The Umbrella Academy Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite

I wasn't going to read this, after watching a bunch, but not all, of the show and enjoying it enough, but not being blown away. I am very glad it was sin my local library network because it's unbelievably different in form and tone to the show and I absolutely loved it!

This takes aesthetics and the veneer of the sensibilities of much older superhero comics and huge, weird premises, just go with it stylings, and updates the actual tone and writing to a very modern, fresh, and self aware look at superheroes, particularly child prodigy superheroes and how that effects their adult lives.

The DNA of the show is all there with some major changes, especially the portrayal of Vanya. The show fleshes out and deepens a lot of the characters and show more their relationships at the expense of the utterly ridiculous, rip-roaringnsess of the comic. There's just so much fun and herded-cat effective silliness and scale that just doesn't translate, and it's glorious to see in its original form, and to have both!

The art is great. The writing is really cool. This is just an absolute corker of a comic that wasn't in the least but spoiled by my already knowing the general beats of the story from the show. I will absolutely be checking out further volumes and kinda want to actually catch up on the show now too.

This was absolutely the cover to cover happy times, single-sitting read that I needed after BRZRKR was such a disappointment. show less

A bunch of babies are inexplicably born - odd given baby births are fairly explicable - and a gentleman adventurer adopts seven of them to save the world. It turns out they have freaky powers and they fight monsters and villains as The Umbrella Academy, then they grow up, split up and generally fall apart. Reunited at the death of their adoptive father, about whom they had mixed feelings at best, they have to deal with an impending apocalypse brought about by one of their own.

This is a mad, sharp, acerbic, inventive, pulpish, modernist, surreal superhero tale that owes much in tone to Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. Gabriel Ba's visuals are astonishing.

I'm one of those late-to-the-party losers who knew of Umbrella Academy, but never got around to reading it until just now, long after I'd watched season one of the Netflix show.

So, bear in mind, my thoughts are going to be filtered through having experienced the excellent, but wildly different show.

Having said all that, I know the graphic novel is always a different animal to the live-action adaptation. Just look at something like [b:Wanted|160848|Wanted|Mark Millar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355855954l/160848._SY75_.jpg|1475550], or even [b:Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event|91714|Civil War A Marvel Comics Event|Mark show more Millar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1345813608l/91714._SY75_.jpg|577888]. This one's no different. Much more irreverent, much less backstory and character development, but just a whole lot of fun, with some serious bizarreness thrown in along the way.

Once again, the art is very cartoonish, and, while it mostly suits this storyline, it'll never be a favourite of mine. But it gets the job done.

Definitely looking forward to the next two volumes. Now I only have to hope Full Daffy, that arbiter of intelligence, doesn't think I'm too stupid to read this series too. show less

I used to say, "I like to take college classes to be around young people, it keeps you young." So reading this brought me kind of the same conclusion. It was a suggestion from my 12-year-old daughter and thanks to her and her youthiness I am no much cooler than I was before I read this. Having kids definitely makes you less cool by making you more domesticated, but if you pay attention and hang out with them enough, you might have a chance at being cool again.

I imagine that after writing this while touring on the Black Parade tour, Gerard Way just withered and wrinkled a way into a desiccated husk. The expenditure of so much epic creativity in such a short period of time should be illegal. How does one manage to write the Bohemian show more Rhapsody of Generation Y and Z (which is the Black Parade in case you were wondering) AND... I said AND also write one of the most kick ass comics in the past 10 years? (that's a very arbitrary number, I probably could have said 20 but I think 10 is enough for you to get the point).

Umbrella Academy is original, it's compelling, the art is fantastic, and maybe best of all it's comprehensible while still being complex. The characters were deep, in fact they were so deep that at the end I felt I had missed the first 50 issues of the comic. I wanted more, I wanted it to be a novel (with illustrations).

Anyway, there's still another graphic novel to go and because I'm a masochist I'll wait a couple weeks to read it and I'll read it one comic a day, absorbing its awesomeness slowly, hoping that it's catchy. show less

Very fast-paced; too much so, I feel. We hop, skip, and jump from funeral and introduction to climax and resolution. It's not so fast that you can't follow it, but it does feel a little bit like an outline.

I'm coming at this having seen the Netflix adaptation, and I think it did a better job at establishing the relationships between the characters. Or rather, fleshing them out. Certainly you understand that these two were close, this one is a junkie, this one is macho vigilante, etc., from this, there's just more in the show. Vanya especially got a better foundation for her unhappiness with her family.

