What is ‘The Umbrella Academy’ about? A guide for total newbies

With Netflix’s reputation for only supporting massively successful series, it’s a surprise that The Umbrella Academy not only survived past its first season but received enough traction to have a fully realized life. And when you unpack this series, that’s nothing short of miraculous.

Every once in a while, a show comes along that is equal parts unique, humorous, bizarre, and gives you a terrifying sense of existential dread. And that is The Umbrella Academy in a nutshell. The story first started as a comic written by none other than My Chemical Romance frontman, Gerard Way. Published by Dark Horse Comics, Netflix snapped up the rights and developed a series that would last four seasons before its climactic conclusion.

How did The Umbrella Academy begin?

There are many modern comic book series that twist the superhero genre to point out its faults. But unlike Invincible or The Boys, The Umbrella Academy does this without any cynicism. At its core, the show is about a family, for better or worse.

This family starts as many do, with a mass birth of 43 children on the same day. The strange part is that the women who gave birth were not pregnant when the day started. It turns out that these 43 children were all born with miraculous abilities, an interesting twist on the X-Men. An eccentric billionaire, Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), attempts to adopt all of them but only gets seven. Giving them all numbers for names, they form a superhero squad. Number One is Luther (Tom Hopper), who has the body of a monkey. Number Two is Diego (David Castañeda), whose aim of projectile weapons is similar to Daredevil’s Bullseye. Number Three is Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who has a method of mind control through her voice. Number Four is Klaus (Robert Sheehan), who can communicate with the dead. Six is Ben (Justin H, Min), whose body is a portal to a horror dimension. Numbers Five and Seven are outliers, and arguably the main characters. (We’ll get there in a minute.) But unlike other superhero teams such as the X-Men, the family is marred by trauma that the children take on into adulthood.

One of the early tragedies was the death of Ben. After a mission gone wrong in his teenage years, he is killed. The other integral canon event in the family was the disappearance of Number Five (Aidan Gallagher). The only member of the family without a traditional name, Five has the power of teleportation. He harnesses the ability to time travel but with disastrous results, disappearing into time and space.

And last but not least, there is Viktor, Number Seven (Elliot Page). While raised to believe he had no power at all, Hargreeves was drugging him because he was so afraid of what he would be able to do with his sonic powers. Viktor writes a tell-all book about the trials of the family, effectively making him an outcast — even more than he was before. When the events of the first season begin, the family is fractured, and only another tragedy can bring them back together.

What is The Umbrella Academy about?

When The Umbrella Academy begins, the family is rocked by death. Hargreeves dies by suicide, bringing all the siblings back together. The grief the siblings share could unify them, but it only opens up old wounds. And, of course, the apocalypse. Upon uniting for Hargreeves’ funeral, they all air their grievances, further complicated by the return of Number Five.

As it turns out, Five was in an apocalyptic future where he lived for years. But when he learns that the end of the world is nigh, he finds his way back to his siblings’ present. Though he lived an entire lifetime, traveling to the past reverts Five into the adolescent body he had when he first disappeared. This epitomizes the tone of the entire series. An old man who must live in the body of a teenager. Shenanigans to follow. But The Umbrella Academy is also defined by its high stakes.

The entire family must come together to stop the end of the world, which they eventually realize, is caused by one of their own. Viktor learns that he is in fact the most powerful sibling and the entire world must suffer because of it. In each season, The Umbrella Academy learns of a new cataclysmic event they started because of some decision they made previously. Relationships are tested, fractured, and reformed. But at the end of the day, the series is about family. Like any family, the Hargreeves siblings have absurd and oftentimes inappropriate dynamics. They fight, they get back together, and every day seems like the end of the world. The Umbrella Academy is unlike anything else, and when it ends after season 4, we will be sad to see it go.