The Many Shades of A Superhero Story (Jupiter's Legacy)

Superheroes are really everywhere these days with various number of TV shows and movies gracing our screens, either giving us goosebumps or reasons to throw ice cream scoops instead of popcorn at the screen. Jupiter's Legacy is an all-new show on Netflix about a dysfunctional family of superheroes who are trying to live by The Code only to be challenged when a big battle occurs. Based on the works of Mark Millar (Kick Ass, Kingsman), Jupiter's Legacy is another comic book based property apart from Marvel and DC that tackles real world problems amongst powered individuals who are trying to be Gods. 

The eight-episode 1st 'volume' takes place between two timelines, one of them in the present and the other in 1929. Present time shows the Sampson family as Sheldon and Grace (also known as Utopian and Lady Liberty, leaders of the Union) struggling to continue living by the rule they made to not kill supervillains when their son, Brandon AKA The Paragon decides to kill Blackstar to save his parents in a losing battle. Soon after, superheroes and citizens alike, start to question The Code. In the 1929, we meet a young Sheldon about to marry and having troubles with his brother to save the company his father built after his suicide that leads him on a journey to an island where Sheldon, his brother, best friend and a few friends along the way that make them the superheroes they have for the last 90 years.

One of the main themes of this is, of course, the question we have watched superheroes ask themselves for many years... to kill or not to kill. When it came to heroes in Marvel, a number of them - especially ones like Spider Man and Captain America - vowed to never kill while there were others who had their own code to always lay down their enemies permanently like anti-heroes such as Ghost Rider and The Punisher. Jupiter's Legacy unfortunately deals with that particular question in a constant manner which is not entirely a bad thing since it is however a main topic within the storyline but got a bit overused by the end of sixth episode but the writers managed to pay it off properly by the last episode, that will bring audiences to understand why it affects everyone complex character introduced in this show. 

Another theme would be how the expectations of parents sometimes doesn't always affect a child in a positive way. . . a perfect example shown amongst Sheldon's children, Brandon and Chloe whom tries so hard to fulfill every expectation only to never live up to it or wouldn't care less about daddy's approval respectively. The relationship between the siblings is strong but their relationship with their parents seems like every other show or movie that feature dysfunctional families but as you get to learn their father's past, that clearly drove him to become the father he became. It almost becomes relatable on both sides, which got me to understand these characters better in an already overstuffed show. Which leads to me to my big concern. 

The one flaw was the integration of story between two timelines. Both stories seemed incredibly different, confusing itself into possibly feeling like two different shows within one which indeed made things interesting but included a lot to pay attention if one were to binge-watch it for 8 hours (which is why it took me two days to watch the entirety of the first volume). There were also times where one timeline's story arc overshadowed the other - more so the flashback against present time - which was disappointing since not many shows can pull off making both narratives interesting. However, the difference between this show and others that have failed to make one timeline interesting was through both timelines taking turns in providing interest as each episode passes by. 

From what I have heard, a number of people have issues towards the story told in this episodically-told-comic book strip-off-the-page adaptation due to the apparent differences from its source material. I can't vouch for that since I have never read the comic book beforehand let alone heard of it before a few months ago when the trailer came out on YouTube but as a newcomer to this clearly rich world of superheroes, I can say that watching this show may not be the worst thing to consume in one sitting even if it is at times, obviously lacking in a few things - one of them being the Ultraman-type visual effects that can be overlooked if you pay attention to the many things that make this show great.