I’ve listened to and appreciated The Black Parade and I happen to be of the opinion that Gerard Way is a talented writer. That said…
I find The Umbrella Academy to be severely overrated. There are plenty of wonderful little ideas and flourishes throughout this work, but it definitely feels rushed and thematically insubstantial. Frankly, I don’t think Way put enough thought into it nor do I think it contains much in the way of “purpose”. And it certainly borrows too much from the works of Grant Morrison (no wonder he loves it so much), Mike Mignola and others.
The art? No complaints in that department. Ba does a wonderful job with these characters and concepts.
Although disappointed, I’m hopeful about Way’s next project. The guy can write, that much is clear. Now, he just needs to develop his voice.
[...] While on that topic, here’s a kindly put negative review of The Umbrella Academy. The reason I’m posting this is because, firstly, it’s the first negative review I’ve found, and secondly, he put it very kindly and he has valid reasoning. Besides, nothing’s going to please everyone, yeah? Yeah. The author of the review states, “it certainly borrows too much from the works of Grant Morrison (no wonder he loves it so much), Mike Mignola [Hellboy] and others.” The author, Billy, is a fan of Gerard’s writing, just not so much this. As someone who’s not educated in comics, I have no way to really give a good opinion one way or the other, so thanks to Billy for posting this. It’s good to be able to see another opinion and so respectfully put. Kudos, dude. Read more: The Umbrella Academy: Apocolypse Suit Review [...]
[...] While on that topic, here’s a kindly put negative review of The Umbrella Academy. The reason I’m posting this is because, firstly, it’s the first negative review I’ve found, and secondly, he put it very kindly and he has valid reasoning. Besides, nothing’s going to please everyone, yeah? Yeah. The author of the review states, “it certainly borrows too much from the works of Grant Morrison (no wonder he loves it so much), Mike Mignola [Hellboy] and others.” The author, Billy, is a fan of Gerard’s writing, just not so much this. As someone who’s not educated in comics, I have no way to really give a good opinion one way or the other, so thanks to Billy for posting this. It’s good to be able to see another opinion and so respectfully put. Kudos, dude. Read more: The Umbrella Academy: Apocolypse Suit Review [...]
I think the problem is him being a talented musician. He is an amazing song writer in my opinion. I do agree that this isn’t to his standerds. But, music is so much different from a comic book. And his songs have messages. But, this book doesn’t. Overall, I liked it though. I think the artwork was amazing and i couldn’t do that for the life of me. It kept me entertained the whole time I read. I’m a big fan of his writing.
[...] blog reviews: read/RANT! Bao’s [...]
I think the problem is him being a talented musician.