Netflix’s 13-Part Superhero Masterpiece Series Is The Best Entry In A Failed Cinematic Universe

April 28, 2026

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While Netflix’s ambitious R-rated superhero franchise never took off and truly soared, its best entry was an underrated anime spinoff that many viewers don’t even know exists. Between The Boys and Invincible, it is fair to say that Prime Video leads the field when it comes to subversive, thoroughly mature re-imaginings of the superhero genre. While the latter is a traditional superhero show with more blood, gore, and psychological depth, the former is a hilarious, raucous satire of the contemporary political landscape through the lens of superhero media.

Since Prime Video also produced the underrated I’m A Virgo in 2023, the streaming service’s stranglehold on the R-rated superhero show sub-genre couldn’t be more obvious. Despite the news that Disney+’s upcoming Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is rated TV-MA, Prime Video’s current dominance in this arena is undisputed. That said, Netflix did make an ambitious attempt to cash in on the success of The Boys with another subversive, adults-only superhero show based on a cult British comic book.

2021’s Jupiter’s Legacy was based on the comic book series of the same name by Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar. A prolific writer for both Marvel and DC, Millar is famous for his subversive takes on superhero tropes. Jupiter’s Legacy and its spinoff Super Crooks are no exception, following the sprawling multi-generational story of the Sampson family, a clan of superheroes who gain their powers from an uncharted island in the Atlantic. When the Netflix adaptation begins, Josh Duhamel’s Superman-esque hero, The Utopian, is grappling with his professed ideals after an attempt on his life.

Netflix’s Super Crooks Was Better Than Jupiter’s Legacy

Even though the Utopian has spent years preaching against his super powered family using their abilities to kill, this approach comes under fire when his own life is saved by his son, Paragon, killing the Utopian’s would-be murderer. While this premise sounds knotty and morally complex, Jupiter’s Legacy sadly failed to live up to its potential. However, its 13-episode anime spinoff Super Crooks was far stronger and never gained the same level of mainstream attention as its live-action counterpart.

Based on Millar’s 2012 collaboration of the same name with artist Leinil Francis Yu, Super Crooks followed Johnny Bolt, a petty criminal who assembled a team of super villains to pull off an ambitious heist. The clashing personalities of these antiheroes, as well as the obvious moral ambiguity of the show’s premise, made Super Crooks a more fleet-footed, funnier, and less predictable introduction to the world of Millar’s comics than the comparatively worthy, soapy melodramatics of Jupiter’s Legacy.

The anime series based on Millar’s comic book was technically a Jupiter’s Legacy spinoff, and Netflix even had plans for a live-action Super Crooks show before the original series underperformed. However, unlike The Boys’ animated spinoff Diabolical, this anime show worked perfectly well as a standalone watch and was arguably only dragged down by pairing the show with the disappointing adaptation of Jupiter’s Legacy.

The Failure Of Jupiter’s Legacy Doomed Netflix’s Ambitious Mark Millar Adaptations

Unfortunately, viewers never got to see the planned live-action version of Super Crooks since Jupiter’s Legacy proved a costly flop for Netflix. The show’s cancellation was primarily blamed on its massive budget, with season 1 alone costing a whopping $200 million, but its middling reviews didn’t help, either. Broadly speaking, reviewers agreed that the show failed to find its tone.

Where The Boys committed to deconstructing comic book storytelling, and Invincible was a darker, more violent, but still straightforward example of a traditional superhero story, Jupiter’s Legacy made the same mistake as 2008’s Hancock and bounced between both approaches without committing to either. As a result, Jupiter’s Legacy never hits its stride and finds a confident tone, even though its anime spinoff Super Crooks proved Netflix’s Millar-verse had plenty of untapped potential.