EJP's Comics Primer, Pt. 4: The Umbrella Academy, Fray

Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy
This entry into my primer is a bit of a departure for me in that I just finished reading the first and only TPB in this series yesterday (it just came out a few weeks ago). This first story arc in what appears to be a very promising series is called "Apocalypse Suite," and it was indeed pretty sweet.

For a Dark Horse comic, this series has received a fair amount of press, largely because Gerard Way is a member of a relatively famous band. I'm not going to mention the band because, from what I understand, it sucks, and it has no bearing on the quality of this comic whatsoever. This guy knows how to create characters and spin a good yarn, which is really all I care about. Here's the intro to the comic from the Dark Horse site, 'cuz I'm feeling a bit lazy:

"In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born by women who'd previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, "To save the world."

These seven children form The Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again."

Sounds pretty cool, huh? It is. And one of my favorite aspects of this comic was that it plays out kind of like a season of "Lost" in that it creates as many questions as it does answers. There's basically a 20 year gap in the story, and for the most part we have no idea what happened in those 20 years. By the end of this first story arc, we don't even fully know what powers all the members of the academy have. There's plenty of room for speculation, and plenty of room to grow. There's also plenty of humor to balance out the action, and the writing reflects Hellboy a lot in that respect.

Which brings me to Gabriel Ba's art, which is pretty Mignola-esque. That's certainly not a bad thing. It's a bit more detailed than Mignola's work, but it's got the same gothic vibe that meshes well with the story. I mean, c'mon, tell me you're not dying to see what zombie-robot Gustav Eiffel looks like. And that's not even the weirdest surprise to pop up in this story.

For a first-timer, Way has done an amazing job, and I'm really looking forward to the next batch. The next series, "Dallas," doesn't start until November, however. Makes me wish the guy would quit his band and just work on his comic.

Joss Whedon's Fray
I'll get to the point on this one quickly: if you like Joss Whedon's writing and/or if you like the Buffyverse, you really need to read this comic. It's about a slayer named Fray...in the future. So besides the usual vampire slaying and such, there's also flying cars and mutants.

That description alone should be enough for some people, but for those that still need convincing, I'll elaborate a bit. This was a limited run comic of 8 issues (though it was left quite open-ended), all of which were collected in the TPB pictured here. Much as he did with Firefly, Whedon has created a rich new bastardization of the English language for all the future folks to speak. He's really good at that kind of thing. The characters, especially Fray herself, are just as rich and well-fleshed out as any of your favorites from the TV show. And importantly, if anyone out there is actually reading the Buffy Season 8 comics (which, again, I highly recommend), you have to read this TPB to understand the current story arc. Finally, Karl Moline's artwork is excellent and brings Whedon's writing to life handily. I don't think JW could or would work with a crappy artist.

The only downside here is that it came out 5 years ago and there were never any more of them. And as I mentioned, the ending left a lot of loose ends. I suspect those are going to be taken care of in the current season 8 arc, or maybe Fray will start back up again as its own series. Either way, I'll be glad to see more of it.