WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Jupiter's Legacy, streaming now on Netflix.
The new Netflix series Jupiter's Legacy knows how to pay homage to its Marvel predecessors in more ways than one. Perhaps one of its biggest parallels to the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes in the penultimate episode of the season, with the introduction of the psychic ninja, Raikou. The blade-slinging assassin enacts her violent brand of justice on a band of Japanese gangsters. And if that sounds familiar, that's because many audiences already saw the same scene before in Avengers: Endgame.
Jupiter's Legacy sees its heroes desperate for another psychic to assist in infiltrating the mind of a villain with valuable information, and in their desperation, they prove willing to reach outside their own heroic ranks. While original Union member Brainwave is the most powerful psychic in the world, his estranged daughter Raikou is a close runner up. However, she earns her business as a top-dollar assassin. When she is introduced to the viewer and recruited by the heroes, she partakes in a rain-soaked and neon-lit fight with her katanas on the streets of Japan against gangsters, who she violently puts down.
This is almost exactly the same way Hawkeye was reintroduced to the MCU as Ronin in Avengers: Endgame. Both stories feature the same setup of the heroes going on a recruitment mission to find a deadly assassin who is already locked in combat with the same kinds of henchmen in the same setting. The comparison is so on the nose, it could be seen as either an homage or a beat-for-beat ripoff, but there are significant differences.
Most notably, Raikou actually has superpowers backing up her ninja skills that Hawkeye lacks. Whereas Hawkeye's true talents lie in archery, Raikou is a talented psychic capable of trapping others within their own minds. It is due to her psychic abilities that she proves to be such a valuable asset. Another marked difference between her and Hawkeye are their morals. Although both have similarly edgy and homicidal introductions, Raikou cares little about fighting for the greater good and is won over purely by the promise of a big pay day.
In terms of the points where the characters compare and contrast, it seems that the live-action adaptation played up the similarity to Hawkeye's stint as Ronin more than the comics did. The scene with the Japanese gangsters was original to the live-action adaptation. In the comics, Raikou primarily serves as a nigh-unbeatable security measure overlooking a valuable asset that the heroes seek. Though she receives a flashy and prolonged combat sequence, it proves to be her main contribution to the story, and her psychic abilities prove so formidable that it takes several heroes fighting at once to even contend with her.
The Raikou of the Netflix adaptation had her moments in the show, but unfortunately they just did not come close to the coolness of her comic book counterpart. Seeing her interpretation instead as a sly homage to Ronin, the character serves a much different function, and for some fans, that take on the character might not hit its mark.
Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy stars Josh Duhamel as The Utopian, Ben Daniels as Brainwave, Leslie Bibb as Lady Liberty, Elena Kampouris as Chloe Sampson, Andrew Horton as Brandon Sampson, Mike Wade as The Flare, Anna Akana as Raikou and Matt Lanter as Skyfox. Season 1 is available on Netflix now.