The Umbrella Academy

Volume 1 cover

"Graduated Cum Laude"

Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite (2007-2008)
Volume 2: Dallas (2008-2009)
Volume 3: Hotel Oblivion (???? ... soon hopefully)

Story: Gerard Way
Art: Gabriel Ba

When talking about the Umbrella Academy (UA), at some point the conversation always drifts towards the uniqueness of the talented comic writer, Gerard Way.  Why is that? Well, Gerard Way is the lead singer of the successful band My Chemical Romance and also, on the side, happens to be the writer of great comic books. Indeed he worked on the first volume of the UA while on tour with his band, and managed to produce one of the most entertaining and captivating comic book series.



The Story:

The kids fighting the Eiffel Tower in Vol.1 

I came to read the UA after a friend recommended it to me. However, he did not manage to clearly describe the main idea of the book, he just said "I bet you'll love it!" Clearly, he would have won that bet. So what's the main idea of this comic book, and what makes it so great? The Umbrella Academy is the story of 7 kids born with superpowers and immediately adopted by an entrepreneur and world known scientist, Sir Reginald Hargreeves. Reginald Hargreeves raises the kids in a mansion, the Umbrella Academy, thus forming a team of superheroes able to save the world from the most dangerous yet whacky threats, such as the Eiffel Tower going bananas. In the very first pages of the first issue, Way, helped by Ba's wonderful art, starts to build his characters, planting seeds of aspects of their personality that will develop throughout the plot. Page after page, the characters acquire a stronger identity and reveal some of their feelings or values in a "consistent" way. By "consistent", I mean that the story or characters do not lose credibility by some ridiculous development suddenly coming out of the blue. This allows the reader to become closer to the different characters and pick their favorite as they read the story. The two bad guys who appear in the second volume Dallas, i.e. the agents/psychopaths Hazel and Cha-Cha, are an example of how powerful the characters can be. If there was an Oscar for best supporting characters in a comic book, Hazel & Cha-Cha would win it hands down! Though they are secondary to the story, they manage to intrigue the reader, generating feelings of disgust mixed with a growing curiosity. Indeed, though I hated them, I couldn't wait to see how cruel, how crazy and how violent they were going to be in the next pages, and for what reason! Another example is how the superpower of The Rumour is progressively shown. Indeed, it's not clearly stated nor illustrated what The Rumour can do, until later in the story when the reader understands that she can alter reality by spreading rumours.

Volume 2 cover

Another feature that I particularly liked about the UA is the dexterity with which the story travels in time, without ever losing the reader. Way blends flashbacks and fast forwards, sometimes he even modifies future events by changing an element of the past. That butterfly effect is part of the story in Dallas, when our heroes travel back to the Vietnam war. However, sometimes in comics, those travels in time are less fortunate than in the UA. Way makes sure that every travel in time finds a connection to the story in the volume in which it occurs. This may seem obvious, but there are some other comics, where flashbacks can appear to be random as they are not related to any events or characters in the issue, or even in the volume in which they take place. Unlike other series - I won't cite titles in this review- the UA's story successfully jumps in time, to the greatest pleasure and curiosity of the reader.

Hazel & Cha Cha, Dallas - (c) Dark Horse Comics

The Art:
Gabriel Ba's art adds ALOT to the book. It grows on you. His art matches perfectly the characters and their feelings, thus it plunges you 200% into the story. Though I am no stranger to Ba's art, in the UA, like in his other works, when I closed the book I could not imagine any other style of drawing, or any other artwork, for any type of comic book, and especially not for this one! The art not only completes the story, it adds to it. Let's take the example of Hazel & Cha-Cha mentioned above. These are drawn as kid-friendly colorful characters: one has a pink round and naive dog head, whereas the other has a blue bear-like head, with a gigantic smile and a tiny hat. However since they are aggressive ruthless killers, their kid-friendly appearance makes them all the more freaky.




On a Separate Note:
I don't know if you watched this year's super bowl half-time show, but I found that the costumes of the Madonna's dancers, when she was on the bleachers, looked inspired by the White Violin character - Volume 1 Apocalypse Suite. The violin-like curves on their back, and the black stripes on their pants reminded me of how Ba drew the White Violin. Maybe just a coincidence...

• Overall: 9/10

• General awesomeness of characters: 9/10

• Travelling without moving: 8/10

• Length: too short, some crappier comics are longer

• The I-had-not-read-any-reviews-on-that-series-and-just-happened-to-read-the-books-and-it-was-awesome factor: high  

Volume 3 teaser cover (not published yet)