Monkey children.
Dead fathers standing against a background of a mushroom cloud.
Broken televators.
Secret organizations involved in the assassination of JFK.
“What happens when you die? I mean… what’s on the other side?”
“There’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
These are just a few of my favorite things from The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #4.
What struck me with this issue was just the sheer number of little moments in this book where Gerard Way puts down the perfect words while Gabriel Ba puts down the perfect images. Most comics can have one or, at most, two of these kind of moments but Way and Ba string them together, wrapping them around a Morrison-inspired plot without the headiness or confusion found in sometimes found in Morrison’s books. Each issue of this sophomore The Umbrella Academy serees has gotten stronger and much more confident as the creators almost seem to be in an improvisational groove, following these characters wherever they may go, including holding up a pad of paper declaring “this is the cover…”
I almost can’t believe that the best superhero comic right now isn’t coming from Marvel or DC but it’s coming out of Dark Horse. The Umbrella Academy is a throwback book for them, hearkening back to the days of Dark Horse Presents, Concrete and the original Mask stories. Way and Ba fit in perfectly with the maverick spirit that used to be evident at Dark Horse before licensed books became such a big part of their repertoire. Like those old, great books, The Umbrella Academy embraces the mainstream, filtering it through an off-kilter perspective, creating something welcoming and oddly comfortable.
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #4 may be Way’s strongest writing yet. Up to know in this and the preceding miniseries, the book has been about separate and individual characters who went out of their way to not interact with each other. The whole premise of the first mini showed how damaging that could be and this mini began with everyone still alienated from everyone else. But this issue finally begins to show them working together more and interacting together. While maybe not growth, it shows at least a bit of development in the characters. It’s nice to see this ersatz team/family rely on more than just themselves for once.
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Tags: Gabriel Ba, Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy
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