The Umbrella Academy stumps me. It trots along with a straight-faced, unapologetic adventure all the while daring me to reject the visual and narrative hyperbole. Unlike Kick-Ass, which moves into and out of and back into a meditation on our relationship with comic books and their heroes, Umbrella Academy sticks to the story line—as strange and cryptic as it is.
I liked it—The Academy that is. Despite myself. Despite the strangely incomplete narrative. Despite its subversive challenge not to be taken seriously.
Someone said that watching The Maltese Falcon (or perhaps it was The Big Sleep) is like going down a staircase in the dark. Wish I had come up with that one for The Umbrella Academy. The characterizations overtake the storyline. But isn’t that the case with the all of the others? Batman, Spiderman, the Fables. Sam Spade. We read them not to see what happens; we read them to hang out with the crew.
And Kick-Ass? I am going to blaspheme. Hold off for the movie. The graphic novel vacillates between violent and sexual sensationalism—delivering plenty of both obscuring all else. (A round of CoD or Gears would have been a lot more satisfying.)
Bayard
1 comment:
First, Bayard, welcome to the Comics and Geeks family. You're fully inducted now that you've posted your first post on Umbrella Academy.
Zimm and I both love this series.
If you liked it, you should track down the trades or singles of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run. They're distant cousins of the Umbrella crew.
Also, on Kick Ass, you're not blaspheming. It's one of those series where it was created with the movie in mind. Millar wasn't creating a comic book with Kick Ass. He was creating a template for a movie to follow.
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