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A review by charlietheworm
The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way
2.0
I was honestly surprised by how bad this was.
Don't get me wrong, this story has a lot of great ideas that would have been really fun to explore but instead they're just thrown away. A couple of pages in a character is revealed to be an alien only for it to have no impact at all on anything, and instead going on to talk about how the eiffel tower is actually a space ship, to then give an offhand comment about a character travelling in time.
To call it a story is an exaggeration, its a collection of ideas thrown about without any depth or explanation, nothing that makes you care for any of the characters. The narrative is also hard to follow, switching pov almost every page, and after a while i found myself just skimming through the text to get to the end.
I find it sad because these ideas could have been soo cool to explore, but that is just not what I got. Maybe if the book had a slower pace and was longer, it would be easier to follow aswell as give it time to flesh out characters and plotlines. Either that or a way harsher editor that could have said no to at least half of the ideas that were hastily thrown in.
It was uncomfortable how the female characters were drawn in very sexualised ways, often in revealing clothing (like in underwear or even naked, for no apparent reason) and with very unrealistic body proportions. While the male characters were allowed to come in all shapes and sizes, the women are all super skinny with huge boobs, with the only thing telling them apart being their hair colour. There was also a considerable lack of diversity, all main characters were white, and with a sizeable cast this was something I found pretty disappointing.
I know theyre not biologically related but the incest plotline is still very icky. On one page Allison tells us her daughter calls Luther her "uncle on the moon" and on the next page Luther and Allison are kissing. Just eww, why did it have to be there at all?
Now, was there stuff I actually liked? yes.
The art style was interesting and kept me engaged even through pointless fightscenes. It was also quite interesting to see where stuff in the adaptation came from. I liked to see the small details like number 4s' tattoos being the same in both versions or how certain settings were scarily accurate.
Even with the small things i did appreciated, the book overall was not my favourite by a long shot. I really wish it was better because it had the potential to be great.
My time reading this was not very enjoyable but im still happy i gave it a try. I don't think im going to continue reading the series.
Don't get me wrong, this story has a lot of great ideas that would have been really fun to explore but instead they're just thrown away. A couple of pages in a character is revealed to be an alien only for it to have no impact at all on anything, and instead going on to talk about how the eiffel tower is actually a space ship, to then give an offhand comment about a character travelling in time.
To call it a story is an exaggeration, its a collection of ideas thrown about without any depth or explanation, nothing that makes you care for any of the characters. The narrative is also hard to follow, switching pov almost every page, and after a while i found myself just skimming through the text to get to the end.
I find it sad because these ideas could have been soo cool to explore, but that is just not what I got. Maybe if the book had a slower pace and was longer, it would be easier to follow aswell as give it time to flesh out characters and plotlines. Either that or a way harsher editor that could have said no to at least half of the ideas that were hastily thrown in.
It was uncomfortable how the female characters were drawn in very sexualised ways, often in revealing clothing (like in underwear or even naked, for no apparent reason) and with very unrealistic body proportions. While the male characters were allowed to come in all shapes and sizes, the women are all super skinny with huge boobs, with the only thing telling them apart being their hair colour. There was also a considerable lack of diversity, all main characters were white, and with a sizeable cast this was something I found pretty disappointing.
I know theyre not biologically related but the incest plotline is still very icky. On one page Allison tells us her daughter calls Luther her "uncle on the moon" and on the next page Luther and Allison are kissing. Just eww, why did it have to be there at all?
Now, was there stuff I actually liked? yes.
The art style was interesting and kept me engaged even through pointless fightscenes. It was also quite interesting to see where stuff in the adaptation came from. I liked to see the small details like number 4s' tattoos being the same in both versions or how certain settings were scarily accurate.
Even with the small things i did appreciated, the book overall was not my favourite by a long shot. I really wish it was better because it had the potential to be great.
My time reading this was not very enjoyable but im still happy i gave it a try. I don't think im going to continue reading the series.