If you were to open a comic and within the first few pages a statue of John Wilkes Booth shot the Lincoln Memorial in the back of the head, would you keep reading? See, that’s the type of question I don’t need to ask, because everyone should answer yes to it. Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá have returned to The Umbrella Academy with ferocity, giving us a time travelling adventure the likes of which JFK never would have seen coming from the book depository.
In volume two of the story of bizarre people with horrible relationships takes an odd step when the team learns that Number 5, their oldest and most violent member is supposed to go back in time to ensure that John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Spaceboy is gaining weight, The Rumor can’t speak, Kraken is always angry and The Séance is just depressed. All of these issues become serious roadblocks when they learn that they need to go back in time and make sure that everything happens the way it should. The most interesting part of this is finding out why they need to do things the way they do, and what it will mean if they should fail.
YAY:
- God I love these characters. I love them so hard. Spaceboy is such a miserable jerk of a team leader and yet here he is, a man in a gorilla suit capable of space travel, eating and drinking himself into a deep depression while still assuming he can be in control. The Séance is hilarious purely because he’s such an odd man who can speak to the dead and take over people’s bodies. Even Kraken is an amazing pulp-vigilante that hates everyone around him.
- The plot to this story is absolutely amazing and my hat is off to Way for writing it. Usually time travel is done in a way that leaves you angrily researching timelines and continuity to the point that you get fed up with the story as a whole, but here it becomes rather simple to follow. Number 5, the time traveler, is the only one that appears twice at the same time, and nothing winds up getting muddled.
- It’s going to continue. Apparently Way has stated that the series will have a third volume, as is pretty clearly presented by the ending to this one. I couldn’t imagine the series ending here, it’s just been too good.
- Bá is a phenomenal artist. And that is that.
NAY:
- Not enough of The White Violin for me. I was seriously hoping that her storyline would be continued quite a bit more from the events of the previous volume, but all we really get is a shot of just how messed up she became in her fight with the Academy.
I personally didn’t find much wrong with this one. It’s definitely something I’d recommend for fans of the first volume. Awesome story with amazing subject matter. Pick it up if you get the chance. Hell, get volume one if you haven’t. It’s just so great.
Yes Andrew, you were right. I do love this series.
