What was so great about those series and is great about The Umbrella Academy is that they dig deep into the alienation of the heroes as they begin to realize that they will never be able to live as normal humans. Made even more special due to the fact that their superpowers are nurtured from birth. Nothing has dug so deep into the mechanics of a superhero family since the golden age of the Fantastic Four. We have the sibling rivalries, sibling romances (WTF?), secrets, dysfunction, and animosity that often come with being part of a family.

The focus of their stories isn’t so much that they save the world, but that they work TOGETHER to save the world. And we have to keep sticking our hands deep into the muck to find what once made these heroes so great, united this family, and where the breaking point occurred. The mystery isn’t that, all of a sudden, a family that swore to never unite again is rushed right back into the thick of the violence by forces yet to be revealed. It’s the past. We want to know where things went wrong so that we can measure the Umbrella Academy’s true obstacle: becoming a family again.

The Umbrella Academy’s first two adventures, titled “The Apocalypse Suite” and “Dallas,” reveal some of the family’s dark secrets as they battle a White Violin who has turned to evil and deal with Number Five’s return from exile 50 years in the future. In two series, the family puts an end to an apocalyptic orchestra and finally answers the question: Who killed JFK?

Of course, that was five years ago. A series that had such a promising start and an established fanbase (in large part due to its creator’s celebrity status) remains discontinued.

Gerard Way is currently working on another series for Dark Horse Comics called The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, a comic book sequel to My Chemical Romance’s final album, Danger Days, and it looks very promising. Rumor has it that Way might be done with comics after Killjoys. But where does that leave series three of The Umbrella Academy, tentatively titled (5 years ago) “Hotel Oblivion?”