Comic Review: Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #6

Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #6

Dark Horse Comics

Writer: Gerard Way

Artist: Gabriel Bá & Nick Filardi

In the pre-finale to Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion, from the same creative team that released the first two volumes, we get crazy amounts of action along with exciting artwork.

In this chapter, the Hargreeves meet each other at the hospital where Klaus was left by the mysterious figure from the last issue. There Klaus gets an ominous warning from his dead brother Ben. Most of the family band together to stop the super criminals from destroying the city. Allison is still chasing after the Murder Magician, who is also being chased by the mother of his yet unexplained baby. Vanya is shown to have been taken to Norway by last issues mysterious (yes, again) lady.

Gerard Way’s writing is something to admire. Deviating from what most writers go for nowadays(character development and detailed exposition), Way bets on telling the story in a very straight forward manner. Despite bearing a somewhat complex fiction, Way writes Umbrella Academy mostly through short dialogues, superficial exposition and a lot of action. For this issue, he managed to keep alternating between the three main narratives in a precise chaotic pace, portraying the chaos of the whole situation.

This issue’s artwork looks spectacular, to say the least, combining pencils and colors beautifully! Bá’s work has been one of my favorites for a while now and it makes me so happy to see he still goes for a stylized art full of personality that fills the book with life. Bá represents the many escapees from Hotel Oblivion in many varied designs each with its own brand. The artist is able to show various facial expressions without too much detail on the character’s faces, betting on more detailed backgrounds instead. Filardi’s colors complement the pencils amazingly, providing a three-dimensional feeling to Bá’s mostly two-dimensional art, with shading for and even fading the color a bit off from the elements in the background.

One issue away from its final chapter, Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion still has a lot to explain. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful looking book with sensational writing giving the fans of the Hargreeves family even more than what we already got in the previous issues. This issue specifically has delivered way more than what I’ve been expecting from this new volume and makes me excited for the finale, making it impossible, for this reviewer, to not grade this as a masterpiece.