So the world just became a little bit more interesting because of this:



I sat down for a good 2 hours with Umbrella Academy: Dallas, sequel to Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite. The subject of much concern within the plot is the prevention of JFK's murder. Number Five very much plays an integral role this time. As hinted in the first book, he has done a complicated number of things to return to the present - 1980? Time is very relative, if not at all. Number 5 shows just how much of a bad-ass mother fucker he really is, but no spoilers here. He poses (nose to foot) on the front cover as Lee Harvey Oswald, holding a rifle. On a cover page for the last chapter he salutes, as shown in the picture above, channeling John F. Kennedy Jr.'s famous photographed salute to his deceased father.

Hardgreeves is the same old - a smoking, arrogant, merciless foster-father who refuses to dote on anyone, yet expects loyalty none-the-less. His desired title - "the Monocle" - is unmentioned in Dallas but he gruffly mutters his infamous line: "don't call me dad." Number 6 or Ben Hardgreeves' fate is left to be discovered, as moss grows on his broken stone.

After having watched the film adaptation of Watchmen, I am reminded again of a certain kind of reminiscing of those times our parents grew up in. Dark days, with the spirit of revolution, insanity, and hope where you could find it. People set JFK as the unintended martyr because they saw him as their superhero. But superheroes aren't immortal. Fortunately, their stories go on. OR they are remembered by other created fictional characters, to give them some literary company, most times for the better.

The Umbrella Academy: Dallas feels like the real beginning, not seeming so Neo-Victorian as the last, but rather, a kind of dry-humored, gritty American flavor with a dash of vaudeville. Read this book