The Umbrella Academy to return with first comic since last apocalypse

Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá's next installment will further explore The Sparrows.

By Mary Kate Carr  |  February 17, 2025 | 2:40pm
Image courtesy Dark Horse
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The Umbrella Academy to return with first comic since last apocalypse
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If you’ve missed The Umbrella Academy since the show ended—or wish that the finale didn’t go down like that—you’re in luck. The story will continue on June 11 in a new Dark Horse comic called The Umbrella Academy: Plan B from original creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, according to Variety. This will be the first comic from Way and Bá since the adaptation launched on Netflix in 2019, and it’s set to explore The Sparrows, who will be familiar to viewers of the show from their appearance in the third season. 

Per Variety, the synopsis for The Umbrella Academy: Plan B reads, “After the mass release of The City’s greatest foes and the chaos that followed in Hotel Oblivion, the Umbrella Academy faces their most fearsome challenge to date–their other brothers and sisters. Known only as The Sparrows, they share a different connection to Sir Reginald Hargreeves and Mom. No one knows how to hurt each other more than family, and this powerful, ruthless brood will spare no brutality in favor of their sole objective—control and the obedient glare that comes with it.”

Co-writer and My Chemical Romance frontman Way told Variety, “Telling this story with Gabriel would become, as it is today, such a special part of my life. This is not only because we would evolve as artists—but because we had the opportunity to grow up over a pretty crazy adventure together. Each chapter of this story seems to form and coalesce into its own organism—sometimes it’s a screaming baby on a subway car, other times a great big metal bird falling from the sky—and because of this, I am just as excited for ‘Plan B’ as I was when we went on this trip together with ‘Apocalypse Suite.'”

The Sparrows were first introduced to the Umbrella Academy universe in the previous installment, the Hotel Oblivion arc. The group consists of some of the other super-powered kids born on the same day. In the show, they were adapted as The Sparrow Academy, a team formed by Reginald Hargreeves in an alternate timeline. (They’re played by Justin Cornwell, Justin H. Min, Britne Oldford, Jake Epstein, Genesis Rodriguez, and Cazzie David.) According to co-writer and illustrator Bá, who was a producer on the show alongside Way, the Netflix series operated on a sort of George R.R. Martin deal where the TV writers adapted some of the ideas Way and Bá were already toying with for the Sparrows. 

“They used ideas we haven’t done yet, but differently than we originally intended for the comics. And that’s the fun of the show, in my opinion. It began very similar, but it grew to become a completely different thing, even though it has some elements that are the same,” Bá explained to Variety. “So we might see things in the comics that have appeared on the show, like the Sparrows, but the reader will soon be reminded what makes our comics so unique and why we love this medium so much.”

Way previously teased to Forbes that the next chapter “deals with a very big reveal in the Umbrella Academy universe, something that had been secret for a long time, and our siblings learn a lot about what was happening behind the scenes, as well as discovering the true nature of some characters that have been with them since the beginning.” He added, “The series finally starts to answer the question: ‘What about the other babies born on that day, in that moment?’ The Umbrella Academy siblings are not alone in the world anymore.” You can check out The Umbrella Academy: Plan B variant covers over at Variety, if you’re into that sort of thing!

 
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