Comics by celebrities are not supposed to be very good.
Usually it’s Joe Superstar’s Superhero Comic Book, where the apostrophe indicates that Joe Superstar had nothing to do with the book aside from jotting down a few rough concepts in between work that pays real money. The actual comic would then be produced by some B or C-list comics professional, and be bought by … well, to be honest I’ve never really understood who buys that sort of thing.
So The Umbrella Academy, which is written by a musician – seriously, a musician? Not a novelist or a director, or even an actor? – shouldn’t be anywhere near as good as it is. I admit to knowing very little about Gerard Way or My Chemical Romance, but there aren’t many full-time comic writers who could produce a book this good. He gets some help from the super-talented Gabriel Ba, but it sure looks like one of the most fun and creative superhero books I’ve read in a while is coming from a guy who’s never written one before. (Which, come to think of it, might explain a lot.)
The central theme probably isn’t too original: A cranky old scientist adopts a bunch of kids with unusual abilities and trains them to fight evil. Except in this case, their abilities really are unusual: One can hold his breath forever. One has a rumour-based form of mind control. One travels back and forth in time, occasionally getting stuck in the future. One has monsters growing out of his stomach. One has absolutely nothing special about her at all. An early missions has them fighting a zombie scientist who’s animating the Eiffel tower.
Fast forward a few years and the cranky professor has died, leaving his “children” alone and utterly dysfunctional. Spaceboy, the one real superhero of the group, has had his head attached to a Gorilla. The Horror is dead. The time traveler disappeared before he could be given a proper superhero name. Vanya, the unspectacular one, is being wooed by a sinister composer who wants to use her musical talent to destroy the world. Everyone resents pretty much everyone else, and the only person keeping the family together is Dr. Pogo, a talking monkey.
The Umbrella Academy reads like Wes Anderson adapting Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. It’s full of crazy and bizarre ideas mixed with dysfunctional family dynamics coated with an odd gloss of eccentricity. It’s unquestionably silly, but it’s got heart; Way is giving the characters individual identities and motivations. Spaceboy, Vanya, and the nameless time traveler are the most developed thus far, but everyone else has been given at least a spark of life. And he’s mixing his off-the-wall superhero sensibilities with a dark sense of humour – where else will you hear a man tell his adopted daughter “There’s just nothing special about you”?
Gabriel Ba channels Mike Mignola adapting The Incredibles, selling both action and drama. He draws a great atomic wrestling match with a giant cosmic squid, but also does a nice job with Vanya’s sinister audition and the time traveller’s chronal misadventures. And I’ve also got to say that James Jeans’ covers look even nicer than his usual work – they stand out, and tell a bit more story, than is work on Fables.
The Umbrella Academy went from being a book to written by a rock star I’d never heard of to one people were talking about to one that I seriously enjoyed. It’s an entertaining take on the superhero genre that doesn’t read like it was written by a guy who’s been living in superhero comics for the past decade. It has no right to be this good – well, aside from the fact that it’s created by two clearly talented people, but you know what I mean – and it’s enough to make one optimistic about other celebrity-driven comics.
I mean, I’m still not going anywhere near the Nicholas Cage comic, but other than that I’m open to some new ideas.