The Umbrella Academy during happier times (believe it or not).
Netflix may have cancelled its Marvel shows, but that doesn’t mean it’s moving away from comic book adaptations. Enter The Umbrella Academy. Released on Feb. 15, the 10-part series is based on a comic book series of the same name written by Gerard Way of the popular emo rock band My Chemical Romance.
Minor spoilers below.
On Oct. 1, 1989, 43 women mysteriously give birth at the same time. Seven of the children are adopted by billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, and they are trained to be a superhero team called The Umbrella Academy. Instead of giving them names, he assigns each child a number (One, Two, Three, etc.). They are watched over and cared for by a talking chimpanzee named Pogo and their android nanny, Grace, who ends up naming the children.
Still with me?
Number one is Luther who has super strength. Number two is Diego who has perfect aim (he’s pretty good with knives). Number three is Allison who has the power to manipulate the truth with the phrase “I heard a rumor.” Number four is Klaus who has the power to speak to the dead. Number five is number five who has the power to time travel. Number six is Ben who can possess monsters. Number seven is Vanya who doesn’t have any abilities (or does she??).
As children, they are studied, and frankly, abused by Hargreeves. He’s cold and unfeeling, and in one instance, he locks a young Klaus in a mausoleum in order for him to confront his power of communicating with the dead. It’s no wonder Klaus ends up an addict as an adult in order to keep the dead away. When they become adults, they leave the academy except for Luther. Five disappeared as a child (and before Grace could name him). We also find out Ben died awhile ago (and caused the team and family to break up), but we don’t find out how. Ironically enough, he’s a ghost now and communicates with Klaus.
When Hargreeves dies, the rest of the children return home for the funeral. It’s not a warm and fuzzy reunion. As adults, Luther (who is now half-ape after being injected with a serum) is an astronaut; Allison is a famous actress; Diego is a vigilant fighting crime in the city; Klaus is a junkie; and Vanya is a violinist. Being all together brings up the unhappy memories from their childhood. Things get even stranger when Five suddenly reappears…from the future. It turns out when they were thirteen Five traveled to the end of the world and got stuck in the apocalypse, but when he returns he looks thirteen, but his mind is that of a 58-year-old man. He’s come to prevent the apocalypse from happening in eight days. And just like that The Umbrella Academy is back together again.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into anymore details, but overall, I enjoyed the series. I had some issues with the pacing and characterization, but The Umbrella Academy really showed us another side of the superhero genre. It was interesting seeing them as superhero kids, and also how it shaped (and damaged) them as adults. Some interesting worldbuilding things was that there is apparently no cell phones or internet here. Mary J. Blige played a time-traveling assassin on the hunt for Five. In a cast of mostly unknown actors, her casting along with Ellen Page was kind of distracting for me. On the other hand, standout performances go to Aidan Gallagher, who is a teen in real life, but portrays a grumpy old man perfectly; and Robert Sheehan, who looks like he is a having a ball playing Klaus. I also wasn’t a fan of the Luther and Allison romance because even though they aren’t related by blood, they were raised together as siblings. Other than that, I enjoyed seeing all the siblings interacting. Each of them has an unique relationship with each other, and you can’t help but root for them to get past their issues and save the world together.
With the season finale’s cliffhanger, I’m happy we’re getting a season two, which was recently announced.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DAmWHxeoKw&w=560&h=315]
Images from IMDB.com
Overall this was a big win for me. I really enjoyed it.