The Umbrella Academy Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

6. It's Different

Given how deep we are into the superhero boom period, having things like The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol and Legion on the roster is no bad thing at all. They all offer something different to the "typical" hero formula.

With The Umbrella Academy in particular, Netflix are pushing the same oddball agenda that James Gunn used for Guardians Of The Galaxy. To an even greater extent, though, this show is a lot more about the characters' oddness than it is about their heroism. They're misfits thrown together by someone else's objectives, searching for some kind of family.

In many ways, this is a show made for exactly the kind of people who found that sense of family with My Chemical Romance fandom. They were a community of outsiders (even when the band were more mainstream) and in the same way, The Umbrella Academy revels in the idea of making difference and weirdness cool. It's effectively an alt-superhero show and that's just delightful.