Review: The Umbrella Academy Vol. 2- Dallas

February 25, 2019May 8, 2020 ComicBookWire

Quick Summary

Pros: The story is interesting from start to finish. The storytelling takes plenty of time to generate tension, action, and humor. The book’s serious moments are well written and provide great character development. The artwork looks good and suits the book well.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: Solid storytelling and expressive artwork come together to ensure that the second volume of The Umbrella Academy is everything fans could hope for. This book has action, tension, comedy, emotion, and an atypical narrative that helps it stand out from mainstream comic books. It essentially continues everything that was great about the first book and add even more into the mix. Anyone who enjoyed the first volume or who is looking for something different to read should consider picking up this book.

Story

The Umbrella Academy Vol. 2: Dallas, by Gerard Way, sees the return of the great quality storytelling that was present in the first book. Within this volume, the Umbrella Academy’s action-packed exploits are fraught with dangerous situations and humorous encounters. Their continued adventures also push this comic further than before, introducing new aspects of familiar characters and making the series more compelling than ever before. In the end, this volume proves that this is definitely a series to watch out for, as it manages to hold on to all of the promise it started out with.

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The story in Dallas is just as instantly captivating as it was in the previous volume. This collection sees the Umbrella Academy dodge brushes with death, alter the fabric of reality, and end up saving the entire world by ensuring the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Their progression through these events is fraught with tension, as they are constantly on the verge of failure, and action, as they are forced to fight their way out of more than a few situations. Together, this helps keep the story interesting and makes the reading experience more entertaining.

The entire volume is also wonderfully unique in its bizarre and humorous approach to storytelling. I laughed out loud when the Umbrella Academy defeated the evil, sentient Lincoln Memorial statue by summoning an also sentient statue of John Wilkes Booth. Later on, other humorously wonderful concepts are introduced, including: Number 5’s increasingly dramatic actions juxtaposed with his childlike appearance, a goldfish in charge of a time-travelling intelligence operation, and two sugar-crazed assassins who act without any clear purpose. All of these elements help make this a more ridiculously fun book and also help further establish it as something unique.

These humorous moments also pair nicely with Dallas‘s few serious moments. The Rumor’s hatred and eventual reconciliation with Vanya, Luther’s depression and isolation, and Number 5’s personal struggle against his genetic alterations are not huge elements of the story, but they do significantly enhance the overall narrative when they are brought up. This gives the series more character development and made me, personally, care more about what was happening in this comic. These moments also stand out well against the book’s backdrop of general chaos and comedy.

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Art

Like the story, the artwork in Dallas largely sees the continuation of the high quality work that was present in the previous volume. From the very first pages, Gabriel Bá brings a dramatic sense of action that elevates the book in a way that feels nearly cosmic in scope. As the volume continues, Bá displays an awesome ability to alternate between these dramatic and awe-inspiring pages to ones that are more wacky and whimsical. In a similar manner, later portions of the book exhibit the ability to alternate from these whimsical moments to more personalized and serious ones. This allows for an array of emotions and tones that better reflect exactly what is happening to the characters in this book. All in all, the artwork in The Umbrella Academy is a great asset that helps make this book as fun as it ends up being.