Jupiter's Legacy: Requiem #3
Hutch and Chloe have very different days in Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem #3, by writer Mark Millar, artist Tommy Lee Edwards, and letterer John Workman. This is yet another stellar issue of a series that is shaping up to be one of the best superhero stories of the years and of Millar’s career.
This issue shows the contrast between Hutch and Chloe- Hutch wakes up after a night of drugs and carousing with a woman to people trying to steal his power rod, deals with them, takes her son to a theme park, and meets with people who want to use his rod to get into the Union’s HQ. He retrieves the boy, who asks to be his sidekick, and Hutch agrees. Meanwhile, Chloe is on a faraway world, learning that people on that planet got powers in the same way her parents did. She learns about a prophecy that lays a cataclysmic final battle and destroys a network of invisible satellites around the planet. Meanwhile, on a neighboring enemy world, the warrior king learns about Earth.
Chloe and Hutch were the main duo of the story, and sundering them at the beginning of this story was a big chance- fans love them together. However, Millar has paid it off pretty well so far, and this issue really hits home with it. Hutch, after his stint as Skyfox, is back to his old ways of drugs, women, and crime. Of course, it makes sense- he tried being a hero like his ex-wife and son, but that world threw him out. Readers get the sense that he still misses it in some ways and the fact that he cares about the son of the woman he was with the night before shows there’s still something heroic under the drugs and criminal ways. Hutch was always a complicated man, and this issue shows all sides of him and also puts him on a collision course with the Union.
Meanwhile, Chloe is out there being Lady Liberty. It’s a huge change seeing her so fully embracing the destiny her parents left her and this time sees her out in space, learning more about the island that gave her parents powers. Something is menacing another world that had a similar structure- it was a mountain, not an island- and Chloe, ever the hero, is investigating. She even promises help. This is a very different Chloe from before- even the more heroic her of the second volume of Jupiter’s Legacy would have been reluctant to do this. Millar is setting some great stuff in this issue, and it will be great to see how it all shakes out.
Edwards’s art is phenomenal. There’s really no other way to describe it. It’s made all the more impressive by the fact that he’s also coloring it. Everything about it looks amazing. It’s kind of impossible to highlight any one part because it’s all good. From the more mundane stuff of the Hutch section of the book to Chloe’s less grounded part, Edwards impressed with every panel.
Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem #3 is an all-around excellent. By juxtaposing the current lives of Hutch and Chloe, Millar shows how different things are for each of them- but also how similar they are. He also sets up a lot of great stuff for the future. As for the art, Edwards is turning in some amazing work that needs to be seen to be believed. Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem is shaping up to be the cream of this year’s superhero crop between the excellent writing and beautiful art.
