Box Watcher

I had been hearing about The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite for a while now.  On various comics blogs and websites it was getting favorable reviews, yet for some reason I resisted.  Thinking back on it I was worried the book would be too “artsy-fartsy”.  All style and no substance.  After all it was written by by Gerard Way, lead singer for something called “My Chemical Romance”(I’ve heard of them but I’ve never heard them).  Despite all that I recently took a chance on the Tradepaperback.  How surprised I was with this book.  

At 9:38 pm on some unspecified day, forty-three “extraordinary” children were born.  What made them special?  How about that many of them were birthed by women who weren’t even pregnant up until that point.  Also they all seem to have super powers.  Soon after Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a world famous scientist, adopts seven of the children.  When asked why he cryptically answers, “To save the world, of course”.  But he never elaborates from what.  Ten years later five of the children, still under Hargreeves care, show up to battle the Eiffel Tower, there is a very clever reason why but I wouldn’t want to spoil that here.  

Twenty years later and they reunite for Hargreeves’ funeral.  One of the children died, one has disappeared, and one is in seclusion.  Soon they must all reunite to finally accomplish what they were brought together for in the first place.  

What Way does is brilliant.  By starting the story with the early adventure he gives the team a real sense of history.  Many new comics try to weave elements of what came before like they were easter eggs but they usually feel forced.  Here we actually see what it was like to be a kid in that environment.  Some of the children love it.  Spaceboy, the team leader, is having the time of his life being a hero.  It is clear from the first battle that adventuring is his calling, and he thrives on it.  

Yanya, on the other hand had a tougher time with things.  She had to sit out the battle against the tower because she lacks any superpower.  Her only talent is playing the violin, which does not help much when fighting a renegade national monument.  She seems very melancholy about the whole situation and withdraws from her siblings and surrogate father.  In fact the only one she seems close to is Dr. Pogo, an ultra-intelligent Chimp who assisted Hargreeves.  Her story turns tragic and his heartbreaking.  

When the team reunites twenty years later they are mostly estranged from one another.  Emotional scars run deep as the surviving members, one of them died but we’re never told the circumstances of this characters death, have tried to figure what kind of lives are ahead of them with little to no success.  To say this is one dysfunctional family is an understatement. ,  

Don’t think it’s all doom and gloom though, there are many fun elements in the book.  Things like the aforementioned Eiffel Tower, talking chimps, a sixty-year-old time traveller trapped in the body of a ten-year-old, etc.  Even Gabriel Ba’s art has a whimsical look to it.  The creators do an excellent balancing act, mixing the mirth with the pensive.  

The Umbrella Academy does everything the X-men used to be able to.  Tell the story of a world full of imminent doom and destruction that is saved by a group of misunderstood young people.  It shows the heroism of those young people not in the act of saving the world, but in growing up.  I know I won’t wait so long to buy the next Umbrella Academy trade.  

***** out of *****

When it’s a slow week at the comic shop I like to pick out a trade/graphic novel that I wouldn’t normally buy. Take a chance on something that looks different. The shop I go to has a great deal where they give you a punch card. You buy 10 trades and the 11th is free. So when I went to the shop a couple of weeks ago and had nothing in my pull box I decided to browse the selection of trades. My eyes soon found themselves looking at the cover to The Fillbach Brothers’ opus Maxwell Strangewell. A story about a photographer named Anna who discovers a 10-foot tall alien she soon names Max. After establishing an empathic bond with him she soon learns that Max may be responsible for the end of the world. Factor in two alien races (one of which survives on Earth as accountants) prepared to go to war over Max, another alien that worships him, a crazed F.B.I. agent, Tibetan monks named Yin and Yang, The Man in Moon, a jogger who keeps the Earth spinning, and a trip to the center of the Earth and Anna finds her hands full.

This story is vast. There are many characters with full story arcs. Each one takes a very personal journey that meshes perfectly with the overall story at hand. Despite all this the plot never feels over burdened. This is accomplished through some fantastic character moments.

In a scene where two of the side characters; Anna’s father Paul and FBI agent Jerkins,are forced to revisit some of the highs and lows from their lives The Fillbach’s expertly accomplish two things. First, they advance the plot by showing us their “deaths” in a way not normally illustrated in comics. Secondly they share some moments that define who these people are. But best of all it is done in way that doesn’t feel forced or part of a formula.

Now all this talk of deaths and the end of the world might make this book to sound pretty heavy and it is to an extent. But the tone of the book is that of a good summer movie. Even when the stakes are raised some well placed humor lightens the moment, not the mood. After several characters are transported to purgatory to rescue Anna. Witness the following exchange as they traverse the afterlife:

Yin: She should be at the waters of Nirvana.

Yang: Yes. The bliss of its waters draws all souls. Can you feel it’s pull?

Lobscrum: All I feel is wind and sand up my ass!

These are the moments that really make the book. The writing stays true to the characters on every single page. From the dialogue that feels so natural even the exposition sounds the way people talk to the way that even rarely seen characters never act inconsistent to what we know about them.

Matthew and Shawn Fillbach have created some of the most unique and interesting comics characters in recent history. Crafted a story for them that has elements of Buddhism, Christianity, and the writings of Douglas Adams. Then populated them in a world that feels enough like ours to make the reader feel like laughing and crying at the end of the world.