Jupiter's Children by Mark Millar & Frank Quitely

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From CBR:

Giving up some early details on "Jupiter's Children," Millar described the background of the universe fans will be seeing come September. "It opens in France in the 1920s, which immediately for a superhero story is a very different location," he said. "We start on a bunch of explorers kind of like that opening from 'King Kong,' which I love, and they're doing an exploration of the ancient world – these rich Americans who have put together an expedition to find something you'll hear about in the story. From those first few pages, and a doomed expedition, we cut to the present day, and they came home from that trip altered and with a plan to save the American idea. In historical context, the Russian revolution is relatively recent and Europe is in a state of turmoil and they're just on the cusp of the Wall Street Crash so they've gone on this trip to try and save America and then we cut to their utterly useless, meandering children in the present day essentially squandering their inheritance. It's not crass and celebrity focused, although it touches on that stuff. It's more Shakespearean, with the last of the old heroes, a King Lear figure, watching these teenagers and twenty-something with no altruism whatsoever. There's a massive regret in his eyes as he looks around at the world he's leaving behind, very much the world we see today with the Euro-zone collapse and industrial decline and six billion people worried about the future, he feels the children and grand-children of he and his friends just aren't up to the job. But this is just the starting point. This is like saying that Star Wars is about Darth Vader boarding a ship and kidnapping the Princess. This is the first eight or ten pages and we just run with it from here.

"I think there's something sad and quite unique where these ten or twenty, slightly damaged super-people feel they can never live up to their parents. And something even more tragic about the parents recognizing that their children, in many ways, are their failures. In the same way, Paris Hilton is the granddaughter of a man with incredible business sense and the will to build that Hilton chain of hotels. She doesn't have the skills or drive he had. She's just a vacuous party girl who was born with a silver spoon and mistakes money and fame for success or respect. In the same way, these superheroes know something enormous is missing from their lives and are daunted by the prospect of replacing their parents. That's the thread running in the background, and on top of all this is this massive adventure story with aliens and robots and amazing ships and vehicles and a whole world I've been building with respect to what's happening here in the real world."

And there are plenty of real world problems impacting the story once Quitely's action moves into the present day. "You've got the financial, and America losing power and influence to China, of course, but at the same time, there are massive internal problems in China with social engineering being just one of them. Over the last generation, there have been too many males born, so you're looking towards a massive social collapse over there. Huge unrest within the next decade. The Arab world is obviously in chaos and we have the European problems and the governments of the world asking these new, young heroes to help. But they can't. Half of them can barely read a book. Adamantium claws doesn't mean you know the specific pros and cons of quantative easing. But like I said, this is the backdrop where the adventure takes places. It's a huge, grand operatic piece that runs for ten issues and does super-heroics on a scale I've never even tried in something like 'The Ultimates.'"

Not sure what I think about this. On one hand, I really have no idea what I just read. And Mark Millar is one of the most polarizing writers in comics.

On the other hand...Frank Quitely. Man, I loves me some Frank Quitely.
 
It definitely sounds like the most promising of all the new Millarworld comics.

But again... it's a Millarworld comic. There'll be some stupid twist introduced near the end (four years after it started) which completely invalidates the entire premise.

At least the art will be nice.
 
Man, is Image kicking some ass this year or what? And its only the second week of January...

I dunno if I'll be getting this. I guess it'll come down to what my pull list looks like then and how much of the New 52 I'm still getting. I haven't read a Millar comic since... Ultimates 2 I think? Its been a while. I kind of miss him.
 
Man, is Image kicking some ass this year or what? And its only the second week of January...

I dunno if I'll be getting this. I guess it'll come down to what my pull list looks like then and how much of the New 52 I'm still getting. I haven't read a Millar comic since... Ultimates 2 I think? Its been a while. I kind of miss him.

Most of it hasn't been very good - but you didn't even try any of it out?
 
Most of it hasn't been very good - but you didn't even try any of it out?

Nope. I saw that he was doing Fantastic Four and that he was on The Ultiamtes again but I never picked them up. Other than Kick Ass 2 I don't even know what his other creater owned series were.
 
Nope. I saw that he was doing Fantastic Four and that he was on The Ultiamtes again but I never picked them up. Other than Kick Ass 2 I don't even know what his other creater owned series were.

Superior and Nemesis - can't remember others. Nemesis started out OK and then turned brain-killingly idiotic. Superior started out good and got a little weird.

I don't think most people agree with me but I absolutely loved his Fantastic Four run.
 
Superior and Nemesis - can't remember others. Nemesis started out OK and then turned brain-killingly idiotic. Superior started out good and got a little weird.

I don't think most people agree with me but I absolutely loved his Fantastic Four run.

Oh yeah, his Evil Batman and Captain Marvel take. Is there a trade for Superior yet? I'd like to read that one.
 
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So back on topic, I'm pretty supprised that Quietly is willing to work with Millar. I know Millar and Morrison have some real bad blood between the two of then and Quietly is Morrison's buddy.

Maybe they're planning to screw him over, get 3 or 4 issues out then quit.
 

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