The Umbrella Academy Books In Order

Publication Order of The Umbrella Academy Books

The Umbrella Academy is a series of comics by American musician, songwriter, singer, and comic book author Gerard Way. He was born in 1977 in Summit New Jersey to Donald Way and Donna Lee Way that were of Scottish and Italian ancestry. He was brought up in the city of Belleville in New Jersey. His parents realized he had artistic talent when he was cast as Peter Pan in a musical production as a fourth-grader. Gerard credits his maternal grandmother Elena Rush as his greatest influence as she taught him how to paint sing and perform from a very young age. He also credits Bon Jovi the glam metal band for getting him interested in music while he was in elementary school.

Way made his first attempt at comic book writing in 1993 when he was only 16 as he penned “On Raven’s Wings” a comic book that was published by Bonyard Press. However, the comic had to be discontinued after the second issue given that the art team pulled out of the project. He was a panelist on Sally Jesse Raphael at sixteen years of age where he discussed the publicizing of Jeffrey Dahmer, a very controversial topic at the time. Gerard Way went to Belleville High School and graduated in 1995 before he proceeded to New York City, where he attended the School of Visual Arts. He graduated from the school in 1999 with a bachelor’s in Fine Arts. He would then get interested in music and founded My Chemical Romance in 2001, where he was lead vocalist and lead singer until 2013. However, he began writing “The Umbrella Academy” the comic book miniseries in 2007. The first volume of the series was the Dark Horse Comics published “Apocalypse Suite” that he published in the same year. Way wrote and illustrated the original version of Apocalypse Suite though he would later get Gabriel Ba the cartoonist to redraw the art. He went on to co-found “Young Animal Imprint” at DC Comics and also wrote “The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” the comic miniseries. The Umbrella Academy comic book series is an Eisner Award-winning comic that has been made into a Netflix series.

The Umbrella Academy Series by Gerard Way is a story of an alienated family of superheroes that had performed incredible exploits during their prime. The forty-three superheroes had been unexpectedly born to women across the world that had never shown any signs of pregnancy. Seven of the children had been adopted by a rich scientist named Sir Reginald Hargreeves who is also an undercover alien. He molded them into the Umbrella Academy, the world’s most efficient superhero team. Together, they put all manner of villains behind bars though over the years they had fallen out and lost context with each other. They must now come back together to navigate a nightmare reunion, deal with painful pasts that have been brought about by their abusive father and at the same time save their world. In “Apocalypse Suite” the first of the series, the Umbrella Academy team needs to stop one of their own from ending the world. The classically trained violinist can play her violin and destroy the world as we know it with orchestra. “Dallas” the second novel of the series is about the fifth sibling named Number Five. She is a time-traveling assassin who has been given money to go back in time to 1963. Her mission is to kill JFK and the siblings either have to thwart the assassination or help him. “Hotel Oblivion” the third novel is the story of the hotel that the novel is named for. The series takes a look at the family connection to the hotel which is something of a purgatorial prison that operates on another dimension.

“Apocalypse Suite” the first novel of the series examines the concept of the onus of protecting humanity using superhuman abilities, even if it comes at personal cost. It introduces the superheroes of the Umbrella Academy but focuses on the seven adopted by Hargreeves. They had been born in unclear circumstances and been adopted by the rich scientist that had forged them into some of the best superheroes. They were trained to save the world from any kind of threat and had been doing so for years until they fell out with each other. Two decades later they are still dealing with the dubious parenting and tutelage of Hargreaves, which had left them emotionally scarred. But there was one child that had been hurt particularly badly. Now, these emotional scars are being used to create a malicious instrument that may just result in Armageddon. Despite the dark subject matter, there a surprising strong even if tenuous bonds of loyalty between the children, even as they are only being reunited after decades.

“Dallas” the second of the Umbrella Academy series is set immediately after the events of the first. After one of their own nearly caused Armageddon and resulted in the death of a beloved one, the members of the Umbrella Academy each wrnt their own way. Everyone is dealing with their own emotional turmoil and has no time for the superhero Academy. But there has never been a better moment for them to come back together than an event that threatens the world yet again. They need to reunite in the face of new threats to John F Kennedy who is now being targeted by one of their own. Number Five is one of the deadliest of the Umbrella Academy, who has been contracted to go back in time to assassinate one of the greatest presidents the US has ever had. It is an entertaining and gripping volume as the sibling struggle with whether to work with their sibling or thwart him in his attempts that they are sure will destabilize the world. While the characters remain minimally grounded, you can always expect the story to go in all kinds of directions as they explode with emotion and energy.

“Hotel Oblivion” the third of The Umbrella Academy series by Gerard Way takes place after the events of the second comic book series. The story analyzes the ambitious yet suspicious creation of the Umbrella Academy and the mysterious connection of the family to Hotel Oblivion. The heroes have not had the chance to reconnect in recent times and hence this is one mission that is proving harder than any they had encountered before. The fractured team needs to deal with the fact that its members are too engrossed doing their own things that Umbrella Academy has lost all its effectiveness. The first several issues of the comic follow the happenings of the different characters and also introduces a mystery. It also looks at the relationships between them while giving each of them an interesting character arc.