Also, the art style wasn't really my thing. I always feel a little petty when that happens, but the visual element IS, like, literally show more half the point of a "graphic" novel: if you can't enjoy the style of delivery (written or drawn), it does impact your enjoyment of the overall work. The action scenes I found a little hard to follow, and I flat-out didn't get the Terminauts, which...what, babbled non-sequiturs? Were they chaotic-stupid or what? Five (or was it One) did comment that they felt like a distraction, but they were still pretty out of place.

So, overall, shrug. show less

When Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy comic series first came out, I had very little interest in it, despite the amount of excitement at my favorite comic shop. Superheroes have never really been my "thing," although I usually still enjoy the sub-genre. But, when the trade paperback of the original story arc came out, the cover caught my eye and I decided to give it a try (I couldn't resist the musically themed villain and title). Apocalypse Suite, in addition to collecting the first six issues of the comic, includes the 2007 Free Comic Book Day issue and a two page "short story" preview from Dark Horse's website (both with notes by the artist, Gabriel Bá), as well as an introduction by Grant Morrison, an afterword by the series' show more editor, Scott Allie, extra artwork, covers, and preliminary sketches and character design.

Apocalypse Suite starts at the very beginnings of the Umbrella Academy, when forty-seven children were spontaneously born all over the world by women who previously had shown no signs of pregnancy. Seven of these children were found and adopted by millionaire inventor and space alien Sir Reginald Hargreeves to be raised and trained to save the world (though from what, nobody is entirely sure). Forming a rather dysfunctional superhero team (not to mention family), they eventually disband. Years later, the siblings reunite when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, just in time to prevent one of their own from destroying the planet.

The whole book is very intense and a bit of a mind-trip. It takes a couple of issues to really get going, but once it does the pacing and insanity falls into place quite nicely. One of the best (and shortest) descriptions of the story I've come across is from the American Library Association's 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens: "When you come from a family of superheroes, don't piss off your sister." The relationships and family dynamics are incredible even if a bit bizarre at times. I adore the characters--The Kraken is probably my favorite, followed closely by The White Violin (accompanied by an orchestra of supervillians, of course). But really, I like the whole group of them. The storytelling isn't entirely linear and often feels rather cryptic, especially towards the beginning; quite a bit is left unsaid and many of the details must be inferred. Granted, the speculation required can be great fun.

The artwork is stunning--the book is simply gorgeous to look at. I love the style created by Gabriel Bá's art and Dave Stewart's coloring in Apocalypse Suite--although using a wide palate of colors (including very bright ones), it still conveys a dark, almost gothic, atmosphere. Figures and shapes tend to be more angular than realistic and slightly out of proportion, but the illustrations are very effective. A couple of panels were probably overly graphic, even in comparison to the rest of the illustrations. The artists don't hold back, and the execution is brilliant even when it is disturbing. Emotionally packed, it easily goes from gut-wrenching to amusing and back again. There are some minor consistency and continuity problems, but overall the art is fantastic.

I am very conflicted when it comes to Apocalypse Suite. I didn't really like it at first, but by the end I was invested; after finishing the book, I couldn't stop thinking about the blasted thing. So, I picked it up and read it again and the same thing happened. At first, I was unsure, but by the end I think I was almost in love. While on the surface it appears to be rather outrageous and even absurd, the book contains a surprising amount of depth and carries quite an impact. Despite any misgivings I still have about Apocalypse Suite, I am now thoroughly addicted to The Umbrella Academy. Hopefully, I won't have to wait too long for the second trade collection, Dallas, to be published. Although, I suppose I could always break down and buy the comics individually.

Experiments in Reading show less

I hate to admit it, but I kind of liked the television adaptation of the Umbrella Academy better than the original graphic novel... Way has written an interesting story, and Ba does a great job of bringing things to life visually, but the film version just has so much more life. Without having seen the series first, I don't think the graphic novel would have made as much sense, as Way barely has a chance to sketch his protagnists' backstory before they are thrown into chaos. There are always going to be missing elements to every character (that's what keeps us interested), but I honestly didn't see much to set up the various Umbrella Academy members' powers, their relationships, and their motivations- read: everything that made the show more television series so engaging. Not sure if I'll bother picking up the second volume of the series, or whether I'll just stick to the tv series. show less