I really want to talk about this show. And I feel the best way to do that is by talking about the main characters and looking on their growth. Let’s be honest, the overall stories for each season is roughly the same. There is an abstract threat that will cause the apocalypse as well as a more physical threat somehow connected. That part of this show isn’t as important as the characters. As well as the trauma they are trying to resolve and their efforts to become better people. With that in mind, I wanted to air out my thoughts on all members of team.

I want to start with Luther & Diego. Because they actually do have a few things in common. Both have been driven by a subconscious need to seek their father’s approval. That usually means both end up focused on the mission at hand. Which often results in them making decisions without the input of their other family members and can cause more harm than good. But with Diego, I ended up really hating him when the third season came around. He is constantly trying to fight everyone and everything he deems a problem without considering any other way to handle the situation. He is focused on being a vigilante first and foremost. I will grant that at the end of the third season he does have something to fight for besides simply being in charge. But that doesn’t cancel out that is often at odds with what his other family members are doing to try and resolve their bigger problems.

Luther on the other hand doesn’t go that far. Yes, being a team is important to him. But he is more concerned about fitting in and actually being a part of the family. There is one point in season 3 where he feels that they really aren’t a family, but rather people connected through shared trauma. And you can understand why he wants to keep everyone together in the beginning of the show and fit in. After he is mutated by their father, he just ended up being shipped off to the moon where he was utterly alone. His journey to try and feel a genuine emotional connection with his family is understandable. And yes, there were times at the beginning of the show where he makes wrong decisions that risk splitting them further apart. But he does show some level of regret and remorse. That’s why when he gets a relationship in season 3, I do feel happy for him. OK, it does start pretty much out of the blue. But by the end I have come to care for that relationship.

Let’s then move on to Klaus. Easily one of my favorites characters on the show. The main thing to understand about him is that he just wants a peaceful existence. While there might have been times early on in the show where he seems to enjoy some of the drama playing out, there are more instances where he is trying to stop things from escalating. He ultimately just wants everyone to get along and find their inner balance. I’m tempted to say he is the character probably most in tune with his emotions. But then again, he is a drug addict that tries to ignore his own trauma than confront it. Yet he still ends up putting in effort to try and grow and deal with his own issues. And he is perfectly willing to help his other family members with their own problems as well as help with the bigger issues facing their entire unit. He is a delightful character to watch on screen for the comedic moments but also for his own personal journey.

And now we move onto Allison, Five, & Viktor. This batch…is a lot more complicated. Let’s start with arguably the easiest to talk about, which is Five. Another one of my favorites, and that’s partly because he is technically an old grouchy man in the body of a young kid. Something about that just speaks to my own personality. Anyway, he spent decades alone at the end of the world until he was recruited to be a time traveling assassin. He is obviously the most experienced, disciplined, and focused member of the Umbrella Academy. He makes the most progress in dealing with the larger threats and coming up with plans to save the world on multiple occasions.

But he is also arrogant, mean to his other family members, doesn’t communicate with his family about what he’s doing – simply put, not the easiest to get along with. A lot of this can be explained by his past. He spent years and years alone in a post-apocalypse landscape. It would make sense why he would often not communicate with his family about what he’s doing. But as someone who ended up spending just as much time working under the thumb of an organization, you would think he would come to understand when communication is important from a strategy viewpoint. Five has spent so much time being alone and doing morally questionable things that his philosophy is often mixed and a bit contradictory. That latter part we’ll circle back to. But there is a little time spent in season 3 where he does seem to let the fact he is reunited with his family sink in. Where he is allowing himself to feel instead of using cold logic and thinking to deal with everything around him. Definitely one of the most sympathetic characters on the team.

But then there is Allison. Poor Allison…she started off as one of the most like-able characters on the team. But then the third season happened and the show put her through some harsh struggles. Granted, some of that struggle is a result of what she went through the first first couple of seasons. But the main issue she has to deal with is that she is in a new timeline where her daughter never existed. This is the main thing that drives her character arc throughout season three and it’s understandable. But it is also frustrating to see what happens to her and what she ends up doing. She is mean and more violent in the third season. Picking fights in the middle of the night, using her voice power to force Luther to almost have sex with him against his will. Meaning she tried to rape him. And when she found out that Harlan – who used to be a young boy that Viktor helped raise back in the 1960s in Dallas and accidentally gave powers to – was the person who killed the mothers of all the Umbrella Academy members…she killed him. And she would later admit that she didn’t feel better or worse afterwards. She didn’t feel a thing when it came to taking a human life.

Here is one of the things that can be frustrating about this show. It can be argued that this is a deconstruction of superheroes. Or that it really isn’t even about superheroes, but just a dysfunctional family trying to deal with shared trauma. And there is a case for that. This show is based on comics from Gerard Way, who was heavily influenced by Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol. Gerard would even go on to write for Doom Patrol for a short while. But there are multiple times on the show where it makes clear that most – if not all – of the Umbrella Academy sees themselves as superheroes. There is a conversation between Five & Viktor towards the end of season 3 that I found a bit…wrong. This conversation follows the aftermath that Viktor was hiding the revelation about what Harlan did – on accident remind you – and lied about turning him over to the Sparrow Academy who would undoubtfully murder him in retaliation for him accidentally killing a couple of their members. Viktor lied about turning over Harlan so that he could try and take back the power he gave him. Even though this would complicate the larger issue of gaining access to the source of the Grandfather Apocalypse within the Sparrow Academy and figure out a way to save the world.

