Netflix has been doing extremely well lately with all their original shows this school year, at least in this writer’s opinion. Recently I’ve been hooked on The Umbrella Academy, another comic book adaptation series written by Gerard Way.

The story follows 7 children with unique abilities; Spaceboy (Luther Hargreeves), The Kraken (Diego Hargreeves), The Rumor (Allison Hargreeves), The Séance (Klaus Hargreeves), The Boy (Number Five), The Horror (Ben Hargreeves), and The White Violin (Vanya Hargreeves), were all adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves. His only goal had been to raise them to become superheroes. Unfortunately, their family ends up being rather dysfunctional, only having been named based on numbers until their robot number names them. After years of bad experiences, they all separate and only came together for the funeral of the “father” years later. In the midst of the reunion, their lives are tossed upside down when their missing brother (Number 5) returns after being missing for 6 years, claiming an upcoming apocalypse; this kicked off 10 episodes of a really crazy attempt to save the world.

All in all, the story may confuse some, but it gets easily addicting and you gain a real attachment to these superhero misfits. The character traits and story-line fit well with the original comic books, and the actor portrayals are well done. Although it has only received a 76% on rotten tomatoes, it deserves a definitely higher score. If you are a comic book or science fiction lover just looking for a new hook,  The Umbrella Academy is the show for you.