunch of issues finished first before coming back. After over a year of anticipation, the returning issue of Jupiter’s Legacy… is alright. By no means is it a bad issue–it’s a perfectly good continuation of the plot that moves the story into its new direction. It’s all about setting things up by introducing new team members and showing how the villains are currently reacting to the situation. The direction for the story is clear and it should be exciting to see unfold, especially given the ending and how desperate the villains are feeling.
The problem that holds the comic back lies in the fact that the issue is rather light on both story and characterization. The whole issue is just setup and not a lot else. We don’t get much with the villains, the new recruits are pretty unknown (some light characterization for Neutrino and Shockwave), the issue ultimately stops before anything really exciting happens, and the character on the cover doesn’t even appear until the final three pages of the issue. There is a nice bit of characterization for Hutch in the opening pages that is very touching and effective, but that’s really it for the human element. It’s a very light and fluffy experience, leaving not much for the audience to really chew on.
Well you see it’s because of this other show called The Ghost Busters and legal issues that started before the Ghostbusters movie came out. The creators had to change to The Real Ghostbusters to differentiate the two shows and… you’re not paying attention are you?
Despite there not being much story or character here, Mark Millar’s writing is of course solid. Everything is paced well, the dialogue sounded natural and helped add to the small bits of humanity in the book (though it gets a bit expositional towards the end), the story transitions flowed fairly well from scene to scene, and the ending was promising from what it showed. However, I find myself anxious to read more, but not in a good way. I’m anxious not because I read something really incredible and I want to find out what happens next, but more that I felt underwhelmed by how little happened and I want something more.
Frank Quitely’s artwork is always the iffiest part of the series for me, but here, he felt improved in some areas. His layouts are far more dynamic looking due to how scenes unfold and how characters move from one panel to another. It really helps build this sense of motion and makes things more energetic–Hutch rescuing Tornado is a particularly good example. He’s still good with drawing locations and the colorist backing him up, Sunny Gho, did a good job. That said, Quitely still has issues with drawing the characters. Musculature feels off (in the bit where Hutch is rescuing Tornado, it looks like he has sausage links for limbs), everyone is almost always squinting like they need glasses, facial expressions vary between okay and creepy, and the overuse of lines in a character’s face can make them appear much older than they are. It’s certainly better than the past issues, but Quitely’s art is still somewhere between fine and less than stellar on this title.
Is It Good?
Jupiter’s Legacy 2 #1 is a good return to the series, but not a stellar one. While it gets the plot all set up for the newest arc, it does feel very light on the story and on the characterization, which was the best part of the first five issues. While fans will certainly not want to miss out on the comic’s return, there’s no shame in waiting until the next issue comes out when the plot will really kick in.
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