What Umbrella Academy Comic Fans Didn't Get To See In Season 2
Contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 2.
There were plenty of outstanding moments on season 2 of The Umbrella Academy. From the introduction of Lila (Ritu Arya) as a serious force to be reckoned with to Vanya (Ellen Page) learning to gain greater control of her powers, the most recent season of the Netflix series pushed the dysfunctional heroes into new, interesting directions. The show even gave us Baby Pogo to fall in love with. In many ways, it felt like season 2 threw everything but the kitchen sink at the viewers.
In truth, The Umbrella Academy's sophomore season barely cracked the surface of what was touched on in the comic books.
Created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy comic books dive into some pretty insane areas that a TV show may be wary to tread. In a recent Reddit thread started by user Adayapan, a question was posed: "What part in the comics did you really hope to see in season 2 of the show?" Plenty of answers came out of the thread, and it's intriguing to consider what wild directions season 2 could have taken, if it had wanted to.
One fan wanted to see Hazel and Cha Cha get crazy violent
Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha Cha (Mary J. Blige) are time-traveling, antagonistic forces to the Umbrella Academy throughout season 1. They're ruthless assassins working on behalf of the Commission whose mission is to kill Five (Aidan Gallagher). It's hard to imagine them becoming any more violent without getting into sadistic serial killer territory, but that's precisely what one fan of the series wanted to see going into season 2.
Cha Cha doesn't show up at all for the show's second season while Hazel only appears briefly as an older version of himself. It's unlikely they would come back for season 3, but if they do, Redditor Viviaana wants to see them truly give into their barbarous ways such as, "kidnapping a man to chop off his arms and legs so he'll give them his apple pie recipe and then when he starts giving the recipe they're like 'wtf is he on about?' And they just leave."
Granted, such a scene probably would have been too much for general audiences on Netflix. It really would have cemented them as twisted killers, which would have been hard considering Hazel is far more sympathetic in the series, having fallen in love with an average doughnut shop owner. It would've been tough to get audiences to root for Hazel to get out from under the Commission's thumb if we had seen him brutally de-limb an innocent man, so it's probably for the best this scene is left on the comic book pages.
Fans want to see the Umbrella Academy take on one of their many supervillains
One of the biggest departures the Netflix series makes from the comic books involves doing away with overly comic-booky supervillains. In both seasons 1 and 2, the heroes are tasked with preventing the apocalypse while battling each other's various dysfunctions. We get a brief glimpse into their traditional superheroics in flashback sequences, but for the most part, the show focuses on the family dynamic within these troubled superpowered individuals and the traumas they experienced at the hands of their adopted father, Reginald (Colm Feore).
In the comic books, the Umbrella Academy has to fight the likes of John Perseus and Dr. Terminal. Redditor kolis10 brings up how they'd like to see the TV series mix things up by allowing the family to be more traditional superheroes. They state, "I legit forget that they're a superhero team sometimes because of how little hero stuff they actually do (and what they do do is mostly just cleaning up messes they caused). I think a great way to remedy this would be to introduce a villain from the comics. Of course it would be best to give the Academy personal reasons to want to defeat them as well, instead of it just being a 'Stop this random bad guy from destroying the world' plot."
With the introduction of the Sparrow Academy at the end of season 2, it's possible we'll finally get to see some straightforward superhero battles as opposed to another "stop the end of the world" plot line. The series doesn't have to go full-on Avengers, but it would be a real treat for fans of the comics to see the likes of Dr. Terminal pop up at some point in the show.
One fan wants to see the Umbrella Academy show off more of their powers
By this point in the series, The Umbrella Academy fans on Netflix have a pretty good idea of what each member's powers are. Luther (Tom Hopper) has super strength while Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) can control people's minds. However, if you've read the comics, then you know that some members have a few secret powers that have yet to make an appearance on the show.
Redditor emopriest points to one feature in the comics they'd like to see come up in the Netflix series, "I would have loved to see some inclusion of [Diego's] ability to hold his breath and maybe klaus discovering he can levitate. just for a bit of fun." For those who haven't read the comic books, Diego, played by David Castañeda in the show, has the ability to hold his breath indefinitely in addition to throwing knives with great dexterity. The chance for him to show off this secondary power hasn't yet materialized on the show, but perhaps season 3 will see him getting thrown into a body of water where he learns he doesn't need to breathe for an extended period of time.
Likewise, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) can levitate, and while we haven't seen this on the show properly yet, it was alluded to briefly in season 2. You may remember the scene where Klaus pretends to float for his cult followers with the aid of Ben (Justin H. Min) lifting him up in ghost-form. It seems as though Klaus can't levitate on his own in the show, otherwise he would have already done sowithout needing Ben around.
Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy is set to start filming in February of 2021, so fans won't have to wait much longer to see how that cliffhanger from season 2 pays off. While some more plot points from the comics will inevitably make an appearance, fans of the books should be prepared for other moments to remain within the pages.