You will find my review of seasons one and two of the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy in The Wasteland archives. And there you will see that I bloody loved it! To date, I have watched every episode properly twice and my favourite episodes 3 or 4 times. It was really only a matter of time before I got hold of the source material: Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s gorgeously designed comic book series, released by Darkhorse comics dating back to 2008.
With Christmas presents being a perfect excuse I bought the first volume, Apocalypse Suite for my daughter, who also adored the show, and has been looking for clues and forming theories about where it will go into season 3 for a while. Someone else had the same idea, however, so I made a trade, ordered her volume 2, Dallas and kept the repeated vol. 1 for myself. Since then I finished the first and borrowed the second pretty quickly. They are not long, and can be read in a day or two.
Their brevity is not an issue however, as each drawing inside can be studied and enjoyed second time through, for their extraordinary style and detail. If you have come to these books via the show, and you probably did, then there is a lot to absorb and digest about what is the same and, more intriguingly, what is different! Which is quite a bit.
For a start the way the 7 super kid adoptees look is very much comic book style and in no way realistic. Luther, or number 1, is not just massively beefed up, but actually has ape DNA and has the body of a massive primate, hair included. Vanya, or number 7, not only becomes The White Violin in name, but is transformed into a physical human violin that is indeed white, as per the cover of Apocalypse Suite. Alison, number 3, is a white girl with purple hair. Klaus, number 4, can actually float and is much more pale. Diego, number 2, looks completely different but gives off the same vibe. Ben, number 6, is hardly seen at all, because he died before events take place, as in the show, but is not so much a presence at all in the comics except in flashbacks to when they were very small.
The only one that remains essentially unchanged in look and feel is number 5, who is as pivotal in the books as the TV show, and probably everyone’s first or second favourite (second only because Robert Sheehan is so brilliantly funny in the show). A lot of stuff we are familiar with from the show is also covered in the books, but there is so much more going on in the comics! Additional adventures, side detail and relationship stuff that the TV show chose to leave out for one reason or another. Also the climax of season one is entirely different in interesting ways.
It is hard coming to the comics second, because you are tempted to treat the TV show as canonical and the comics as secondary. Maybe that’s just me… however, the remarkable thing is how the tone and impression of both is exactly the same. Both know they are silly in terms of anything approaching reality, but incredible fun! It is touched on in the preface of the first book, just how naturally Gerard Way knows what a comic book should be, and what kind of character and action readers – fans – of this stuff enjoy.
The artwork is stunning. The stories are compelling. The characters are terrific. And it is all just so geeky cool. There’s nothing not to recommend. At all. And if you are new to comic books, whatever age you may be, then these gems could be your perfect way in, to an entire world of joy and excitement.
Yet to read volume 3. I’ll report back when I do. And I expect I’ll have much more to say about the Umbrella Academy / Sparrow Academy in due course… that tricky Sir Reginald / The Monacle is up to something yet to be revealed…
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