Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ On Netflix, Where A Group Of Aging Superheroes Are Unsure Of Passing The Torch To Their Kids

Starting a new superhero franchise is tough, even if you’re doing one based on existing source material. Layer in a generational conflict and the idea that a superhero shouldn’t kill the “bad guys” and you have a lot to cover. Jupiter’s Legacy tries to do all of that, plus make Josh Duhamel and Leslie Bibb look like convincing old people. Does it work?

JUPITER’S LEGACY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An upside-down shot of grass spins right-side-up as we see 3 kids run through the woods playing “superheroes and bad guys.”

The Gist: It’s a flashback to show that the kids of the superhero Utopian aka Sheldon Sampson (Josh Duhamel) started feeling their inherited powers young, especially his daughter Chloe. But he also talks to them about an important aspect of “The Code”, which is to not use powers in anger or to hurt someone, just to save people. “Bad guys are people, too,” he tells his kids. Then he gets called away when his super-sensitive hearing picks up someone in distress.

Cut to “Now.” Sheldon and his wife Grace (Leslie Bibb) aka Lady Liberty are still the most powerful and respected superheroes on the planet, but they’re getting older. When their son Brandon (Andrew Horton) aka The Paragon, responds to a robbery and has to be bailed out by his father, Utopian has concerns about whether Brandon and the rest of his generation will ever be ready to take the torch from him and the rest of the members of The Union. Chloe (Elena Kampouris) doesn’t even use her powers for anything but her own purposes; she’s a snarly 20-year-old who works as a model and is bitter about her upbringing under her parents’ “code”.

In a flashback to 1929, we see a young Sheldon walking through the steel mill that his father’s company owns. His older brother Walter (Ben Daniels), who is the company’s financial man, is saying to hold off on investing in expansion, but both Sheldon and his father say no. When Black Friday happens, the company is so devastated that their father jumps to his death.

Walter, who is now also known as Brainwave, takes his brother to the hall where the Union used to meet; it’s been ages since the original group met, especially after one of their own, George Hutchence (Matt Lanter) aka Skyfox, turned on the group. They have a heated discussion about “the code” and how, after 90 years of protecting the world, it’s in even worse shape than before. Walter is one of those who think that the code doesn’t work anymore, because the enemies they’re fighting aren’t as black and white.

When escaped supervillain Blackstar (Tyler Mane) takes on Union members young and old, Brandon ends the carnage by punching the villain’s brain in, saving his father. Sheldon, however, is unhappy that he had to kill in order to win. But is Blackstar really dead?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Jupiter’s Legacy feels like a knockoff of an Arrowverse show like The Flash or Supergirl mixed with an introspective family drama like Everwood.

Our Take: Steven S. DeKnight adapted the Jupiter’s Legacy comic series by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, and in the first episode, he seems to have had some issues wrangling its expansive world. Between the various flashbacks and then jumps to the present, there’s an extensive backstory that needs to be told before viewers can understand what’s going on, and the first episode leaves us scratching our heads more often than not.

The show is ambitious, to be sure, trying to establish the history of the Union of Justice and allowing its stars to play themselves as young bucks as well as old superheroes. The costumes and props in the scenes from 1929 are fantastic, for instance. But so much goes unsaid and assumed in the first episode that we had our palms out in a “just what the hell is going on?” gesture through most of it.

How did these seemingly normal humans get their powers 92 years ago? What does the stock market crash have to do with it? Who is in the older Union, and who is the younger set? Why are they aging so slowly? And why is Chloe so damned bitter?

None of that was answered in the first episode, and we suspect that DeKnight and his writing staff are going to dole that information out sparingly. As we’ve seen from Berlanti’s Arrowverse shows, setting up the backstory in full, even if it takes an episode or two, is the better bet when it comes to introducing people to characters like these; the longer you take to set up the people and situation, the more of a chance you’ll lose people along the way.

Duhamel’s acting tone shifts from mumbling to screaming without much subtlety in between, which is not a great thing when he’s going to dominate the screen. Bibb and Daniels are both good in their roles. But there’s so many characters that jump into the scene during the fight with Blackstar that it’s exhausting just trying to keep up with everything.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Blackstar’s body, with its missing face, is in the Union’s headquarters, when someone resembling Blackstar walks into the room.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Elena Kampouris as Chloe, mainly because her character is rebelling against everything her parents stand for while encouring her more obedient brother to break away. She’s the only character here with some layers.

Pilot-y Line: Not only was the fight with Blackstar somewhat clumsily staged, Union members died that we hadn’t gotten to know at all. What’s the point of that?

Our Call: SKIP IT. While it’s a valiant try at starting a new superhero franchise, Jupiter’s Legacy can’t wrangle its sprawling mythology well enough to make a coherent and cohesive first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Jupiter's Legacy On Netflix