Support NeoGAF

[FYC]

Welcome to Issue #3 of NeoGAF's very own Comic Book Club!

It was very close, but this time we'll be reading The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1!

The Book

Gerard Way, of My Chemical Romance, makes his comics writing debut in this outrageous superhero epic that Grant Morrison called "An ultraviolet psychedelic sherbet bomb of wit and ideas. The superheroes of the 21st century are here at last..." 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

Purchase

One of my all-time favorites. Free shipping doesn't kick in until $50, but Apocalypse Suite currently on sale for $7.19 at Instocktrades.

Amazon(US)
Amazon(UK)

The Rules

SPOILERS DO NOT NEED TO BE TAGGED FOR THIS VOLUME.

We're set to read and discuss this book from now until the 27th of October. Obviously the thread won't suddenly disappear after that, so if you want to carry on talking about the book beyond October 27th, feel free - but we'll be moving onto the next comic on that date!

Other than that - we've got 3 weeks to dive in and enjoy this, so let's get cracking!

Also! Please note that I will be opening up votes for the next comics next week with a new voting thread this time, so everyone has plenty of time to get their hands on the next one. If you have any suggestions / recommendations, please PM me. I have all recommendations saved in a document and will be using them at random for future vote threads. Even if your recommendation loses a vote, I may bring it back later on.

Happy reading!

 

[Necrovex]

Gerard Way wrote a comic? When the hell did this happen?! I'll see if my library has the first volume of this. Color me curious.

 

[TetraxShards]

Sweet. I've already purchased this in the hope it'd win the vote. Will read tonight.

 

[Tucah]

I have the trade somewhere but haven't read it in years. This is a pretty good excuse to give it a reread.

 

[doniewhalberg]

Gerard Way wrote a comic? When the hell did this happen?! I'll see if my library has the first volume of this. Color me curious.

He did, and against all kinds of expectations you might (or might not) have, it is astoundingly good. Shame the guy won't just do comics as a full time job.

I have both trades and I'm happy to re-read.

 

[sca2511]

Read it within the past year. Very awesome comic.

 

[Mac the KNife]

One of my all-time favorites. Free shipping doesn't kick in until $50, but Apocalypse Suite currently on sale for $7.19 at Instocktrades.

 

[TetraxShards]

So I read it.

It was....good? It's a nice deconstruction of Silver Age tropes, the family of heroes, the mysterious benefactor, so many monkey references. The team themselves were likeable enough for the most part, and The Rumour's power is one of the most interesting superpowers I've come across. The art was great all-round, lots of nice splash pages and cool use of text.

Something about it just felt off, I guess. There's so much going on in the book and it never feels like there's a section where they say "here's what our book is about". I liked it, but I don't think I'll get the second one.

 

[Tizoc]

Ah a reason to re-read this series haha.
I have a love-hate view of this series, there are some stuff I disliked, but others I did like. Gonna aim to read both books back to back and see how I find it hehe~

 

[Tizoc]

Huh...I liked Book 1 a lot more than when I first read it.
Book 2 was good...and pretty bloody and gorey lol.
...but man why does it seem like it all ended in a cliffhanger? I want to read what happens next, it's like that

Spoiler

blonde rich guy was set up to be the next villain, but Book 2 was about No. 5's time traveling shenanigans

 

[WascallyWabbit]

Man I really love this book. Really hoping we get more now that Way and MCR are broken up.