The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (2008) Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba

Seven children–of the forty-seven spontaneously born–were adopted by Reginald Hargreeves to become the Umbrella Academy. He sought to help them develop their powers to save the world, but no one knew what the world needed saved from.

I wanted to like this, I really did. But while reading I kept thinking, didn’t J. Michael Straczynski already do this with Rising Stars? And do it better?

Well, not precisely. But the feel is very similar.

That’s not to say The Umbrella Academy was bad, it wasn’t. It just fell far short of Rising Stars and suffered in the comparison. Additionally, whenever I mentally stopped to compare The Umbrella Academy to Rising Stars I’d also notice that the art reminded me a lot of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. This was a good comparison, because I like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, yet it was also problematic, because then I started comparing the story to Hellboy.

To be clear, I’m not saying anything about the work was derivative–it isn’t. But I was reminded of other stories when reading it, and I didn’t feel it was nearly as strong in comparison. Then again, I don’t think there’s much out there that comes close to Rising Stars, so it’s not a fair comparison, but I made it, so there it is.

I’ll see how Michael feels about it before I decide whether to get the second volume or not.
Rating: 5/10

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