Netflix picks up a TV version of Umbrella Academy, from My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way

By William Hughes | July 11, 2017 | 10:01pm

Aux Features TV

Netflix is branching out from its Marvel line of successful superhero shows to pursue a dark horse—or, rather, Dark Horse—candidate, announcing today that it’s picked up a 10-episode series order for a show based off of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s The Umbrella Academy. Written by Way—who’s best known as the lead singer for My Chemical Romance—the series tracks a dysfunctional family of semi-superheroes, as they attempt to work out their interpersonal dynamics without also destroying the Earth.

And while you’d be forgiven for hearing “comic book from the co-founder of My Chemical Romance” and jumping immediately to “hacky vanity project,” the first Umbrella Academy series, Apocalypse Suite, was actually kind of a big deal when it arrived in 2008, winning the coveted Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. The series centers on a team of seven former kid superheroes, attempting to sort through the aftermath of their childhoods under the watch of a distant, mysterious adopted father. (Also, there’s a guy with a gorilla body, a time-traveling 10-year-old, and a woman who can kill you with a violin, if the previous description sounded a little too down to Earth.)