Gerard Way / Gabriel Ba

The Umbrella Academy: Dallas [comic] (2009)

punk_sk

The second installment of Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy begins with a scene stolen straight from South Park as a giant stone Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by a giant stone John Wilkes Booth. Despite the rip, Dallas is an exceptionally written comic with equally great art by Gabriel Bá.

The general plot of Dallas revolves around Number 5, who we learn spent his days as a time traveling assassin making "corrections" in the time continuum. The rest of the team spends their days wallowing in the shadows of the events that occurred in Apocalypse Suite.

What I found most entertaining were the characters, Hazel and Cha Cha–two psychopathic, sugar-addicted, suit and cartoon-head wearing killers–on the hunt for Number 5. Although their actions are a little clichéd, as an action hero speaking a line similar to, "I came here for two reasons: to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Looks like I'm all out of bubble gum." It's the way they come to their demise, as it wouldn't be out of character for a psychopath to commit a murder-suicide. I'm hopeful they'll pop up again in a future issue of The Umbrella Academy (remember, time continuum).

We see as early as part two that Gerard Way is plotting future issues with the introduction of a millionaire playboy, Mr. Perseus. It's unclear what role he'll play as his storyline only took up four pages out of the 152 pages of the Dallas arc as he put his insidious plan into action.

The comic comes to a close in Dallas, Texas, November, 1963 as the members of the Umbrella Academy fight each other on whether JFK is to be assassinated and the world saved or if he is to be saved and the world doomed.

The book features an introduction written by Neil Gaiman, two short essays written by Way and Bá, an eight-page comic titled Anywhere But Here about the Kraken and Vanya's (pre-White Violin) punk band the Prime-8's featuring Body, the future police chimp on drums, and cover and character sketches.