Anyway, the conversation between Viktor & Five feels off to me. While Five admits that they are all worried about Allison and what she did to Harlan – as well as the way she chewed out Viktor in front of them – he is more worried about Viktor. This is understandable because he did technically go against what the rest of the family agreed on and risked the end of the world. But there is a specific part of this conversation that I’m going to paraphrase here. Five defines a supervillain as a superhero who works alone and doesn’t listen to anyone. And while he hopes Viktor never becomes one, he won’t be afraid to kill him if it ever comes to it.

This…really gets to me. Five isn’t technically wrong with his supervillain definition. Yes, villains do often work alone and they often become villains because they are so convinced that their stance on something is the only way and refuses to compromise. But the tricky thing about this definition is context. These specific traits don’t always apply to supervillains. The way I see it is this – supervillains are driven by selfish needs. Sometimes a selfish need to prove themselves over everyone else. And they do it at the expense of innocent people. Not caring if they hurt or kill them. Viktor risked a lot when he went against his family’s plan in regards to Harlan. But he was driven by a need to save someone from certain death. Even trying to take back the thing that has been a burden on him for his entire life. And keep in mind, Harlan didn’t mean to cause any harm. He was someone who struggled to keep in control of his powers. He had no training unlike the Umbrella Academy and he held onto a lot of regret and guilt that were the result of his actions.

There is a lot of nuance around the topic of when is it OK to take a life. Certain situations such as protecting yourself and wartime are considered OK for that, even if it is at best a morally gray area. But superheroes are meant to save people no matter what. The phrase “there is always another way” can be overused in this context, but it’s the truth. And it can applied in this case where Viktor didn’t need to lie to his family. The entire team could have realized that there has to be a better way to deal with their situation that doesn’t involve someone like Harlan dying. And let’s not kid ourselves, the Sparrows would have happily killed Harlan. I also want to point out that despite the argument some of the Umbrella Academy make about how one life isn’t as important as saving the entire universe, there came a time when several of them ended up saying no to a plan that could reboot the universe and save everyone. Yea, some of those same Umbrella Academy members said no to that plan and elected to just let everything end. This is why superheroes aren’t nihilists, it makes them make dumb decisions like that!

I do know some of the arguments about why some of them decided not to go with that plan. Doesn’t really make it right but I know and understand them. Which is why when you realize what does happen to get them all to go through with the plan, it makes them look selfish. I’ll concede that Viktor is one of the people who passed on the plan, which doesn’t mean it was the right decision. I just want to point out that Five – the same guy who argued that saving one life isn’t as important as saving the entire universe – also passed on the plan to reboot the universe and brings billions back to life. The same guy who in that conversation with Viktor identified himself as one of the superheroes. An assassin who killed people, regardless of motivation, and doesn’t communicate with his team or even sometimes listen to what they have to say in case what they have to say could be important.

The point of that long rant is this. Allison has become a villain. And despite a last minute attempt at redemption, I still view her as a villain for what she did, how she felt about it, and the way she treated Viktor afterwards. And Five, despite wanting to stop apocalypses, shouldn’t really be classified as a hero either and that he was willing to go through with decisions that went against his view of himself as a hero. Which finally brings me to the final member of the Umbrella Academy, Viktor.

And it’s here we need to address something important. In between seasons 2 and 3, the actor who portrayed this character came out as transgender. The actor formerly known as the woman Ellen Page came out as a man and is now Elliot Page. The people behind the show were very supportive of him and even incorporated this into the show for his character because his character had previously been a woman named Vanya. While there were concerns about how the show would handle this transition, they ended handling it with a lot of care and respect. It is acknowledged and other members of the Umbrella Academy where supportive when their sibling came out to them within the show’s season. I can be nit picky about how I think two characters should have switched their reactions to the revelation, I will still give the show a lot of credit for how it was handled. And it does make sense for the fictional character’s journey. The seventh member of the Umbrella Academy had felt overlooked and ignored their entire life because it was believed they didn’t have any powers. And when it turned out they did, they were at first seen as a threat to take down instead of a family member to reach out and connect with. And when given a clean slate via time travel, they were able to discover who they were away from the trauma and family. Being transgender wasn’t the only trait of this character. But it is an important part. The show did a great job finding that right balance.

Even if this wasn’t a part of the character’s journey within the show, Viktor still is my favorite of the Umbrella Academy. The entire focus of his journey from the beginning was to connect with his family. Which speaks to a lot of the issues that the other Umbrella Academy members deal with. More often than not, they split up and end up dealing with their own issues and problems alone with no supports. But Viktor wanting to make amends for some things he has done in the past and want to help out his family with their own makes him the most sympathetic and kindest character. Even when he was apparently at risk of becoming a villain according to Five’s bulls*** logic in season 3, he refused to believe that any amount of death was justifiable for the greater good. Which is exactly the kind of mindset a true superhero should have. Yes, he has issues in previous seasons where he has unwittingly become an obstacle for his family to deal with. But it is clear that unlike Allison in season 3, Viktor feels regret and guilt and wants to do better.

And there you have it. All my thoughts on all of the Umbrella Academy members. I even ended up going over some plot points that should indicate how I feel about the show so far. There is nothing left but to hope that the Umbrella Academy finally resolves their issues and start to feel and act like a real family.