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‘The Umbrella Academy’ whets the appetite

THE COMIC BOOK

“Apocalypse Suite” is the first arc in writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba’s “The Umbrella Academy.” Years ago forty-three children were born to mothers who had previously shown no sign of pregnancy. Scientist and wealthy entrepreneur Sir Reginald Hargreeves took it upon himself to hunt down these children, but could only wrangle seven of them.

“To save the world, of course.”

Hargreeves trains the children, named, unfortunately, Nos. 1 through 7. Each child has their own abilities, with the exception of No. 7, but she does play a mean violin. The children aren’t seen until the day the Eiffel Tower went berserk.

There’s an odd steampunk superhero vibe portrayed throughout the first six issues. Revolving mostly around the their reaction to their father’s death, the grown children return home for the first time in a while. Of course, this only brings about the end of the world.

“The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite” is a mad-cap, superheroic jaunt into a dysfunctional family bent on saving the world. “Umbrella Academy” has two collected trades out now, with a third series “Hotel Oblivion” that premiered in October 2018.

THE NETFLIX SHOW

I vacillate a lot on whether or not reading the source material before an adaptation is a good thing. Case in point: I’m not much of a Marvel guy, but boy-howdy do I get into their movies. I tend to glom on pretty hard to the DC universe, so i can’t latch onto their movies because they stray so far out of the wheelhouse of which I’m used to.

It can leave a guy a bit crazy.

But “Umbrella Academy” does something right here. Where the comic throws you into the action, the television series ramps up the angst and dysfunction of the Hargreeves children, by entertaining an entire slew of concepts which make this one of the greatest things I’ve seen on TV in a while.

First off, there’s story. Not to say the comic didn’t have any, but the television show fleshes out the characters in such detail that gives them a lived-in feel. Not only do you hear their names instead of just their numbers, you see their motivations and the fact that they have stories all their own.

The comic mostly relies on action to get the story rolling, but the television series expands upon that by opening up the loose ends and tying them up or even giving them extra space on which to give more slack.

Though it’s a superhero show, it’s deftly grounded in the real world. In the comic where there are very cliche instances of powers and people, the television series reels in that temptation to go silly with costumes and colorful flair. It’s a safe bet when a superhero show can still feel real.

The additions and subtractions can normally hurt a show, depending on how deep they run. “The Umbrella Academy” deftly weaves these with a silly nod to the genre, opening them up to more adept ways of telling the story within it.

“The Umbrella Academy” is now on Netflix and has ten episodes. There is already talk for a second season.

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