Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s The Umbrella Academy is back with its fourth volume, Plan B. The Umbrella Academy: Plan B #1 offers readers of the comics their first extended glimpse of The Sparrow Academy who terrorize and subvert our protagonists every step of the way beginning with Ba’s clever cover for the comic, which features a sort of vandalism of the usual team shot and succinctly tells the story of The Sparrow Academy’s first mission in an airplane seatback diagram meets a school composition book design. There are call backs to The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 with Way and Ba showing the surface similarities between The Umbrella and Sparrow Academies before ripping them apart.

The plot of The Umbrella Academy: Plan B #1 is the comic book equivalent is kicking a dog while it’s down over and over again. Oh, and then let’s rub your cute little face in the mud and treat the characters that you have been spent years connecting with in both the comics and television medium with the utmost of disrespect. Part of the appeal of The Umbrella Academy is the utterly screwed up nature of the book’s main cast, and Way and Ba play on this vulnerability for maximum drama and a colorful action sequence. Seriously, Gabriel Ba and colorist Dave Stewart bring out the bright lights and surrealism to establish the Sparrow Academy’s abilities and personalities through action not exposition. For everything The Umbrella Academy throws at them, there’s a superior countermeasure. And, of course, pulling the strings in the background like it was revealed in Hotel Oblivion is the android Mom, who raised the Umbrella Academy members while Sir Reginald Hargreaves was doing God knows what. A borderline-fascist android antagonist definitely hits home in 2025 in the era of Open AI taking over everything especially with Mom being the original “trad wife”.

Reading The Umbrella Academy: Plan B #1 is like getting kicked in the teeth after a six year nap. Gerard Way lets Ba’s visuals drive the momentum of the comic while giving everyone a much anticipated Umbrella vs Sparrow Academy throwdown that lives up to the hype. I marvel at the book’s powerful approach to fight choreography as well as the smart color choices from Stewart that help keep the long list of combatants distinct. Plus Way and Gabriel Ba’s prose is still as quirky and rhythmic as ever with the Sparrow Academy playing the role of upstart opening band that really should be the headliner in every way. Plan B is a confident return for The Umbrella Academy series, and I’m excited to see how the story plays out of this summer. It could make for entertaining reading while you wait in various lines to see My Chemical Romance on their “Long Live the Black Parade Tour”.

Story: Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba Art: Gabriel Ba
Colors: Dave Stewart Letters: Nate Piekos
Story: 8.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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