Jupiter's Legacy
May. 12th, 2021 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakGood grief. You know, I'm in the market for fictional dysfunction (especially in a family context), multi generation sagas, and to a degree cheesiness. But without having read the comics this is based on: the tv series feels to me as if someone, be it Mark Millar or the scriptwriters, took exactly the wrong writing lessons from Alan Moore's Watchmen. The contrast to the Watchmen tv series last year, which managed to say something new and specifiic to it within the superhero context and to engage with the Moore original in a present day context, is pretty glaring.
To be more specific without spoilers: Jupiter's Legacy to me felt as if someone took the sequence in Watchmen where Rorschach explains how he went from simply using the name Rorschach as his vigilante moniker to becoming Rorschach, said to themselves "oh yeah!" and took that as a basis, perhaps together with some Frank Millerian take on Batman and Superman mixed in. Leaving aside everything else: I'm baffled on how you can look at the world today, not just in the US, and conclude it needs a story where "Team Lawfully Good doesn't use lethal violence against criminals, and that's a problem!" is a central premise. I kept waiting for a debunking, but no. (And no, the final twist isn't one.)
The show - imo as always - has other problems. But this is the one I can't get over. In every aspect, including the "supervillains today are way more violent than in the past" one (which btw Moore didn't make); especially not if you put your superhero team origin story in the freaking 1930s, that charming idyllic time famed for its lack of violence on both sides of the Atlantic, where bank robbery definitely would have bene the worst problem facing anyone. Then there's the way Sheldon/The Utopian is written, which feels like the type of bad fanfic where the character representing the position you don't share gets all the strawman arguments and not a single good one. It's really not difficult to come up with good arguments about why the use of lethal force should not be your default option, with or without superpowers to back you up, especially if your story is set in the present. (About that: I strongly suspect there's a variation of the Magneto problem at play, i.e. there are some characters whose origin story is so tied to a specific historic event and era that you can't move it - unlike, say, Tony Stark getting captured in Afghanistan instead of Vietnam without a problem - , but that means you have to justify why this character is still around in your own present which is farther and farther away from said event.) Letting Sheldon come up with nothing but "But the code!", not even, say, trying to train the younger heroes in different fighting strategies to ensure the non-lethal take down of highly powered supervillains is just lame. (Also, if he's supposed to be a Superman expy, he's feels like one written by Frank Miller, i.e. any charm, sense of humor and compassion is missing.)
Shelldon is far from the only problem. George's introduction scene, the whole thing with the eggs, made me loathe him from the start. (In the context of being set in the Depression era, it's even more loathsome.) And I speak as someone who can warm up to some fictional incarnations of Louis XIV. (Who, btw, would not have pulled off that egg stunt.) Both the friendship between him and Sheldon made wonder "why?", since the show didn't bother to give me scenes showing me why Sheldon and George were friends. With Grace, I had to wait for two thirds of the season until she got some characterisation in the present day story. In the past, her starting out as a Lois Lane expy made this even more disappointing, since her superheroine persona had nothing to do with her having been a reporter. As for Chloe; in theory, I should have been on board, because for once, the poor little rich kid with daddy issues going wild was a daughter, not a son, but in practice, nah. Doesn't help that her not-a-superhero! job is being a model, because that only reminded me Allison Hargreeves (from The Umbrella Academy), who is a way more interesting character.
Given how important the Sheldon and Walter relatonship is to the final twist, given sibling relationships are often my jam and given that Walter is played by Ben Daniels, again: I was primed to like that aspect, but I just couldn't, because neither the characters themselves nor the sibling relationship had any kind of reality to me. The mountain climbing scene was just too late for that.
And again, even with the twist of Walter as the mastermind trying to push events - the show really asks me to believe in a scenario where a bunch of superpowered people has no choice other than either be killed or kill themselves in their fight against criminals, that therefore any of them insisting on not killing is naive/hypocritical/deluded and it does so in a world that's supposed to be like ours, only with superpowers. Our world, in considerably many regions of which where seriously militarized police manage to mysteriously kill suspects (or "suspects") with one color, and arrest most suspects of another color alive. WTF?
In conclusion: unfortunately, I didn't like this series at all, and won't continue watching.
To be more specific without spoilers: Jupiter's Legacy to me felt as if someone took the sequence in Watchmen where Rorschach explains how he went from simply using the name Rorschach as his vigilante moniker to becoming Rorschach, said to themselves "oh yeah!" and took that as a basis, perhaps together with some Frank Millerian take on Batman and Superman mixed in. Leaving aside everything else: I'm baffled on how you can look at the world today, not just in the US, and conclude it needs a story where "Team Lawfully Good doesn't use lethal violence against criminals, and that's a problem!" is a central premise. I kept waiting for a debunking, but no. (And no, the final twist isn't one.)
