The Umbrella Academy: Explained | Everything You Need To Know Before The Netflix Show

The Umbrella Academy finally has it’s own tv show, so to celebrate I thought I’d put together everything that you need to know before it’s released on Netflix.

Throughout this article I’ll be breaking down all of the key information on the group as well as the graphic novel that is reported to inspire the first season. There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you don’t want to know anything then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

For everyone else, I’m Deffinition and Welcome To The Channel Where I watch it so you don’t have to!

The Umbrella Academy Origin Story

The Umbrella Academy wears it’s influences on its sleeve and from the off, it’s pretty clear that the books draw heavily from the X-Men. There’s a school for the gifted, special powers and it all round is pulling a lot from the group of mutants. However, the stars in The Umbrella Academy aren’t mutants themselves and they are in fact, a group of 43 superhumans that were given birth to by women who mysteriously fell pregnant immaculately.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a wealthy inventor, adopts seven of these very gifted children and at The Umbrella Academy, trains them to become superheroes. Hargreeves trains them rough to make them tough and puts the kids through all kinds of punishment in order to make them the best. This has negative effects on the group though as they grow up to become pretty psychologically scarred and dysfunctional.

The Umbrella Academy: Heroes

The seven children themselves are all equipped in different ways and each one of them possesses a unique skill set.

Whilst Hargreeves named them from numbers 1 – 7, they eventually carve out their own identities and pseudonyms.

So who are those heroes and what can they do?

Well Number One, or Spaceboy as he prefers to be called is the leader of the team. He’s desperate to please his father and goes out of his way to do this at every opportunity. In the comics, his head was grafted onto the body of an ape and he’s pretty messed up and by far the most absurd of the group.

Number Two aka The Krakken is pretty much the Batman of the group. He’s an insane fighter with a dark and brooding personality that makes him a real tough cookie. The Krakken can also hold his breath underwater indefinitely, hence his name.

Number Three also known as The Rumour is sort of the Scarlett Witch counterpart and she can alter reality by lying about it. She’s really messed up and is one of the most psychologically damaged on the lot making her the most dangerous and powerful of the group.

Number Four is The Seance and as you’d imagine from the name, this character has the ability to communicate with the dead. He’s the most morbid and is what you’d probably call a Goth. To make matters worse, the character has died before but got rejected by both Heaven and Hell so now he spends his time on Earth moaning about it.

Number Five is just called Number Five and his power source makes him the most unusual. Five is a time traveler that is trapped in the body of his ten-year-old self and the show clearly focuses around his journey to the future in which he witnesses the apocalypse. Five was the original reason that the group split up after he mysteriously disappeared so his return is what pulls them back together as a solid unit.

Number Six aka The Horror had the ability to unleash monsters that lived under his skin. Unfortunately, The Horror died during an early mission by the Umbrella Academy and not much else is known about him.

Last but not least is Number Seven originally had no superpowers which left her pretty much ousted by her father. She is an expert violin player and was recruited into a Grand Orchestra before becoming a supervillain known as The White Violin.

The Netflix Show Plot

So, that’s our cast of characters but what role will they take in the show and what path will it take?

Well judging by the trailer, the show seems to be sticking pretty closely to the first volume of The Umbrella Academy called Apocalypse Suite. In this we learn of the group’s origin story, see them develop their powers and The White Violin rises to power. There’s a big twist where she betrays them and the group ends up fighting it out with her after it’s revealed that she has now become the most powerful out of them.

Whilst it’s not a sure thing that the show will follow this exactly, it seems pretty likely and I definitely recommend that you pick it up if you want to know more.