Jupiter's Legacy: How Sheldon & the Original Six Get Their Powers - CBR - Comic Book Resources

mixdes.blogspot.com

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Jupiter's Legacy Season 1, which is available now on Netflix.

Just as many superhero stories before it, Jupiter's Legacy tells the origins of its empowered protagonists in order to explain where they came from and who they are. The integral ingredient to any superhero origin is just how the superhero in question got their powers, and when it comes to Jupiter's Legacy the standard clichés of science experiments gone wrong or radiation run awry just won't cut it. Instead, the Netflix series gradually unfolds the origins of its heroes through a series of flashbacks that establish their quest toward a mysterious island, and the result is a a story quite unlike the superhero tales familiar to most audiences.

Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view.

While the main setting of the series takes place in roughly the modern day, a consistent through line in each episode of the series are flashbacks to the early 20th Century, before any of the heroes had their powers. That story begins in 1929 with Sheldon Sampson living large at his father's steel company before the stock market crash later that year ruins him. Sheldon ends up devastated financially as the business goes under, emotionally when his father commits suicide in response to the crash and mentally when Sheldon experiences a breakdown thereafter.

However, Sheldon's breakdown turns out to be no standard manic episode, but rather it's the entry point to his superhero tale where his primary challenge would be convincing others that he is not delusioned. Though he starts seeing macabre visions of his slain father berating him, Sheldon also begins transcribing mysterious symbols and messages that start him on a quest only a few of his loved ones understand. He ends up in a farm in Kansas and speaks to a man who shared similar experiences, and he tells Sheldon of a mysterious point out in the middle of the ocean. Focusing on a vision, Sheldon sees himself and a few others journeying to that point, thus strengthening his resolve as he rallies friends and strangers alike.

The band proves to be a motley crew of Sheldon's friends, family, acquaintances and total strangers. By pooling what financial resources the group has, they ultimately convince everyone to sail out to the middle of the ocean toward the point that beckoned at Sheldon, and once there, a sudden storm nearly sinks their boat. After pressing straight through into the storm, Sheldon's visions are legitimized by the appearance of an uncharted island, one which only proves to be more supernatural the further the group delves into it.

Trees spring up out of nowhere, the climate changes from jungle to desert at a moment's notice, and six of the crew led by Sheldon find themselves trapped in a rocky cavern. Seeing the bones of past adventuring parties who slayed themselves in pursuit of the same mystery, the group sets their differences aside and ultimately manage to unlock a mysterious light from the island. The island grants each of them magnificent powers, a sign which they take to mean they are worthy and serving a higher calling to save their country.

While the heroes largely share the same powers of super strength, durability, flight and speed, they have mild variations among them, where some get psychic powers, a teleporting wand or heat vision. Ultimately their ability to set their differences aside allow them to unite into the Union and form a superhero group the likes of which the world had never seen.

As the series ends with little more explained as to the origin of the mysterious island several questions still abound. Where did the island come from, what is its true purpose, and what exactly is it about these characters which makes them worthy, if indeed receiving their powers marks them as worthy at all?

Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy stars Josh Duhamel as The Utopian, Ben Daniels as Brainwave, Leslie Bibb as Lady Liberty, Elena Kampouris as Chloe Sampson, Andrew Horton as Brandon Sampson, Mike Wade as The Flare, Anna Akana as Raikou and Matt Lanter as Skyfox. Season 1 is available on Netflix now.

KEEP READING: Jupiter's Legacy Already Promises To Fix The Comic's Biggest Mistake

Mark Millar Explains How Marvel & DC Movies Paved the Way for Jupiter's Legacy

Related Topics

About The Author

Brenton Stewart (744 Articles Published)

Brenton somehow earned a college degree in the middle of a multi-decade pop culture binge he continues to this day. His interests range across philosophy, literature, and the arts to comics, cartoons, television, and Dungeons & Dragons.