I think this series suffers from a heavy case of Your Mileage May Vary, because, while some might dislike this comic...I actually really enjoyed it. Granted, I probably enjoyed it for reasons other people disliked it (its darkness, its morbid sense of humor, its cast), but I did. Umbrella Academy is a hard comic to define. It's like if a parody of a superhero comic and a deconstruction of a superhero comic had a baby and that baby turned out to be one of the X-Men (or something). Whether or not this is good or bad is up to you, really.
The first arc, "Apocalypse Suite", does a good job of setting up the characters while still leaving some wiggle room for the rest of the series. You know the basics about the cast, but some things are left unexplained so they can be brought back later. The story of the arc itself is straightforward and easy-to follow (in a good way). Then came "Dallas", which I personally thought was better than the first arc. It was zany, involved the Kennedy assassination, and introduced some truly dark, twisted villains. It also focused a lot on my favorite character, Klaus AKA Number Four AKA the Seance (guess what his superpower is). Also, time-travel.
Again, this comic can get pretty dark and weird at times, and that's definitely a turn-off for some people. But if you're into that sort of thing, I highly recommend this comic. So far, there hasn't been a third arc, but word on the street is that there will be soon (read: at some undisclosed point in time that they haven't actually told us yet), so now's a good time to catch up.
Darkly Enjoyable
I think this series suffers from a heavy case of Your Mileage May Vary, because, while some might dislike this comic...I actually really enjoyed it. Granted, I probably enjoyed it for reasons other people disliked it (its darkness, its morbid sense of humor, its cast), but I did. Umbrella Academy is a hard comic to define. It's like if a parody of a superhero comic and a deconstruction of a superhero comic had a baby and that baby turned out to be one of the X-Men (or something). Whether or not this is good or bad is up to you, really.
The first arc, "Apocalypse Suite", does a good job of setting up the characters while still leaving some wiggle room for the rest of the series. You know the basics about the cast, but some things are left unexplained so they can be brought back later. The story of the arc itself is straightforward and easy-to follow (in a good way). Then came "Dallas", which I personally thought was better than the first arc. It was zany, involved the Kennedy assassination, and introduced some truly dark, twisted villains. It also focused a lot on my favorite character, Klaus AKA Number Four AKA the Seance (guess what his superpower is). Also, time-travel.
Again, this comic can get pretty dark and weird at times, and that's definitely a turn-off for some people. But if you're into that sort of thing, I highly recommend this comic. So far, there hasn't been a third arc, but word on the street is that there will be soon (read: at some undisclosed point in time that they haven't actually told us yet), so now's a good time to catch up.