Umbrella Academy (2007), Volume 1

Starred review from March 15, 2009
A superfamily member turns rogue, and the team reunites to stop her. But no one saw it comingshe was just a violinist, right?M.C. (See review, bottom right.)

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2008
The newest superhero kids on the block are just thatkids. At least they start out kids in the first Umbrella Academy collection, written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance (Way) and superbly illustrated by Brazilian graphic artist Ba. When the diminutive orphans turned masked crime fighters first appear in the public arena, with their wealthy patron, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, keeping watch, their nemesis is a mobile, death-ray-zapping Eiffel Tower. Twenty years later, it takes Hargreeves death to bring the gang members, now grown and separated by their own idiosyncratic ambitions, back together to face a new enemy: estranged sister Vanya, the only one of them presumed to be powerless. Newly gifted with destructive powers by a race of robotic aliens, Vanya will stop at nothing to destroy the world unless her siblings stop her. Way and Ba provide all the ingredients of a superhero team to rival the X-Men and make its colorful adventures a hit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)