The Umbrella Academy

Bargain prices on Amazon meant that 'The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite' was mine for only €12. I haven't discussed music on my blog yet so let me make you aware in simplicity clarity that My Chemical Romance are my favourite band ever. That I am such a huge fan of the band and consider Gerard Way an idol meant I was aware of his comic book writing career, and in particular 'The Umbrella Academy'. Having no personal experience in the world of comics I suspected that this would be an excellent starting point.

So, 'The Umbrella Academy' is a graphic novel (i do believe that that is the PC term) written by Gerard Way, with art by Gabriel Bá. It is a six issue release, but all were combined to make The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. The plot centers around a disbanded family of super heroes who are reunited by death of their adoptive father. I was wholeheartedly behind the concept of this story, what can be more appealing than a family of superheroes? And from what I had seen of the artwork it looked pretty cool.

I should really summarise this whole review by saying that I didn't like The Umbrella Academy. That said, it's too difficult for me to tell whether i dislike comic books altogether or just The Umbrella Academy. I felt the story had no depth. It felt like a bunch of extremely short stories expanded, with little attention payed to character history or any kind of continuity to the point of familiarisation.

The cover art (by James Jean) is absolutely gorgeous. It made me wish the entire thing was drawn by him, as I did not really like the rest of the artwork. Similarly the concept art was amazing, and left me wishing the finished product was more as originally intened. It was too simplistic for my liking. I did really like the colouring in parts, and the lettering was very good aswell.

If Gerard wrote an actual Umbrella Academy book, a novel possibly with a few illustrations, I would be quite interested to read it. I would not, however, spend my time reading more Umbrella Academy comic books. I really wanted to like it, I was willing to latch on to The Umbrella Academy, but simply put, there wasn't enough to hold on to.