The Skyfox Question That Has Jupiter's Legacy Fans Scratching Their Heads
By the conclusion of its first season, "Jupiter's Legacy" answers a number of questions regarding the origins of the Union of Justice, their struggles, and their ultimate goals. But for every answer that we've gotten over the course of the first season, there are still quite a few unknowns. One of the most intriguing questions the show has yet to answer is just what made Union member Skyfox turn into the world's premier supervillain.
A prominent figure during the 1920s flashback sequences, Skyfox is more of a presence than a person over the course of the first season, with his only appearance to date being a telepathic image in the Blackstar Clone's mind as he battled Brainwave, claiming that the Union betrayed him and not the other way around. All we know with certainty is that at some point in the 1960s, Skyfox broke the Code — the creed the Union operates by, whose tenets specify no killing of supervillains and staying out of politics. He then went rogue, becoming an enemy to the Union. But why? From his appearances in the flashbacks, Skyfox seems like a decent man. So why would he turn on his teammates and become a villain?
Breaking the Code
The Code itself may provide a potential clue to Skyfox's status as a supervillain. The Code — particularly its political element — is the series' way of attempting to address a larger issue that occurs in most superhero narratives: how superhero worlds in comics, movies, or television always seem to remain mostly the same as the world outside our window, with the same problems and issues that beset our lives in the present. Superheroes can't address things like systemic poverty, war, or the environment because changing such things would alter the setting beyond recognition.
The Utopian's desire to maintain the status quo could be a contributing factor to the break between the Union and Skyfox. The 1960s alone were a period of societal change that could provide ample opportunities for George Hutchence (aka Skyfox) to break away from the principles Sheldon Sampson and the other founders of the Union put forth to try and change the world, for better or for worse.
Paragons as people
One of the themes Jupiter's Legacy engages with over the course of the first season is the idea of superheroes as human beings, with the best and worst traits of humanity on display over the course of the series. Sheldon Sampson, the Utopian, is a man trapped by the inflexibility of the Code and an inability to move beyond it to face the challenges of a changing world and an increasingly deadly supervillain opposition.
While the Union of Justice is a heroic organization, it's also comprised of people, who despite their godlike powers, are anything but infallible. In the flashback sequences, we see George and Sheldon as best friends who clearly care for one another, which makes it so jarring that he becomes a villainous pariah in modern times. While the question of the break between Skyfox and the Union lingers, it's possible that the source of Skyfox's turn to villainy may prove just as much personal as political.