THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE
March 17th 2009 01:26
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Publisher: Dark Horse
Production Team: Gerard Way – writer, Gabriel Ba – artist, Dave Stewart – colours & Nate Piekos of Blambot – letters.
Cost: $AU 22.25/$US 17.95
Most people probably know the writer of this particular work from his Freddy Mercury stylings and histrionics in the band My Chemical Romance, in particular their gothic/glam rock anthem “The Black Parade”. Me I wouldn’t know the band from Adam, granted I don’t mind a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody now and then, but frankly my tastes tend more towards Gregorian chanting mixed with a little bit of PJ Harvey and now and then a dose of Bauhaus. So when I heard about this particular work and found it sitting on the shelves of the local library almost inviting me to borrow it I threw caution to the wind and decided to embrace this work; to see what it would reveal beneath the Lanterns viridian gaze.
It is definitely not your usual superhero style graphic novel, although it does gave more than a fairly passing node to the various conventions of the genre in weaving its tale. Essentially the story does not so much begin with the major protagonists of this tale but rather with a bout of space squid wrestling that for some unknown and as yet undefined reasons sparks off an interesting series of events. An unusual way to begin but then again it does work rather well and draws the reader in, your curiosity is piqued, you want to know more and thus you find yourself turning the pages and becoming enthralled. A creative writing teacher of mine once said to me that if you can draw people in with that opening sentence of your work then it is likely they will continue to read, fail to do that and you will have a struggle to keep their attention. Certainly Mr Way and Ba have managed to achieve this effect, but what precisely is it that the audience find themselves drawn into?
Well after Tusslin Tom (no relation) delivers and atomic elbow to the squid from Rigel X-9 all over the world at precisely that same moment forty three extraordinary children were born to forty three women all around the globe, most of whom had not shown any signs of pregnancy. A curious event indeed, enter Sir Reginald Hargreeves, also known as the Monocle, a scientist of world renown, an inventor, wealth entrepreneur and Noble prize laureate for his work in the cerebral advancement of the Chimpanzee. This mysterious and enigmatic individual set about with his trusty bodyguard Abhijat to adopt as many of these children as he possibly could, he managed to adopt seven. It was an interesting move, one that intrigued the world at large and prompted them to question his rationale behind this seeming act of philanthropy.
It seemed that the Monocle knew something no one else did, namely that the world needed to be save which was why he adopted this seven children. Strangely though he neglected to mention the specifics of what the world needed to be saved from. Global warming, an alien invasion, the return of the Great Old Ones or perhaps, horror of horrors, the reforming of Aqua and a subsequent world tour? The cause is left deliberately mysterious and even after reading this work you are left wondering whether what has happened between its pages is in fact the apocalyptic scenario initially envisaged by the Monocle.
After being adopted by this rather eccentric figure the tale moves into the meat of the story, ten years after the adoption of the seven children and its events open in what some would call the City of Lights, the City of Love; Paris more commonly known as the French Capital. Strange things have been happening around the vicinity of the world famous Eiffel Tower, people having been going splat around the thing like overripe tomatoes, for some reason falling from a great height. A sudden spate of lovesick lovers deciding to end it all by jumping off the most significant landmark in Paris? Or perhaps the result of some rust and faulty maintenance? Regardless of the rationale it seems that the authorities are perplexed and helpless…enter the Umbrella Academy.
This is what the seven children adopted by the Monocle are waiting for, a berserk Eiffel Tower causing havoc and chaos amongst the good citizenry of Paris. Or is it? When the dust finally settles and the Eiffel Tower has soared off into the stars, it’s apparently a spaceship you see, it seems the Umbrella Academy has saved the world. Well in actual fact they’ve only saved Paris, I’m fairly certain that anywhere else was going about there normal routine having breakfast, enjoying the sights, going about their work or taking things easy. The interesting thing is that even at this early stage of their formation there are strains within the academy, one member has already left heading off to who knows where and there is something of a struggle as to who is top dog amongst the remaining members.
A further ten years pass, in that time the various members of the academy have separated and gone their own ways, interestingly by this time they have adopted various monikers, no longer are the simply known by numbers although the boy who ran away is still called number five. The other members of this dysfunctional heroic combo are Spaceboy, the Kraken, the Rumour, Séance and Vanya formerly known as Number 7 and not seen as anything special by the Monocle or her former team mates. It’s interesting to see that although these children all possess some unusual abilities none of them have anything approaching some of the more standard kind of superhero facets and traits; there are no laser eye beams, super prodigious strength or speed, flight without the aid of technological aids or invulnerability. Still the abilities they do have are interesting and work more with the story and their own unique characters than would your standard stock heroic abilities, what is interesting is that even after ten years these ‘heroes’ haven’t quite realised their full potential.
