Coffee Time With Olivia

Coffee Time with Olivia
Review #2

Jupiter’s Circle Vol. 2 issue #3 January 2016
Writer: Mark Millar
Artists: Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Walden Wong
Colorist: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Peter Doherty
Cover Art: Bill Sienkiewicz
Variant Cover Art: Frank Quitely
Editor: Nicole Boose
Production: Peter Doherty, Drew Gill
Publisher: Image Comics, Inc.

This continuation of the Mark Millar epic still leaves you wanting more (and I’m putting this lightly).

As a fan of Jupiter’s Legacy, this prequel proves to be an incredibly frustrating read. It answers all the wrong questions at the wrong times, and what makes this series worse for me is that I have little to no connection to any of the main characters. It almost seems like there needs to be a prequel to the prequel, because Jupiter’s Circle has yet to go into FULL detail about how, where, and from whom the main heroes got their powers and why exactly THEY were chosen. Also, I would be more curious to know what these people were like before becoming super-powered, instead of this story we’re getting here.

Those questions are basically the only thing I want out of Jupiter’s Circle. Millar just likes to tease the readers by dropping subtle hints about their true origin story throughout  in the dialogue. Of course, it’s not enough to grasp the whole picture. What we’re left with is a tale of how these heroes fit into important events in US history sprinkled with cameos of famous people.

So, now let’s talk about what happened in Jupiter’s Circle Vol. 2 issue 3. (Caution: Spoilers in this paragraph)
Skyfox has turned antihero. Utopian’s moral good compass still holds strong no matter what. Then the issue ends with the threat of their powers being taken away; having them swapped by an evil genius with a ray gun and his cronies. And guess what? I don’t really care.

Like I said, I have little to no emotional attachment to these characters. I feel that a story about the adventures of the first generation of superpowered people holds very little relevance to the characters in Jupiter’s Legacy. One could counter argue that the Jupiter’s Circle series is it’s own story; not necessarily connected to Legacy. If that were the case, Circle is still bad in my eyes with the lack of character development as the main issue.

I sincerely hope that Millar proves me wrong  by making the Circle storyline relevant in some way. I liked Jupiter’s Legacy too much to give up on this. I will continue to read it just out of curiosity.