“Do You Know What a Hero Complex is, Diego?”

If somebody was to say to you ‘superhero television’ you may be forgiven for thinking of the television programmes of Marvel, DC or the one-series-wonder that was Watchmen. You might even cast your mind back to Heroes or Misfits of the last decade. It’s perhaps very unlikely that your first thought would be The Umbrella Academy, unless of course that’s exactly why you sought out this post.

At the time of writing The Umbrella Academy is a fairly small show with a fairly small following despite the enormous success that it received on the host platform Netflix. According to Netflix statistics the programme was viewed by 45 million member households, yet the fandom is only gradually beginning to build and to find one other. The programme has two seasons to date and most of the audience is likely made up of those who have read the original comic books or who stumbled across the programme whilst ‘Netflix surfing’, though this is purely speculation based on what I know of the fandom and those who have watched The Umbrella Academy.

Based on the Dark Horse comic book series, written by Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance fame) and Gabriel Ba, The Umbrella Academy tells the story of a family of superheroes struggling to save the world whilst also living their own lives under the watchful eye and legacy of their eccentric billionaire turned adoptive father Reginald Hargreeves. The audience is instantly drawn in by the opening explanation of how these seven siblings came to be:

“On the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. He got seven of them.”

The programme itself expects the audience to take it as read that these children were born mysteriously as the nature of their existence is never fully explored in the narrative, at least not yet. Those who have read the comic books have their own theories, one of which is all but confirmed in season two of the programme. Instead of dwelling on how they came into existence, however, we are dropped straight into 2019 when the siblings are twenty-nine years of age and their father has met his untimely demise. We quickly learn that the siblings are far from a happy family, having splintered off to live their own lives long ago and, in the case of two of them, died or disappeared.

Undeniably it is the characters of The Umbrella Academy that make for such excellent viewing. The seven siblings have grown up together as both siblings and as colleagues in this experiment Reginald entitled ‘The Umbrella Academy’. Each of the seven siblings displays a superpower of some sort, with the exception of Vanya, but they do not use their powers in a conventional way. Reginald may have intended the siblings to be a form of superhero squad a la Marvel’s Avengers or DC’s Justice League, but what he actually got was seven dysfunctional siblings who would rather live normal lives than be the superheroes Reginald had intended. Perhaps entirely to do with the method of which Reginald brought them up, giving them numbers instead of names and having them learn martial arts before he had them learn mathematics, but each of the seven has found a way to reject everything they had ever known. Instead of flawless superpowers and never-ending fame based on their ability to fight crime with superpowers, the characters instead have flaws and doubts that mean it is a struggle just to exist, let alone to use the powers that they also possess. In having such flaws these characters instantly become more relatable and watchable as the audience are pulled into their dysfunctional drama more than watching them catch the bad guy. So, to reiterate, it is the characters that make The Umbrella Academy such captivating viewing.

In Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of a Folktale, Propp identified seven types of character in classic mythology and folk literature. Some of these we may be familiar with without even trying, such as the ‘hero’ and the ‘villain’ archetypes. Some may require further thought, such as the ‘princess’, the ‘dispatcher’, the ‘doner’ and the ‘false hero’. In black and white terms a character should simply fit one of the identified archetypes. He or she may simply be evil enough to qualify as a ‘villain’, or may appear as the ‘helper’ and exist purely to help the ‘hero’ along his journey. In many modern visual texts, however, characters seek to become much more diverse. Perhaps this is in response to the changing face of modern interaction. Writers and showrunners are having to create characters who are much more real and multi-dimensional in order for the audience to relate and to find themselves in what they are watching. The Umbrella Academy is no different. Although on the surface the show is about superheroes, ergo the ‘hero’ being the expected archetype, the characters that we are presented with are far more complicated.

It would have been easy for the writers of The Umbrella Academy to simply assign each of the seven siblings their own archetype on Propp’s identified table as there are seven defined characters. Instead the writers chose to assign each of the archetypes to each of the seven siblings at some time or other throughout the narrative. Not only that, but the characters outside of the seven siblings each have their own diverse narrative to play out and take their own turn at crossing the archetype boundaries throughout their own individual journeys. For now I will focus on the seven siblings.

Luther Hargreeves, assigned the number one in Reginald’s scale of ‘usefulness’, possesses the superpower of super-strength. An accident that almost cost Luther’s life caused Reginald to inject him with a serum that would make him half-gorilla and as a result Luther doubled in size and ability. Ashamed at what he had done, Reginald sent Luther on a mission to the moon for five years to take reconnaissance and send it back to earth. This would earn Luther the nickname ‘Spaceboy’ and addle him with five years worth of isolation based anxieties. On the surface Luther fits the ‘hero’ archetype to a T. He seeks to do his part for the good of the cause and puts himself before others, as is proved when he allows a chandelier to fall on him to save his brother. However when Luther is examined in more depth it becomes clear that he is conflicted. He has attributes that may consider him a ‘villain’. Upon learning that his sister Vanya is dangerous, Luther does not hesitate to lock her away for the good of the cause. Depending on the point of view this may appear heroic, but to many, both within the narrative and observing it as an audience, this move was that of a villain. Luther’s redemption arc, the one that restores his heroic status, occurs when he feels remorseful for his actions to do with Vanya and he accepts that he was in the wrong. Luther often acts without thinking in his attempt to be the hero he thought his father saw him as. As soon as he learns Reginald was ashamed of him things begin to unravel. However, for the purposes of this exercise, we shall assign Luther the ‘hero’ archetype that he so desires.