And strangely that is precisely what Apocalypse Suite is all about, potential, realising your own potential or being made aware of that potential lying within and doing something with it. It takes the death of the Monocle before members of the Academy begin to realise that they are more than they seem and that together they are even more impressive although as Kakashi Sensei would say…they could certainly do with some more work on the who teamwork side of things. The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is a fresh, well crafted take on the whole superhero genre, definitely worth taking the time out to pick up and peruse.
Production Team: Gerard Way – writer, Gabriel Ba – artist, Dave Stewart – colours & Nate Piekos of Blambot – letters.
Cost: $AU 22.25/$US 17.95
Most people probably know the writer of this particular work from his Freddy Mercury stylings and histrionics in the band My Chemical Romance, in particular their gothic/glam rock anthem “The Black Parade”. Me I wouldn’t know the band from Adam, granted I don’t mind a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody now and then, but frankly my tastes tend more towards Gregorian chanting mixed with a little bit of PJ Harvey and now and then a dose of Bauhaus. So when I heard about this particular work and found it sitting on the shelves of the local library almost inviting me to borrow it I threw caution to the wind and decided to embrace this work; to see what it would reveal beneath the Lanterns viridian gaze.
It seemed that the Monocle knew something no one else did, namely that the world needed to be save which was why he adopted this seven children. Strangely though he neglected to mention the specifics of what the world needed to be saved from. Global warming, an alien invasion, the return of the Great Old Ones or perhaps, horror of horrors, the reforming of Aqua and a subsequent world tour? The cause is left deliberately mysterious and even after reading this work you are left wondering whether what has happened between its pages is in fact the apocalyptic scenario initially envisaged by the Monocle.
After being adopted by this rather eccentric figure the tale moves into the meat of the story, ten years after the adoption of the seven children and its events open in what some would call the City of Lights, the City of Love; Paris more commonly known as the French Capital. Strange things have been happening around the vicinity of the world famous Eiffel Tower, people having been going splat around the thing like overripe tomatoes, for some reason falling from a great height. A sudden spate of lovesick lovers deciding to end it all by jumping off the most significant landmark in Paris? Or perhaps the result of some rust and faulty maintenance? Regardless of the rationale it seems that the authorities are perplexed and helpless…enter the Umbrella Academy.
This is what the seven children adopted by the Monocle are waiting for, a berserk Eiffel Tower causing havoc and chaos amongst the good citizenry of Paris. Or is it? When the dust finally settles and the Eiffel Tower has soared off into the stars, it’s apparently a spaceship you see, it seems the Umbrella Academy has saved the world. Well in actual fact they’ve only saved Paris, I’m fairly certain that anywhere else was going about there normal routine having breakfast, enjoying the sights, going about their work or taking things easy. The interesting thing is that even at this early stage of their formation there are strains within the academy, one member has already left heading off to who knows where and there is something of a struggle as to who is top dog amongst the remaining members.
A further ten years pass, in that time the various members of the academy have separated and gone their own ways, interestingly by this time they have adopted various monikers, no longer are the simply known by numbers although the boy who ran away is still called number five. The other members of this dysfunctional heroic combo are Spaceboy, the Kraken, the Rumour, Séance and Vanya formerly known as Number 7 and not seen as anything special by the Monocle or her former team mates. It’s interesting to see that although these children all possess some unusual abilities none of them have anything approaching some of the more standard kind of superhero facets and traits; there are no laser eye beams, super prodigious strength or speed, flight without the aid of technological aids or invulnerability. Still the abilities they do have are interesting and work more with the story and their own unique characters than would your standard stock heroic abilities, what is interesting is that even after ten years these ‘heroes’ haven’t quite realised their full potential.
And strangely that is precisely what Apocalypse Suite is all about, potential, realising your own potential or being made aware of that potential lying within and doing something with it. It takes the death of the Monocle before members of the Academy begin to realise that they are more than they seem and that together they are even more impressive although as Kakashi Sensei would say…they could certainly do with some more work on the who teamwork side of things. The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is a fresh, well crafted take on the whole superhero genre, definitely worth taking the time out to pick up and peruse.
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