Even if Jupiter’s Circle #3 doesn’t go into the overall conspiracy plot, Mark Millar and Wilfredo Torres demonstrate that married superheroes’ stories don’t have to be boring while developing the character of The Flare and April Kelly in a comic that has a nostalgic superhero aesthetic, but is really about people with actual problems that don’t involve supervillains or alien invasions.
Jupiter’s Circle #1 is a prequel to Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s Jupiter’s Legacy, a superhero family saga with an epic sociopolitical scope. It shows what Utopian, Walter, and their friends in the Union were up to in the late-1950s during the time of Eisenhower, the early seasons of Mad Men, and the Silver Age of Comics when superheroes returned to prominence. Artist Wilfredo Torres captures the bright, cheery, and yes, cheesy feel of this era with the characters’ garish costumes, wacky gadgets, and the giant space squid (colored in an electric blue from Ive Svorcina) the team fights. However, writer Mark Millar goes beneath the lantern jawed faces, form-fitting tights, and fisticuffs to explore the heroes’ personalities. There are six members of Union, and there simply isn’t enough time to develop each character in a single issue, but Millar wisely spends most of his time focusing on Blue Bolt, a Starman-like superhero with a power rod, who happens to be a closeted gay man.