Umbrella Academy Season 4 Fans Need To Binge The Show and Comics Soon

Gerard Way, the frontman of the early 2000s emo band My Chemical Romance, took a break from writing and singing hits like “I’m Not Okay, I Promise” and “Welcome to the Black Parade” to write graphic novels.

They were inspired partly by his love of comics like Doom Patrol and Grendel and partly by his own band members and others he met on the road.

Now, as he works on the fourth installment of the books and as Umbrella Academy season 4 looms, we must reflect on the differences between the books and the series to speculate as to how the next season will unfold. 

The Umbrella Academy began with Apocalypse Suite, which consists of 6 issues. Readers learn that 43 babies were all born on the same day, to women who were not pregnant that morning. This event occurs at the same time a cataclysmic blow completes a cosmic wrestling match.

A reclusive billionaire, Dr. Reginald Hargreeves, discovers what has happened and adopts seven of the infants to develop their superpowers. Umbrella Academy season 4 will still have a lot of explaining to do. 

The first volume of six issues really addresses the origin story of these seven kids, Spaceboy, The Kraken, The Rumor, The Seance, The Boy, (or Five), The Horror, and The White Violin, who fight to save the world at the age of ten and then split up.

We see them again nine years later as they come together over the death of Dr. Hargreeves. In the first season on Netflix, like in the book, the characters, still far from Umbrella Academy season 4, are still working to understand themselves and their powers. 

The biggest differences between the book and the series lies in the characters. For example, readers understand that The White Violin is not a hero and is most likely a villain. By the end of the issues, this reality is confirmed. In the series, Vanya is more ambiguous. You have more compassion for her, and even now, as we prepare for Umbrella Academy season 4, we’re still holding out hope that Vanya, now Viktor, will come around. 

The second and third volumes of the graphic novels Dallas and Hotel Oblivion find themselves even more unlike the Netflix seasons.

Though Gerard Way has given his blessing for series creator Steven Blackman to make this show his own, the series has a lot to answer for in Umbrella Academy season 4.

Blackman and his team departed from the second volume, Dallas, in season 2 in many ways. While the siblings do head back in time to the 1960s in both the book and the show, the similarities end there. 

By the third season, the differences are so stark that the show and book are almost unrecognizable from each other, which leaves us wondering what will happen in Umbrella Academy season 4.

By now, we’ve already met the Sparrows as Blackman has introduced The Sparrow Academy, and Gerard Way hasn’t even published the fourth volume, which centers around the Sparrows. Still Netflix season 3 was a huge success, like the preceding seasons. 

Now, we’re left wondering what Blackman and his team could possibly do with Umbrella Academy season 4. The siblings have reset altered timelines, but now they’ll have to deal with the repercussions to follow, including the introduction of a new universe.

The best thing any of us can do in advance of the August release is to read the books and binge the show, preparing ourselves for the wild ride to come.