Calling All The Heroes

- David Allan

Talking chimpanzees, crazed assassins and time-travelling adventures… One of America’s quirkiest comic-book series arrives on Netflix this week as Game of Thrones actor Tom Hopper stars in sci-fi drama The Umbrella Academy.

The 10-part series, based on the comic books by Gerard Way (also the lead singer with My Chemical Romance), begins in 1989, when 43 super-powered babies are born on the same day to unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy up until they gave birth.

Seven of the babies are adopted by eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who gives each of the children a number and tells them to call him ‘The Monocle’.

Hargreeves creates the ‘Umbrella Academy’, training the children to be superheroes and sending them on missions. But the plan falters during their teenage years, and the family is torn apart and the team disbanded.