Abstract
The Umbrella Academy (2008–2024) is an Eisner-award-winning science-fiction comic-book series created and written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, colored by Dave Stewart, and published by Dark Horse Comics. The story follows a dysfunctional family of seven uncanny superheroes who began their lives as the famous inexplicably superpowered children instantaneously born at the same time in random spontaneous pregnancies around the world. They were then adopted by wealthy scientist Sir Reginald Hargreeves to form The Umbrella Academy, spending their childhood fighting supervillains and training to save the world. Having disbanded after the death of one sibling and the disappearance of another when they were teenagers, their father’s mysterious death causes them to reunite as adults as they attempt to prevent the impending apocalypse. Executive-produced by Way and Bá, and created by showrunners Steve Blackman and Jeremy Slater, Netflix has released three ten-episode series and a fourth final six-episode series adaptation of The Umbrella Academy (in 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2024 respectively), to widespread popular critical acclaim. The first two series loosely adapt the first two collected volumes of the comics (Apocalypse Suite and Dallas), while the third series moved beyond the third collected volume of the comics (Hotel Oblivion) into new territory under the guidance of Way, seemingly drawing on the as-yet-unpublished fourth collection of the comics, The Sparrow Academy. The fourth and final six-episode series released on Netflix in 2024 likewise remained under Way’s production but has not been connected to any further comics as of yet. This chapter will explore The Umbrella Academy’s textually hybrid transmedial form through analysis of the re-imagining of the uncanny superhero family drama from its comic-book universe to that of Netflix’s digital media world. It will examine how cross-media textual play with the comic-book superheroes and their narrative arcs functions to subversively domesticate the story for adaptation to the home streaming small screen. For, in Lorna Piatti-Farnell’s words, “once superheroes are transported from comic books into another medium, they become autonomous figures, whose representations, actions, and meanings are constructed within the newly established platform that gave them renewed life” (2021, 5).