The Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite: A New Comic Book Written by Gerard Way
A comic review on a music website? Bear with me, it is relevant.
Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance. Admit it, just seeing the name immediately brought to your mind some kind of reaction. These days it seems like almost anyone with any interest in the rockier side of things either has a vehement dislike or a passionate love for the band. They’ve gone so far through the industry hype machine that it’s damn near impossible to avoid, but it would be a shame if whatever opinion you have of the corporate MCR brand closed your mind to The Umbrella Academy, a new comic scripted by MCR frontman Gerard Way.
I’ll admit, I bought the first issue more as an investment than anything else. The 2 or 3 copies of the Free Comic Book day sampler I somehow ended up with (yes, Free Comic Book day is a real thing) could now sell for about 3 each on ebay so I figured what the hell, a couple of quid for issue one now could turn into a nice little earner in the future. But I’m not that much of a collector that I won’t read a comic before storing it away, and I’ll always give any fresh material a go. It’s… actually really fucking good, and that’s coming from a metaller and a comic geek, a combination of two of the most notoriously hard to please types of people.
The plot concerns the exploits of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, aka The Monocle, a wealthy entrepreneur, inventor and possibly space alien. One day a series of unexplained births happen worldwide and old Reggie sets out to adopt as many of these children as possible, but he manages to find only seven. Skip forward a few years and The Umbrella Academy is founded, a group of children with extraordinary talents looking to both save the world and find their own place within it. The synopsis doesn’t really do it justice though. I’ve read the first issues of a lot of new indie comics and perhaps the hardest thing to do is generate a world with sufficient depth that you get drawn in, seeing as you’re unable to rely on previous support characters of sixty years of history like Superman or the X-Men. Way succeeds completely - you are drawn into a semi-futuristic, semi-Victorian world where talking scientist monkeys go hand in hand with Flash Gordon style rocketships, and each of the seven Umbrella Students is an intriguing character in their own right. Way’s writing is supported by the stunning artistic talents of penciller Gabriel Ba and colourist Dave Stewart. From Paris to the surface of the moon every scene is rich with detail, and it’s no bad thing in this instance to point out that there’s a clear link with the artistic and thematic styling of MCR’s last album The Black Parade, particularly in the uniforms of the Umbrella students and the colour palette throughout,
Perhaps the most important thing is that the style of the writing covers two very difficult areas incredibly well. On the one hand there’s a very dark background to what’s going on - even from issue one you get the feeling that something very twisted is going to be incoming and that there’s a lot of skeletons to pop up from the past. On the other hand the story doesn’t take itself too seriously and there’s some genuinely funny moments - you definitely won’t see another script which gets to include a “Zombie Robot Gustave Eiffel!” as a bad guy, and some of the random pieces of text dotted around the comic are pure genius. It reminds me in places of The Amazing Screw On Head, a one-shot story by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola which rips into old-school pulp action stories and has some of the funniest closing pages I’ve ever read - if you’re already reading the Umbrella Academy pick up Screw On Head now.
I really can’t recommend this book more, and this is coming from someone who’s read a lot of shit over the years. You don’t have to be a regular comic reader either - unlike most other books it’s self contained with no convoluted continuity to learn. While I’ve got the chance to spread the word of comic geekery, if you’re looking for anything else check out The Immortal Iron Fist on Marvel comics - they’ve turned a previously hardly-known character into the centrepiece for a dark, kung fu, noir action mystery thriller with just a touch of eastern mysticism. It’s possibly the best book out there at the moment.
The Umbrella Academy, issue two of six, was published September 19 on Dark Horse Comics.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:28pm
As a fansite for My Chemical Romance on MySpace, I was hearing and reading about this comic book for months before it even came out. Fans were crawling to get their hands on a copy, since a special release was given out on the Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day…or whatever it was called. Apparently, it’s quite impressive.
I have yet to actually obtain a copy of said comic book, but from what my friends and fellow marchers have told me, it’s great. I’m looking forward to receiving a copy myself this Holiday Season.
Respectfully,
The Black Parade Around The World
[-k]
February 13th, 2008 at 2:14am
Dear Adam:
I brazenly admit that I chanced upon UA not through a comic website, but through an MCR fan forum. Alright, so before you tell me to get the hell out, let me also throw in that I’m not a comic person in the first place, so what would the chances of me being in a comic forum be? Better late than…u know the cliche. And what better way to be introduced to graphic-noveldom than UA: Apocalypse Suite.
I think the Apocalypse orchestra is, in fact, a stroke of genius. It’s also interesting that Monocle being a cold bastard (well he bloody is, alien or not) is central to the children being the way they are - strangely steely and antagonistic even as young teens. It sets the whole tone of the story, the tension in their relationship, the surprising moments of black humour. I’m also a sucker for the whole ‘futuristic apocalyptica + operatic grandeur’ concept. Always have, always will.
At first when reading the letters in the feedback pages, I was a little irked that many of them kept bringing up My Chemical Romance when mentioning Gerard to the point that the comic was connected with everything MCR. (And I *am* an MCR fan!) But it’s true - u can’t deny there *are* quite a number of Black Parade and Sweet Revenge themes in UA. And as the series goes on (the latest is coming out 20th Feb, right?) more and more ppl will be able to read it without having to associate it with the band who do their own thing and are talented in their own right.
And speaking of which, I’d like to quote u here:
“These days it seems like almost anyone with any interest in the rockier side of things either has a vehement dislike or a passionate love for the band.”
To that sort of viewpoint, i reply: I always assume that unless u’re a purposeful attention or spotlight whore, the hype u get as an artiste can’t be helped most of the time. It’s preferable to obscurity and IMHO, to say a band has lost its edge or talent or creativity (this is evidently *not* your outlook, but the outlook of many musicians and listeners out there) because of a heavy dose of fame is plain unfair. Music is music. If u don’t like it don’t bloody listen to it. Fame is a side effect; deal with it. This is what I have to say to all the overly judgmental audiences - of which u are obviously not a member.
Thanks for the well-fleshed out review! And sorry for being so long-winded.
love,
Charl