Umbrella Academy: Dallas #6 – Review

Gerard Way (Writer), Gabriel Ba (Artist), Dave Stewart (Colors)

The Story: It all comes down to Dallas. After various altercations with the Temps Aeternalis, the crazed killers Hazel and Cha-Cha, and a talking goldfish, Number 5 and his “family” have to stop a past version of himself from stopping the Kennedy assassination.

Trust me, it makes more sense if you read the whole thing.

The Good: Umbrella Academy hardly disappoints; while the writing is a little off-kilter in parts, Gerard Way proves he can write a strong narrative and bring the characters to life. The content is distinctive, hyper-violent, and bizarrely funny. It’s almost as if Douglas Adams and Chuck Palahniuk got together to write a comic.

Getting the series for Gabriel Ba’s art alone, however, isn’t a bad idea at all. His distinctive character designs really flesh the strange shape of the universe out; to the point where I think that he may be the only artist in comics who could’ve done this series.

All in all, it’s a fitting end to the Dallas arc, and the twisted turn-abouts will definitely please the die-hard Umbrella Academy fans.

The Bad: While many of us in comics are used to the kind of schizophrenic narratives that characterize usual continuity, Umbrella Academy’s continuity is a kind of patchwork quilt with pieces missing all over, thanks to the delightful use of time travel. It’s a book for people of a particular mindset and sense of humor. My advice? Go check out the first collection, The Apocalypse Suite, and see if that appeals to you. If it does, you’re in luck. If not, you’ll probably be unable to stand the book. Also, if you’re unable to get over the stigma of sharing comic book tastes with scores of teenage girls (due in great part to Gerard Way’s day job and ensuing fan base), you may want to steer clear of Umbrella Academy entirely.

The Grade : B+

-Brian St. Claire

Casanova – Book One: Luxuria (Trade Paperback) – Review

By Matt Fraction (writer), Gabriel Ba (art)

This book’s a strange one. It’s seven issues of self-contained stories that deal with this crazy spy / secret agent, Casanova Quinn, who works for his father’s organization (sort of), while also being blackmailed (by the bad guys) to work against his dad. If that wasn’t enough, his sister’s crazy and works for the bad guys, too. AND if that wasn’t enough, Casanova’s been yanked out of his original reality and put in a parallel universe (but he’s still working for said organizations and people).

Matt Fraction, who seems so grounded on books like The Order and Iron Fist lets loose and just goes crazy in this book. Like I said, this book’s strange. The plot of each story is simple, yet the dialogue, characters, and situations are sometimes convoluted and completely cerebral. I’ll admit, I have a love / hate relationship with this series. I think some of it might be due to the monochromatic coloring of the book. Some places or characters look too similar at times, or maybe it’s Gabriel Ba’s artwork. I really don’t know what it is, but there are times when it feels like a jumbled mess, yet upon closer inspection, it makes complete sense!

And those plots? They’re genius! Casanova stealing “God”? Priceless. A bunch of savage-minded natives living on remote island knowing more about quantum mechanics than the rest of the human race? Hilarious!

There’s a lot to love about Casanova, but sometimes you’ll be back-tracking through the story trying to figure out if you missed something. It has its head scratching moments, but maybe it’s because Matt Fraction’s just more smarter than the rest of us. (Grade: B+)

– J. Montes