Jupiter's Legacy: Requiem #1
The future is a very different place in Jupiter's Legacy: Requiem #1, by writer Mark Millar, artists Tommy Lee Edwards and John Paul Leon, and letterer John Workman. The final volume of Millar's opus, it's a great start that's only slightly bogged down by all of the introductions of new characters.
There's a lot to talk about in this one, so the easiest way to synopsize this and get to the interesting stuff is this- it's 2051, and Chloe and Hutch have had children but are long divorced. Jason is Utopian and still out fighting the good; his brother Otto is a bit of a political firebrand who wants to punish China for its treatment of the Uyghur Muslims, their other son Barnie is powerless like their father, and their daughter Sophie is running a corporation. Walter's son Jules is out of Super-Max and has built a weather satellite network and other tech for the UN; Brandon is now a Buddhist who is going East to find the person who is going to help him save the world. His son, Hot-Rod Hendrix, is a superpowered basketball player collecting superhero memorabilia. Chloe is in space, and Hutch is working the convention circuit. Utopian and Sophie dig up Walter to look into his mind to see how the original Union got their powers, and it's surprising, to say the least. Back in New York, three mysterious strangers take away the powers of a visiting superhero as he tries to stop a runaway train, killing him.
Mark Millar, in the past few years, has a reputation, one that has grown since his Marvel days. For a long time, he was known for semi-serious superhero stories that embraced the madcap, but since Kick-Ass and Nemesis, he's been a lot more tongue in cheek, fully embracing the vibe of Wanted, which spawned a lot of his later work. His work can often seem more than a little cynical and kind of cash-grabby, but Jupiter's Legacy has always been different. There's just something about it; one can tell this is a work that means a lot to him artistically. Be it the two volumes of Jupiter's Legacy or the two volumes of Jupiter's Circle, this is Millar at both his most restrained- while it has some of the trademark madcap Millar-isms, it's not an irreverent and violent fight-fest- and his most grandiose, playing with superheroes in ways he never could before at Marvel or DC because they're his. Jupiter's Legacy: Requiem #1 feels like a culmination, and that's fitting.
He starts out with the kind of superheroic derring-do that would make Superman proud, as Utopian saves cities from disasters caused by a hacker messing with the weather satellites and goes from there. He introduces a lot of new characters because this book takes place decades after the last one, but it works rather well. Honestly, this is a comic that should certainly be re-read because there's a lot to take in- getting the characters right, who's who, et cetera. It sometimes feels a little exposition-y, but that's okay. He sets up a lot of interesting stuff right off the bat and then takes readers to the island and just blows the whole thing wide open. The flashback sequence is the most surprising moment in the Jupiter's book, and seeing where he goes with it will be amazing.
Tommy Lee Edwards is coloring his own work on this one, and it looks spectacular. Jumping into Frank Quitely's shoes is hard, but Edwards steps up, his style perfectly capturing the superheroics, the emotion, and everything in between. This is a fantastic-looking book, and his coloring really takes the whole thing to the next level; it's glossy and beautiful. This book also contains the last interior work of the late, great John Paul Leon, and it's amazing. He does the flashback pages, and they're just perfect. There's no other way to describe them, and while his death is a tragedy, this is a great last work for his fans to remember him by.
Jupiter's Legacy: Requiem #1 delivers. There's really no other way to put it. This is Mark Millar at his best- superheroics, the humor, the characters, it's all there, and it's all amazing. Tommy Lee Edwards' art is often breathtaking and sells the grandeur of the book totally. John Paul Leon's pages are amazing; he's a talent that was lost too soon. This is a great comic, and if Millar and company can nail the rest of the book the way they've nailed this comic, then it will be one for the ages.
