The Umbrella Academy Is A Winner

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The Umbrella Academy Is A Winner
By Henry Chamberlain
July 28, 2008 - 10:24

Dark Horse Comics
Writer(s): Gerard Way
Penciller(s): Gabriel Bá
Inker(s): Gabriel Bá
Colourist(s): Dave Stewart
Letterer(s): Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover Artist(s): James Jean
ISBN: 9781593079789
$18 US, 192 pages

I think The Umbrella Academy may have fallen prey to a little prejudice by some purists who didn't believe Gerard Way, the frontman for the band, My Chemical Romance, could actually create a solid comic book. Oh, and there's also the thing about the cute Umbrella Academy stickers and patches. Well its winning The Eisner Award for Best Limited Series at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con will shut up those comics snobs.

The Umbrella Academy is quite the baroque affair with extravagant scenarios and a byzantine trail of clues. The opening scenes provide a fantastical premise and enough raw material to keep this going as a never-ending tale. For starters, you have a miracle of forty-three births by undistinguished mothers to extraordinary children. An outrageously rich and famous mad scientist/alien, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, adopts seven of the infants and announces at a press conference that he has done this, "To save the world, of course."

The heart of an epic poem, with a droll sense of humor, beats within the pages of The Umbrella Academy. It is as if Way hungers to do everything and is willing to take risks in the storytelling simply because of the beauty of the attempt. The cover art by James Jean provides that promise and Gabriel Bá matches, note for note, Way's lyrical experimentation. With all these fantastical elements, chimp professors, human violins, time travel, aliens, apocalypse, you get a sense of viewing a great comics improvisation.

I don't think there will be an answer to everything conjured up in this book but, given enough time, perhaps most of the loose ends will be addressed. If I can just find out why The Eiffel Tower turned into a spaceship, I'll be satisfied. Don't get me wrong. The main plot, a story of sibling rivalry, does not get lost among the details. Actually, it's the details that keep you going. It is most definitely a pleasure to read and reread.

You'll want to linger on this book. Everything from the little details like the newspaper headlines responding back to the action to spectacles like a carnival set ablaze. Then there's the diner demolished by aliens, a chimp and a ten year-old boy wearing a monocle that can reveal a person's soul. The Umbrella Academy is that something new you've been looking for. Ignore any comics snobs. Remind them that this book won an Eisner and for good reason.