Shenanigans & Tomfoolery

The first Umbrella Academy series is a fantastic read. It was refreshing, it was inventive and the pacing was nearly flawless so it’s only fitting for its sequel, The Umbrella Academy: Dallas, to be greeted with very high expectations. As usual, I waited for all six issues of the series to be collected into a trade before diving into it and now that Dallas is out in paperback, I’m glad to say that it maintains the high level of quality that the first series established.

More after the break.

It’s going to be difficult to review Dallas without comparing it to the first book in the series so apologies for that because that’s generally a reviewing no-no. I will, however, try to stay as far away from spoilers as possible because half the fun in Umbrella Academy is seeing what the creative team throws at you next.

For those of us who read the first Umbrella Academy, Dallas feels like coming home. It maintains the same style and sensibilities of the first series and is just as good. With character and world introductions out of the way in the first story arc, writer Gerard Way dives into character exploration in Dallas focusing specifically on Number Five and his time travel shenanigans (love that word). This was one of the subplots introduced in the first Umbrella Academy and it’s nice to see that Way didn’t waste any time in tackling it in his second series while simultaneously bringing a couple more subplots to the table.

By the end of the story, we find out pretty much everything there is to know about Number Five, from how he traveled back to to the present to why he is such a proficient killer and we leave him as a man (seemingly) without any more skeletons in his closet. It’s this focus on Number Five that is perhaps my biggest issue in the book as most of the other members of the Umbrella Academy end up being flat or one note. I thought this was most noticeable in Spaceboy whose blind devotion to Hargreeves and fervent desire to be number 1 was compelling in the first book but in Dallas, he’s relegated to being overweight, watching too much television and not much else. I think there was a better balance of character moments in the first series but, then again, the spotlight here was clearly on Number Five so that was inevitable.

A second complaint would be that the story seems slower and more spaced out compared to the near frantic pace of the first series, even in trade form. I feel like Dallas could’ve almost been five issues instead of six. I don’t believe the content is padded it’s just that, in general, Dallas seems like a more lighter read compared to its more dense predecessor.

As far as artwork goes, Gabriel Ba keeps the standard he set in the first series. I initially compared his artwork to Mike Mignola’s but only in Dallas did I realize that there’s a heavy dose of Eduardo Risso (albeit more cartoony) in there as well. He never gets too crazy with layouts but his storytelling is solid and his style pleasant to the eye. Dave Stewart rounds up the package nicely and complements both the writer and the artist with his coloring.

So yeah, if you haven’t read The Umbrella Academy, go out and buy the first series. You’ll most likely love it and you’ll want to read Dallas. Its postmodern take on the superhero genre is still fresh and Dallas easily lives up to its forebears pedigree. Gerard Way states in his afterword that he has a beginning, middle and end for the Umbrella Academy clear in his head and that he plans to do eight or nine series altogether. It’s always good to see a writer that knows where he’s going with his story and that just makes me more excited for future installments of this fantastic series.

It’s hard to complain about the “it’ll be out when it’s ready” schedule when the quality of work is this high.