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The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, written by Gerard Way of hit band “My Chemical Romance,” illustrated by Gabriel Bá, colored by Dave Stewart, and lettered by Nate Piekos, present a strange, yet enticing world of heroes, villains, and everything in-between. The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is the introduction to the outlandish misadventures of a dysfunctional family trying to get along with one another through the act of crime-fighting and world-saving.
The Story
In a universe inhabited by teleportation-capable elevators, zombie historical figures, killer robots, and more, an alien disguised as a man, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, takes a particular interest in forty-three children born at the exact same time and gifted with extraordinary abilities. Only being able to get his hands on seven of them, Hargreeves raised these seven children to combat forces of evil, dubbing the group: The Umbrella Academy.
Growing up, The Umbrella Academy had gone against many different foes and gained much attention in the media throughout the years. Sadly, these achievements never impressed Hargreeves in the slightest, making the “family” aspect of the Academy seem distant at best. Fast-forward many years later, where five of the seven adopted children are alive and “well.”
After being disbanded and separated for years, the Academy was finally reunited under the regrettable circumstances of Sir Reginald Hargreeves’ death. Number Five, who had been missing in the future for years, was present as well and looked exactly like his 10-year-old self that had gone missing many years back. As the cherry on top of this mess, Number Five brought with him the news of an incoming apocalypse that destroys the entire world in the coming days. The “outcast” of the group, Vanya Hargreeves, also known as Number Seven, had always been distant from the rest of her family, seeing as Sir Reginald Hargreeves always told her that she wasn’t special. When she tried approaching her family during a local amusement park crisis post-funeral, they pushed her away, treating her not as one of their own.
This led Vanya to turn to an evil maestro named “The Conductor,” who brainwashed her to become an all-powerful, destructive killing machine. It turns out Vanya had powers all along, and it only took an evil mastermind to unleash them finally. Vanya, who was now dubbed “The White Violin,” kills The Conductor and seeks to destroy the world, starting with her family. Vanya began her rampage towards The Umbrella Academy, and once she arrived, she killed Pogo, the Academy’s trusty chimpanzee butler. Number Five, who witnessed this heinous act, finally realized that Vanya was the one who would bring forth the apocalypse. The Academy banded together to defeat Vanya and ultimately do, but in the end, Number Three and Vanya got severely injured.
The Substance
“The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite” has moments where it shines very bright, such as in all of the intense, action-packed battles, but it also has points where the story is a bit fast-paced. Take the first few pages, for example, the reader is presented with a wrestler who is in a match against a squid-like alien, who is supposedly from another world inhabited by other aliens, as well as being introduced to Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who is apparently an alien as well.
While admittedly really cool, there is little to no explanation of how this is possible or where they came from, just that they exist, and the story jumps to the next subject. Another example of this would be the “extraordinary babies” born at the same time. We are presented with this idea and then forced to accept it, almost as if Gerard Way didn’t want readers to ask any questions regarding these strange ideas.
Although frustrating not being able to understand how and where some things come from, the ambiguity of most ideas presented has somewhat of a charm to it. Given the atmosphere in which the story takes place, perhaps Gerard Way purposefully wrote the story to be ambiguous or made it seem that way now and explain it in future issues.
The Minutiae
The art style of The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is truly amazing, especially when trying to capture a very dark and unusual feel. The design of each of the individual characters is interesting, despite some having rather astounding proportions than others. The usage of color is quite effective, where Gabriel Bá uses a variety of muted warm and cool colors, emphasizing cooler colors to appeal as a moody/serious environment. Overall, Gabriel Bá hit it out of the park in the art aspect of the comic.
The Verdict
The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite brings a lot to the table when it comes to characters, art, and story, but when it comes down to how well the story progresses, the comic falls a bit short. Had the story been changed in order to take a bit more time in certain places or go into a little more detail about the more “outlandish” topics, I would not be talking about it, but here we are. Besides that, this is still an awesome, action-packed comic that any superhero fan should definitely look into. This series is quite addicting, and I am genuinely excited to see what happens next in The Umbrella Academy: Dallas!
