Well, this comic completely surprised me. I picked this up at the library purely on the fact that it's written by Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), whom I'm not a huge fan of. I figured it wouldn't be very good and thought it would be another reason to not care about Mr. Way. To say the least, this comic is very good. It's a modern superhero-esque story with a cast of super characters that all have personal issues.
Plot Summary
All over the world, forty-three children were simultaneously born by women who weren't pregnant. Rich inventor Reginald Hargreeves, The Monocle, tries to track down and adopt these children, only finding seven in the end. His answer for adopting these children is "To save the world". Ten years later, the children are now a super fighting force known as 'The Umbrella Academy'. Each of the seven children has extraordinary powers, except for Number 7, Vanya. The children save Paris from an evil doer but the Eiffel Tower goes flying into space. Fast forward twenty more years; each of the children has gone their separate ways to live their own life. Number 1, Spaceboy, is on the moon and gets a call that The Monocle is dead. All of the Umbrella Academy (save for one of them who has died) meet back at the old mansion for the funeral. The world is once again threatened by a villain, this time known as The Conductor, who has his own dark orchestra that is practicing to play the Apocalypse Suite. One of the children returns from the future, saying that the world will be destroyed and they have to stop this new threat before it's too late. The Umbrella Academy once again teams up for possibly another false alarm, or an actual threat to all of humanity.
This comic had some really fantastic characters. It had some intense battles, great humor, and a really awesome Chimp named Dr. Pogo. There was even a death scene that made me genuinely sad while reading it. Since this is a running series, I'm very interested in reading more. One thing that bothered me about the art was the artist contrast. The artist of the actual comic is Gabriel Ba but the cover art for each issue is James Jean. I think Gabriel's art fit the series well. It reminded of Mike Mignola's work on Hellboy. The only problem I had was that James Jean's cover art is fucking BEAUTIFUL. He creates these massive, gorgeous paintings for each cover. Frankly, I felt bad for Gabriel Ba. The reader sees James' insane cover art but then the actual comic art is a bit plain in comparison.
I HIGHLY suggest this to anyone that hates My Chemical Romance. I now see Gerard Way in an all new light. He's proven to me that he's a very skilled writer and I'm looking forward to more comics from him.
Umbrella Academy - Apocalypse Suite: 8/10
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