Jupiter’s Legacy and the Superhero Code

The conversion of morality in comics is noticeable

Netflix has canceled The Legacy of Jupiter, which was one of its biggest bets on the business-to-business battlefield to adapt comics. The service had already seen success in the field with the production of the famous Daredevil and the much-loved first season of Jessica Jones, but it also drew widespread criticism with the disastrous Iron Fist, the fickle Luke Cage and the bland The Defenders. .

With this scenario of extremes in mind, the success of Legacy of Jupiter was necessary to add to another current success of the company that is Umbrella Academy and thus put Netflix back from the competition card in comic book productions. with Disney Plus and now Amazon with your Invincible. But the adventure with the characters created by Mark Millar did not work out and the reason varies from the complete lack of interest of most viewers to the poor visual level of the production (even with a budget over a hundred million dollars) .

These are valid arguments and even appear to be errors of other shows, like those of The CW. But there’s something interesting that Legacy of Jupiter has to offer, and from a certain point of view, it’s been reinterpreted quite often in comics and live-action adaptations, even though it’s a cornerstone of that. industry; o therefore memorize the code. It is a concept present in the universe of the series to symbolize the rules that superheroes have created and must follow to remain a force for humanity and not tyrannical.

Amid its mistakes, “Legacy of Jupiter” brings up an interesting point

In short, its concept resides in ideals such as “do not rule” and mainly “do not kill”, limitations more than traditional, drawn from comics at this stage from the beginning (although it is not quite the truth). As we already know relatively general, according to people, the marriage between the idea of ​​never committing suicide and the ideal of superheroes has not always existed; Batman’s Early Adventures are constantly used as an example that even characters who push this ideal to the limit have already crossed the line at some point in the past.

However, the idea of ​​a code of morality has been an integral part of this style of storytelling long enough to become inseparable from it, no wonder works like Watchmen; V for Vendetta and Return of the Dark Knight were respective milestones for precisely defeating this ideal. From this generation of the 80s, a new movement was generated throughout the following decade, dedicated to the creation of new characters who would refer to these successes.

It was the era of Spawn, Cable, Deadpool, Team Bloodstriker, Bloodwulf and so many others designed by duo Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane with a great natural inclination to reproduce the most violent and most violent type of storytelling. gross with which they grew up and, that way, leaving out the “code”. However, they are characters linked to this new movement, but what remains of the traditional ones?

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The 90s were the years of Spawn et al.

Some have benefited from a more relaxed idea of ​​the old rules, like Wonder Woman in the Brian Azzarello phase. However, when it comes to characters more closely tied to the code like Spider-Man and Superman, the dynamics change a bit. This is because the essence of the concept of each refers precisely to this ideal in an inseparable way.

The notion of a superhero with incredible powers who chooses, of his own free will, not to become a murderer or a dictator is an echo that resonates deep in the universe of comics and what made this genre of comics. ‘stories such a form of communication that has survived for decades. The important thing is not that you have power, but that you understand that you have no right to use it to limit the choices of others, even if they do.

In this way, it goes back to the beginning where the driving force behind the first generation of Legacy of Jupiter is precisely the notion that power does not imply more rights; the code is therefore a constant exercise of self-control which prevents the violation of the individual freedoms of others. Therefore, it becomes interesting to see how this concept, or its absence, breaks down the barriers of fiction and finds refuge in a world haunted by human rights violations practiced by individuals with a certain authority.

That’s not to say that the Netflix series is automatically a high-quality or groundbreaking product but that it’s just reminiscent of an idea that’s at the heart of the comics, especially in an age of icon deconstruction like The Boys or Invincible, and who will always be there.

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