How can I begin to express my love for these characters? On first glance they look like a band of misfits. A twelve year old boy, a man on the moon, not to mention the crazy super powers. How can they become characters that you identify with and love? But as you watch the first season and get to know everyone and their number you see yourself in them. I'm Diego, and Viktor, and Alison, and maybe even Klaus. You see them learn and change from a superhero team to a family through the seasons and makes you want to be part of the Umbrella Academy. Let me introduce my favorite superhero family.
Curated to capture the essence of each member of the umbrella team, the first one is our loveable leader “number one” Luther Hargreaves. Looked at as the leader of the Umbrella Academy for his super strength, as a kid Luther had an accident and to protect him, his father Regonald sent him on a mission to the moon. To start off I took inspiration from his time on the moon. His intro is Luther isolated on the moon watering his plant, putting on his space suit and looking over the earth. I loved that scene because it was a physical representation of how he felt as being number one. So I selected an art batt that had similar colors to that scene, a beautiful gray base like the moon with pops of yellow, green, brown, and brown just like Luther on the moon looking over the people he loves.
Let's get to Diego, Number Two! (Am I going to do these in number order? You bet!) I love Diego in season two the best. He's the best brother to have in your corner when you're in a fight. His special super power is that he never misses his target. My favorite scenes with him are when he’s with his siblings going on a stake out or having hijinks like the family dinner in season two when they meet their father at a tiki bar and have the most dysfunctional family dinner. I loved Diego in this scene because he literally can’t take it any more and just says what's on his mind, smashes a conch shell and punches himself in the face because Allison rumored him to. So I picked a batt that overall had the same color scheme of the scene, reds with electric blues throughout.
I heard a rumor that you're going to love “Number Three” Allison. The only girl in the umbrella academy, her power is like the power of suggestion. If she says the phrase “I heard a rumor” then her request you’ll have no choice but to comply. Allison is a character that I have mixed feelings about because through the seasons I understand that she feels betrayed and like everyone she loves gets taken away from her but the way she goes about it is great for the plot but not great for me. I want better from her. (If you guys watch till season three you’ll understand why I say this.) But let's go back to season two Allison because her superhero outfit was my inspiration for the art batt that I chose, a beautiful black base with purple and blue accents to mimic the light in the scenes she's in.
Say hello to Number four Klaus. Though he deals with addiction he is the fun levity of this show. His adventures are so kookie and fun. When you first meet Klaus he's leaving rehab and immediately dies of an overdose and is brought back to life which you think is ok but little do you know that death is his actual superpower. He can see and speak to the dead which is why he turns to drugs to dull his senses so that he can't see them. As you go though the seasons in season two he becomes a cult leader and though Klaus is so fun in season one, season two is my favorite using contemporary song lyrics like TLC ‘Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’ as scripture and calling his cult Destiny's Children is a fun nod to 90’s nostalgia. To really bring this 1960’s cult leader to life I selected a green base batt that had a lot of oranges, and yellows to really capture the vibe.
Traveling through time and getting stuck in the apocalypse is Number Five. He not only moves though time but also space and becomes an assassin for the commission. The bureaucratic agency that controls time. He Is my personal favorite character. When you first meet him he comes through a rift in time of his own making, gets the calculations wrong and comes back in his twelve year old body after living a long life in the Apocalypse. Any of my favorite five scenes are of him in fight sequences. There's something about seeing a kid in his school boy uniform going toe to toe with big mercenaries because he is a highly legendary assassin is the best! So Five was my first Roving Remix where I picked two rovings from different collections to create a new plying pair. I selected the red tweed roving to signify the blood on fives hands, and roving that was green, red, gold, and brown for the Umbrella Academy uniform he wears.
He's always around but only Klaus can see him, Number Six Ben. The original died on a mission when they were children. His power was so violent that we never see the full extent of it on screen, only tentacles from time to time. Ben is the voice or reason for Klaus and we really only get scenes of Ben and Klaus until season two, and then a reboot of him in season three. Ben is always in the shadows with fun background lights so I chose a fun art batt with purples, teals, and pinks with Ben in mind.
Now let's get into the last member of the family number seven, the ordinary one or so we thought. Through the first season you see Vanya/Vickor being left out of the superheroics due to the fact that they were ordinary with no powers so while the rest of their siblings went to save the world they learned to play violin, an instrument that will help them become who they’ve always been. Through the first season you see it become a weapon to bring on the end of the world. Inspired by the White Violin, my second remixed plying pair. Choosing a beautiful blue roving to ply with a beautiful gray and white roving to really play with the character design that works so well.
Although not an official member of the Umbrella Academy, Lilia is family. Also born with sperpowers she can mimic anyone's powers if they are in close proximity to her. Brought in as an antagonistic presence in season two you see her loyalty tested when she falls in love with Diego and wants to become a part of the Hargreaves family. With her power mimic makes her super fun to watch in fight scenes especially with five. To play with Lilia who changes a lot between seasons I chose a fun batt with lots of colors that play with the fact that she can mimic others powers.
The Patriarch of the family is Reginald Hardgreeves a reclusive billionaire who adopted seven impossible children with superpowers and created the Umbrella Academy to help save the world. He has been around since the time of the steam engines, through the space race all to create the perfect superhero team for his own purposes. He is the mysterious emotionally unavailable father who replaces his kids the first chance he gets. To embody Mr Hardgreeves I selected an art batt that's golden with green (spoilers), gold and brown streaks.
Welcome to the Sparrow Academy. Due to traveling back in time and meeting their father in the 60’s in the tiki bar while having the unconventional family dinner Mr Hargreaves disappointed in his children, lives his life but when he adopts his superpowered children he chooses different children creating a new future and a new academy, The Sparrow Academy. When both academies face off one of the sparrows superpower is hallucinogenic spit and uses it on Diego and instead of a fight that breaks out its a dance off to footloose, one of the best silly intense scenes of season three. Sarah is taking inspiration from this Umbrella vs Sparrow dance scene creating two battlings, an Umbrella Academy one and a Sparrow Academy one only available through this collection for a limited time.
My favorite all time scene has my favorite character Five, fighting with two hunters from the commission, Hazel and Cha Cha. They enter a department store looking for Five to bring him in. The thing is they both wear fun masks. Hazel wears a blue cartoon bear while Cha Cha wears a pink cartoon bunny. They are both great partners who have eachothers back and in the end work together with the Umbrella Academy to try to save the world, because they are the most compelling villains, Sarah is taking the mood board I created with some of their best fight scenes and their character design and creating a custom plying pair exclusive to this collection and available for a limited time.
One of the best set places is Griddys Doughts. It looks like every local doughnut shop in the world but more stylized. From the orange light fixtures to the yellow stools you sit on in the counters, its nostalgia at its very best. This set was my first pitch to Sarah for this collection when I pulled out the pink from the dozer domes plying pair set and added the loki braid. Something unlocked in my brain and felt the magic of this show.
This curated collection was one of my favorites to put together. I loved revisiting these characters and scenes that I love from the Umbrella Academy series. Did I restart the show after I put this collection together? Yes I did! Join me in watching the show, spinning the collection,and picking a side, Umbrella or Sparrow? Shop the full collection only at GreenGoatRanch.com