Many people are getting tired of the superhero genre. Its understandable. The popularity of Marvel and it’s competition have hit all time highs. With the amount of time it took for the genre to combine with modern technology to be able to bring these stories to the world, it is understandable for the trend to have hit an almost unbearable level. This has happened with many genres also. Vampires, rom-coms, satirical comedies, coming of age stories, and there is never a shortage of romance. The superhero genre is obviously here to stay and is finding its place in the visual spectrum. With that said we should at least recognize those that bring originality and quality to the genre. That’s exactly what The Umbrella Academy does. Netflix took a successful graphic novel that isn’t widely known, and adapted it in a way that not only does it justice, but shows there is plenty of room in the visual medium for original and well told superhero stories.

The Umbrella Academy is a story of children born to women who were not pregnant when they woke up the day they gave birth. A man of wealth adopts 7 of said children and begins to train them once they begin to show powers. Throughout the years this family becomes highly dysfunctional and separated until the day their adopted father dies and they all are reunited. From that day forward they are forced to deal with complex relationships and situations that have world ending implications. From time travel to speaking with the dead, The Umbrella Academy is rich in the imaginative supernatural and was cast perfectly to tell such a story.

The main cast consists of the 7 adopted children with Ellen Page (Vanya Hargreeves) being the most notable actor of the bunch. She plays an isolated and troubled member of the cast and her natural personality seems suited for such a role. Tom Hopper (Luther Hargreeves) plays the de facto leader of the troubled group and plays a character that has to come to terms with many issues during the season. Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison Hargreeves) plays a character whose focus is not mainly on her powers but on her roles in the sibling rivalry and of her own family. She does really well in this series. Honestly the entire cast is great. Without going into every role in the series two others notably stick out. Aidan Gallagher (Number 5) plays an interesting role that the main story revolves around and none other than the fabulous Mary J. Blige (Cha-Cha) plays an interdimensional hitman and is fantastic at doing so.

The Umbrella Academy takes a phenomenal cast and an interesting plot and delivers a high quality season worth binge watching. The story is dark but one of family, however weird that family may be. The Umbrella Academy will ask you to stretch your imagination while not using time to explain every detail. You either buy it or you don’t and they are ok with that. Other than the dark tone and a few mature moments, The Umbrella Academy is very PG-13. This had to of been a conscious effort seeing the graphic novel is far more adult. If you are sick and tired of the superhero genre and your childish imagination has been touched in the bad place than you may not appreciate the great story telling in this series, but if you are reading this on our nerd site then we’re willing to guess you are looking for something new and original to watch. The Umbrella Academy should be the next series you start with. Also check out the source material below and support the medium that provides the starting point for all these great stories. Without writers taking chances in comic form, many of these stories would never hit the screen.

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