Talking chimpanzees. Time travel. Homicidal orchestra musicians. This isn’t your ordinary super hero tale.

Then again, that’s what makes “The Umbrella Academy” such a fresh break from all the standard, run-of-the-mill superhuman tales–it’s weird, weird, weird, and in a good way.

That isn’t saying much when referring to a comic book, but “Umbrella Academy” takes it to a new level.

The miniseries, which just wrapped up with its sixth and final issue this month, is the premiere work of new writer Gerard Way, who is better known as the lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance, and is illustrated by Gabriel Bá with cover art by James Jean.

The story follows a group of estranged superheroes who have been reunited after the death of their adoptive father, an alien disguised as a human who prepared them all from birth to save the planet from an unknown impending threat.

The team resents their “father” whom they believe did not love them and only wanted to use them to service the world.

This calls for some interesting inner conflict, making the team come off as sort of a dismantled X-Men team.

The art is beautifully drawn, giving off a very unique punk-rock vibe which fits very well in the comic book realm.

The story is where the real treat lies, though. Way’s style of story telling is impressively fresh. His bravery is evident in every issue.

For instance, in the first issue, the team fights a deranged villain who launched the Eiffel Tower into space. It’s crazy. It’s ridiculous. It’s amazing.

From each characters’ abilities down to the small things such as the emo-inspired titles of the issues–one being “We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals”– Way leaves no room for doubt.

In a world where so many actors want to sing and so many singers want to act, it’s nice to see an artist pursuing a medium that seriously highlights their creativity.

This is one musician crossover that has “great idea” written all over it.

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.