Review: The Umbrella Academy: Oblivion Hotel #1

If you are not familiar with Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s fantastically imaginative Umbrella Academy, this is not a great jumping on point. The Umbrella Academy has never been an ongoing title, the characters exist in a series of limited series of which this is the third. Although nine years have passed since we last saw the Hargreeves siblings, this story is set soon after the events of Dallas, the sophomore Umbrella Academy series, which is why I feel that, while this is the first issue of a new story, some knowledge of the previous series is not only helpful, but necessary to follow this new narrative.

A brief history of the adopted Hargreeves children; as the story goes all of the siblings were born on the same day in various diverse parts of the world, born with special powers, think X-Men-like mutant abilities, the youngsters were collected and raised by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, aka The Monocle, an extraterrestrial disguised as a rich, eccentric human, think Skrull posing as Charles Xavier. The Hargreeves children were part of 43 such offspring born with these abilities to women who by all appearances immaculately conceived their babies. Of these 43 only 7 survived, these survivors went on to become the Umbrella Academy. Okay, this is a very concise history, the world that Way set his narrative in is full of wonderfully strange details and peculiarities such as the events take place in an alternate timeline where JFK was never assassinated and for all intents and purposes it is perpetually 1977. Once gathered together the children are then trained to use their abilities for the greater good by Hargreeves. They are given the code names; The White Violin, The Kraken, Spaceboy, The Rumor, The Seance, The Horror and Number Five. This issue brings us up to speed with just about all of the Academy team members, it alsoÂ introduces us to the Oblivion Hotel. The credits page is cleverly rendered as a menu playing on the idea of a hotel in a way that is completely indicative of Way and Ba’s rapier wit.

Gerard Way masterfully pulls back the curtain just enough to give us tantalizing glimpses into the current state of the characters without revealing too much. The narrative unfolds at a satisfying pace while never becoming bogged down with the amount of information Way presents to us. He seems to have very precisely broken down the main body of the story into one or two page vignettes containing just enough plot to weave together a cohesive and engrossing narrative.

Visually Gabriel Ba’s style has evolved to even more perfectly convey the quirkiness of Way’s vision than on the previous two collaborations. Ba’s staging of the action sequences are poetic in their stunning visual beauty and hypnotic in their sense of movement. Ba and Way seem to have developed an intuitive sense of storytelling, creating a chemistry that transcends the page. Nick Filardi’s colors add an ethereal feel to the visuals that works so well with Way’s story.

The first issue in this installment of The Umbrella Academy opus perfectly sets the stage and whets the appetite for more of this peculiarly delightful world. Without tipping their hand too much Way and Ba have invited us to stay at the Oblivion Hotel, at least for a little while. 5/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer- Gerard Way
Artist- Gabriel Ba
Colors- Nick Filardi