The show - imo as always - has other problems. But this is the one I can't get over. In every aspect, including the "supervillains today are way more violent than in the past" one (which btw Moore didn't make); especially not if you put your superhero team origin story in the freaking 1930s, that charming idyllic time famed for its lack of violence on both sides of the Atlantic, where bank robbery definitely would have bene the worst problem facing anyone. Then there's the way Sheldon/The Utopian is written, which feels like the type of bad fanfic where the character representing the position you don't share gets all the strawman arguments and not a single good one. It's really not difficult to come up with good arguments about why the use of lethal force should not be your default option, with or without superpowers to back you up, especially if your story is set in the present. (About that: I strongly suspect there's a variation of the Magneto problem at play, i.e. there are some characters whose origin story is so tied to a specific historic event and era that you can't move it - unlike, say, Tony Stark getting captured in Afghanistan instead of Vietnam without a problem - , but that means you have to justify why this character is still around in your own present which is farther and farther away from said event.) Letting Sheldon come up with nothing but "But the code!", not even, say, trying to train the younger heroes in different fighting strategies to ensure the non-lethal take down of highly powered supervillains is just lame. (Also, if he's supposed to be a Superman expy, he's feels like one written by Frank Miller, i.e. any charm, sense of humor and compassion is missing.)
Shelldon is far from the only problem. George's introduction scene, the whole thing with the eggs, made me loathe him from the start. (In the context of being set in the Depression era, it's even more loathsome.) And I speak as someone who can warm up to some fictional incarnations of Louis XIV. (Who, btw, would not have pulled off that egg stunt.) Both the friendship between him and Sheldon made wonder "why?", since the show didn't bother to give me scenes showing me why Sheldon and George were friends. With Grace, I had to wait for two thirds of the season until she got some characterisation in the present day story. In the past, her starting out as a Lois Lane expy made this even more disappointing, since her superheroine persona had nothing to do with her having been a reporter. As for Chloe; in theory, I should have been on board, because for once, the poor little rich kid with daddy issues going wild was a daughter, not a son, but in practice, nah. Doesn't help that her not-a-superhero! job is being a model, because that only reminded me Allison Hargreeves (from The Umbrella Academy), who is a way more interesting character.
Given how important the Sheldon and Walter relatonship is to the final twist, given sibling relationships are often my jam and given that Walter is played by Ben Daniels, again: I was primed to like that aspect, but I just couldn't, because neither the characters themselves nor the sibling relationship had any kind of reality to me. The mountain climbing scene was just too late for that.
And again, even with the twist of Walter as the mastermind trying to push events - the show really asks me to believe in a scenario where a bunch of superpowered people has no choice other than either be killed or kill themselves in their fight against criminals, that therefore any of them insisting on not killing is naive/hypocritical/deluded and it does so in a world that's supposed to be like ours, only with superpowers. Our world, in considerably many regions of which where seriously militarized police manage to mysteriously kill suspects (or "suspects") with one color, and arrest most suspects of another color alive. WTF?
In conclusion: unfortunately, I didn't like this series at all, and won't continue watching.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 02:27 pm (UTC)You know the other thing that irritates me about people who say superheroes should just use lethal force against villains? All real world problems with that argument aside, people never stay dead in superhero universes! Batman already has to fight Solomon Grundy, does he need to add Zombie!Joker to his list of problems?
no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 03:16 pm (UTC)Batman already has to fight Solomon Grundy, does he need to add Zombie!Joker to his list of problems?
Quite. And even if it's the kind of superhero story where people do stay dead: actually Watchmen is as good an illustration as any as to why that does not improve the world or the superheroes one bit. Sure, Rorschach kills criminals. This doesn't keep crime down, nor does it help him solve the case of the story he's in. Both Jon and the Comedian kill people, and Jon's time as an US weapon of mass destruction escalates the Cold War and brings the world closer to the apocalypse, if anything, while the Comedian, well, enough said. Adrian's, err, radical solution is strongly hinted at at being just a temporary "fix".
no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 09:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 09:08 pm (UTC)That is exactly how you signal a villain in a Depression-era movie. Is the character supposed to be a villain, or is this just one of those edgedark superhero takes where everyone is really a villain, so whatever?
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 09:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 09:07 pm (UTC)I had not heard of this show, but it sounds terrible; I am glad it is employing Ben Daniels in the same way that I am glad that Lost gave Michael Emerson a steady paycheck for six years, but otherwise I shall go back to not hearing about it.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 09:33 pm (UTC)IIRC, when there were riots in a number of UK cities in 2011, he tweeted something along the lines of "just shoot all the scumbags".
no subject
Date: 2021-05-12 09:36 pm (UTC)SUPERVILLAIN: I'm going to RAPE a THOUSAND PEOPLE up the ARSE until they DIE, because I'm an EVIL CUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[he does, in graphic detail]
SUPERHERO: I'm going to RAPE you up the ARSE with a PNEUMATIC DRILL until you DIE, you EVIL CUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!
[he does, in graphic detail]
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 04:48 pm (UTC)Also, the rumour is that Grant Morrison, who Millar was a friend of at the time, uncreditedly wrote many of the best bits of Red Son.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 11:32 am (UTC)I wonder if the two commenters just badly wanted to share their headcanons with anyone? Were the stories from small fandoms?
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 02:51 pm (UTC)Were the stories from small fandoms?
Not really. Star Trek: DS9 and X-Men Movieverse, respectively.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-13 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 12:05 pm (UTC)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UGH.
Even The Flash did eventually manage to SLIGHTLY question its whole "guantanamo for supervillains" set-up.