Diego Hargreeves, assigned the number two by Reginald Hargreeves, possesses the power to bend objects in mid-air with impeccable aim. He chooses to demonstrate this power using knives and often carries them about his person, giving him a much darker appearance to that of his siblings. Diego, like Luther, seeks to fit the hero archetype, although he does it to rebel against his father and to prove himself, not necessarily for the good of the cause. Characters who interact with Diego on more than one occasion seek to point out to him that he has a ‘hero complex’ and that he is a vigilante but really his reasons are flawed. Diego walks the thin line between ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ and at times may even appear to be the ‘false hero’, the one who manipulates the hero to take the prize for himself. This is evident when Diego takes Reginald’s monocle for himself as Luther searches for it. It is clear that Diego sees himself in Luther’s shadow and every action he makes seems to pitch himself against Luther or to rise above him. In this role call, however, we shall assign Diego the ‘false hero’ archetype.

Allison Hargreeves, number three, initially uses her power of manipulation to get what she wants through the trigger phrase, “I heard a rumour”. Instantly this fact places her as teetering on ‘villain’ territory, the person who will use any means necessary to get what they desire. However the Allison whom we meet in The Umbrella Academy is much humbled by the abuse of her power. She no longer uses it to get what she wants, in fact she hardly uses it all. She realises the danger of her power and instead presents herself as the ‘princess’ archetype’, except in this instance the ‘princess’ is also a ‘hero’ in her own right. She is strong and independent and stands up for herself. However, her priority does not lie in fighting evil but instead somewhere much more insular. She seeks to fix the mistakes that her power caused and ‘rescue’ her daughter from her ex-husband Patrick, depicting her as a hero, but at the same time she is desired by the ‘hero’, in this instance Luther, and so Allison seems to be the most ‘prize worthy’ archetype of the seven siblings. For the purposes of this exploration we shall assign her ‘princess’.

Number four, Klaus Hargreeves, of all the siblings is the one who denies his power the most. When we first meet him in season one he is in rehab and addicted to drugs in order to deny his ability to see dead people. As the season progresses he embraces his power and accepts it, gaining more abilities as he does, but initially he perhaps best fits the ‘princess’ archetype. He is constantly in need of saving and unable to save himself. However, as the series advances he begins to adopt elements of the ‘hero’ archetype as well as the ‘donor’. He uses his power to bring his deceased sibling Ben, the ‘helper’, into existence and therefore helps the ‘hero’ on his quest. Much of Klaus’ journey is him learning to stop being such a victim, a ‘princess’ in the archetype sense, and instead learn to become useful in the overall quest.

Five, known only by his number, fits the ‘dispatcher’ stereotype from the get-go. We are first introduced to him as he falls through a portal, therefore bringing a quest to his siblings. Throughout his narrative he is driven by the quest. He doesn’t seek heroism per se, simply a way to change what is to happen either by the recruitment of ‘heroes’ or by researching and investigating for them. He is perhaps the least complicated of the siblings in that he knows what he wants and he goes to get it. He didn’t grow up for as long with his siblings and so doesn’t suffer as much of his fathers mental abuse as they do.

Ben Hargreeves, number six, is the most mysterious of the siblings. He appears only to Klaus in ghost form, utilising Klaus’ power of necroprojection, and relies on Klaus in order to participate in the quest alongside his siblings. As the first season progresses Ben begins to get stronger in his abilities and fits securely in the position of the ‘helper’. He exists to help those in the quest to stop the apocalypse, including saving Diego’s life, and to offer advice through Klaus, the ‘donor’.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is Vanya Hargreeves, number seven. Vanya as a character is painfully complex, more so than her siblings. At first she seems to suffer no superpowers and barely makes the ‘princess’ archetype. She doesn’t have a role to play in the family except as the black sheep. Her lack of power seems to be the reason for much hostility towards her from her siblings as she seeks to simply be part of their lives. Yet, as the season progresses, it becomes clear that Vanya in fact possesses the most powerful power of all and therefore has been sedated to believe she does not. Upon discovering her power she, unlike her siblings, has no idea how to control it and engages in a series of activities that are deemed treacherous and those of the ‘villain’. She injures people, kills her boyfriend, attempts to kill her family and eventually triggers the apocalypse that her siblings have been questing to stop. All of this registers Vanya as the ‘villain’ of the story on the surface. Below the surface, however, it appears she is far more layered. Her actions are not necessarily out of ambition or vengeance. Her character is complicated to say the least, and that is what makes her so interesting to observe.

Whether it was accidental or deliberate for the seven siblings to embody the seven character archetypes of Propp is up to the eye of the beholder. There are many redeeming and unredeeming features for each of the characters depending on viewpoint and how they interact with the other characters. These observations have been made purely on season one. Season two is something entirely different, further proving the diversity of the characters represented, rendering the programme one of the most interesting and engaging of the last few years thanks to the characteristics displayed.