A comic book series written by Gerard Way of
My Chemical Romance and drawn by Gabriel Bá from
Dark Horse Comics.
One day, 43 extraordinary children were
all spontaneously born on the same day. Of these children, seven are adopted by the inventor (and space alien) Reginald Hargreeves and groomed into superheroes. However, Hargreeves does not prove to be a good father figure and his inability to give emotional warmth to the children, along his unwavering ambition to push them to their limits, inevitably scars them all as adults. In many ways
The Umbrella Academy is both a
deconstruction and
Affectionate Parody of Gold and Silver Age comics, joyfully embracing absurd and wonderful classics like talking monkeys and space squids while exploring the real psychological effects of being groomed from birth to be a hero in the care of a wealthy man of intrigue.
The main series takes place after Hargreeves's death where the team reunite at his funeral. There are currently two complete story lines
The Apocalypse Suite and
Dallas as well as a handful of one shot stories, all of which are now available on the internet.
Has nothing to do with
The Umbrella Corporation.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Hargreeves. He would chide his adopted sons and daughters if they called him 'Dad'. In one story, he sicced a murderous supervillain on The Rumor when she lied about sneaking out for the night to see a boy. Jerkass doesn't begin to cover it.
- "Dad.. ? I mean, Mr. Monocle, sir? Why can't I play with the others?" "Well number seven... there's just nothing special about you." "Oh."
- Alien Blood: Gray blood, in the case of one transformed human.
- Ambiguously Gay: Klaus. Even his creator has no clue what his sexuality is.
- Back from the Dead: Klaus. Technically twice.
- Badass Family
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: "And just as I expected — Zombie Robot Gustave Eiffel!"
- Bizarre Baby Boom: The 43 babies, all born to random women showing no signs of pregnancy at all.
- Brick Joke: The Eiffel Tower destroys the Umbrella Academy at the end of Apocalypse Suite.
- Brother-Sister Incest: The Rumor/Spaceboy and The Kraken/Vanya, although admittedly none of the children are blood siblings except Number Five and Spaceboy.
- Captain Ersatz: Kraken is basically Wolverine without claws.
- His power makes him a parody of Aquaman and his popular criticism of having a rather pointless power.
- Officer Lupo is basically Commissioner Gordon.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Klaus. Oh, Klaus.
- Code Name
- Combat Pragmatist: Number 5 is very direct.
- The Dog Bites Back: In Dallas, No. 5 bites Carmichael back rather more literally than ususal.
- Domino Mask: The whole family, until they disband, even though they don't have secret identities. The Rumor puts on the mask during the first story to help her get in the groove of being a superhero again.
- Dysfunctional Family: To put it mildly.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Well, you couldn't known who is that character by the moment, but you would remember seeing The White Violin, aka Vanya near Hargreeves's rushed up funeral in the second issue cover... but it doesn't really happen in the comic. The funeral happens, but she's not present.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Technically happens twice throughout the series.
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: One of Hargreeves' inventions was a way to give chimpanzees sentience. They show up everywhere as detectives, soliders, hobos and even one hooker. One of these intellegient chimps is Hargreeves' assistant, Pogo.
- No, really, EVERYTHING'S
Better With Monkeys in Gerard Way's mind.
- Fetish Fuel: Vanya, when she becomes the White Violin. It helps that she's completely nude.
- Gender Blender Name: Er, isn't Vanya the Russian version of "John"?
- High-Class Glass: Sir Reginald Hargreeves aka The Monocle. He actually gets pissed off if the children refer to him as anything else.
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act
- I Did What I Had to Do: The Rumor's excuse for killing JFK.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Vanya. This is subverted as she's actually the most powerful of them all, but The Monocle suppressed her powers because he felt they were too dangerous and the fact they drove her mad when they were released.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: The Seance heads to a bar at the end of Dallas.
- Just Eat Him: How Number Five kills Carmichael, an intelligent fish.
- Mad Artist: The Orchestra Verdammten. Particularly The Conductor.
- Magic Music: Used by the Orchestra Verdammten.
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: Cowboy God.
- Musical Assassin: The White Violin.
- Not Blood Siblings: Luther and Allison, most noticeably, and Diego and Vanya. Which leaves Klaus as the third wheel, or Klaus and Ben as Those Two Guys, variably.
- One-Man Army: Number 5.
- "I AM A GAZELLE AND THE JUNGLE IS MY HOME."
- "I am a revolution packed into a suitcase bomb!"
- "Brothers and Sisters, I am an atomic bomb"
- Person of Mass Destruction: The White Violin, No. 5.
- Psycho for Hire: Hazel and Cha Cha.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Hazel and Cha Cha again.
- Reality Warper: The Rumor.
- Really 700 Years Old: Number Five is an eighty-year-old man trapped in a ten-year-old's body. There's no telling how old he really is, however, as his aging was halted by The Temps Aertanalis.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Subverted Mrs. Hargreeves has a human face but a transparent body and obviously artificial limbs. However it appears she also has a full system of working organs, which can be seen through her transparent body.
- Running Gag: "Televator's broken."
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Spaceboy at the end of Dallas.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What Number Five travelled back in time to accomplish. Namely, preventing the Apocalypse.
- Slashed Throat: A rare case where the victim doesn't die.
- Squick: In-universe, Number Five's "disposal" of his superior, Carmichael.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: In The Apocalypse Suite with Vanya and Dallas with Number 5.
- Surprise Pregnency: Taken to 11 when 43 women who hadnt been pregent to begin with suddenly all give birth all the same time with no warning, right in the middle of whatever it was they had been doing at the time.
- Those Two Bad Guys: Hazel and Cha-Cha.
- Time Police: The Temps Aertenalis.
- Time Travel: All over Dallas.
- It's specifically Number Five's power.
- Trapped in the Past: Seance, Spaceboy, and Kraken in Dallas.
- The Unfavorite: Vanya.
- The Vietnam War: See Time Travel above.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Seance's powers only work when he's barefoot. He apparently collects shoes.
- “Well Done Son” Guy: Luther.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite being an awful father and husband, Hargreeves' motivation was to save the world.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The Kraken's power is apparently the ability to hold his breath forever. It probably makes him the world's best swimmer and a top athlete, but it doesn't quite compare to, say, re-shaping reality at will. He compensates with excellent knife-fighting skills, to the point where he takes down a pack of Vietnamese vampires with a pair of knives. Gerard Way actually said in a lecture at SVA that he made him "fucking useless" on purpose, but at the same time also said that, in a world where no one else had super powers, something as simple as that is a big deal.
- Who Shot JFK?: The main focus of the second story line, Dallas. Turns out it was the Rumor, being blackmailed by the Temps Aeternalis.
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