Mysteriously born children endowed with supernatural powers are adopted by a mysterious gentleman. Together, they create a dysfunctional family that tries to fight evil and vice of all kinds. Within two decades, however, the team completely disintegrates, and it is the funeral of its founder that brings them together.
“Rolling madness” is one of the overused slogans. However, it is difficult to resist the temptation to describe the first volume of the Umbrella Academy in this way. The creators start the comic with a full-page frame depicting a duel between a giant wrestler and a cosmic octopus, and then at an express pace present to us the genesis of the alumni of the title academy. The action gains speed and does not slow down until the end, every now and then throwing readers to new points in space-time and introducing them to new, more and more strange characters.
“Umbrella Academy. Apocalyptic Suite ”- a fragment of a comic book board
A fictional roller coaster
Reading a comic by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá is at times too intense an experience. Despite the intriguing characters and imaginative plot, sometimes it felt as if my comic book was missing some chapters or at least pages. Or as if I started watching the series from the penultimate episode. The introduction is minimal, we barely know the protagonists and the world presented, and the authors throw us right in the middle of the action, only to jump back in time and show that the team has stopped functioning and some of the characters are dead. And there is nothing wrong with throwing the audience into deep water. The problem is that without proper exposure it is easy to get lost in who they are and what the characters talk about. Not to mention any emotional reaction to their fate. The enthusiasm of an inexperienced screenwriter combined with a limitationApocalyptic Suite for six notebooks resulted in a dynamic, but a bit too chaotic story. There was simply not enough space in the miniseries to adequately present us so many protagonists and the reality in which they live, and at the same time tell a coherent story. As a result, this speeding car is sometimes very close to falling out of the narrative tracks.
“Umbrella Academy. Apocalyptic Suite ”- a fragment of a comic book board
What a pretty Apocalypse
However, I cannot write a bad word about the visual aspect and the Polish edition of the first volume of Umbrella Academy . Simplified and exaggerated characters placed in interestingly composed, full of details frames remind me of what Kevin O’Neill presented in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . The final effect is completed by the intense and varied colors of Dave Stewart, which are in complete contrast to the blank white cover. The KBOOM publishing house also took care of very nice additional materials. The chapters are separated by phenomenal illustrations from notebook issues by James Jean (known to Polish readers from the Fairy Tales series ), and at the end of the album there are character designs with authors’ comments, and two side stories.
“Umbrella Academy. Apocalyptic Suite ”- a fragment of a comic book board
For whom?
One of the sources of inspiration for Way was Grant Morisson’s Doom Patrol . There are also quite a few parallels here to Hellboy , Lobster Johnson, and other Mignolaverse tales, albeit with less darkness. The Apocalyptic Suite should also appeal to fans of the Black Hammer , but they will not find similarly in-depth psychological portraits of the heroes. If you’re looking for an over-the-top adventure story that experiments with weird fiction elements and a superhero squad theme, and you’re not afraid of a certain narrative chaos, Umbrella Academy is the comic you’re looking for.
