Review: The Umbrella Academy Vol. 3- Hotel Oblivion

Quick Summary

Pros: The comic is just as delightfully bizarre and unique as previous entries. The narrative is compelling and comes together for an excellent conclusion. The characters are great and are full of creativity. The artwork is gorgeous and is a beautiful complement to the story being told.

Cons: The members of the Umbrella Academy feel slightly underrepresented at points.

Overall: The third volume in this series easily keeps up the high quality level seen in earlier volumes. The storyline is compelling, the artwork is gorgeous, and the entire book is unbelievably unique. Plus, the collection seriously pushes the series forward and manages to build even more excitement for the future. Readers who enjoyed the previous entries in this series should not miss this volume.

Story

The Umbrella Academy Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion, by Gerard Way, is another massive success for this series. It starts by capitalizing on everything that made this series great already. This means that the comic is very unique, the characters are still incredible, and the narrative pulls you in from start to finish. Then, it adds even more to the mix. New characters, locations, and one or two serious twists ensure that it is impossible to predict what will happen to the Umbrella Academy in the future. The reading experience is fantastic and left me more than ready to tackle whatever is coming up next.

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Like the comics preceding it, Hotel Oblivion is immediately recognizable for its trademark ingenuity and delightfully bizarre approach to storytelling. The reading experience often feels confusing, as random pieces of information or entire scenes are interjected at various points, but, after continuing to read, these confusing points start to come together thematically and help better reveal the story being told. It makes for a wonderfully unique reading experience that stays true to what this series has always been about.

It also helps that the quality of the story itself is high. This volume follows adventures in outer space, family troubles, and a jailbreak from some of the world’s most dangerous villains. These plots points then all come together at the end, for a finale that is tremendously satisfying.

Plus, Hotel Oblivion ends on a great cliffhanger. The final few pages introduce an entirely new group of superheroes, one that mirrors the structure of the Umbrella Academy. I would imagine this group is made from the Umbrella Academy’s siblings, who I often wondered about but wasn’t sure would actually be brought back into the fold. This left me very excited to read the next volume and ensured my continued interest in this series.

The characters in this comic are also all excellent. The volume introduces tons of new villains who manage to break out of the Hotel Oblivion. It would have been easy to make these villains simple and generic but the narrative is constantly giving hints that these are all unique individuals; there are even a few villains who’s deep and personal stories form subplots that unfold alongside the main drama. Also, the new cast of heroes, despite only appearing for a few moments, is already showing promise. My only complaint is that it felt like the members of the Umbrella Academy were a bit sidelined in this book, especially compared to previous books.

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Art

The artwork in Hotel Oblivion manages to be just as good as, if not better than, previous entries in this series. Gabriel Bá’s unique visual stylings are in full bloom throughout this entire volume. This means that atypical page structures, creatively designed characters, and a general feeling that this comic is like no other comic out there is present. All of this matches the creativity in the storytelling and comes together to make this such a highly enjoyable reading experience.

However, Hotel Oblivion goes even further by pushing the boundaries on what this series is capable of. This volume introduces a ton of new characters, all of whom feel vibrant and alive thanks to the distinct appearances they are given. In addition, the locations seen in this volume are more diverse than before, which allows Bá to present even more variety in the comic’s landscapes. This helps make this comic look even better than before and prove that this series can still surprise you.

Continuity

The Umbrella Academy Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion continues the story from The Umbrella Academy Vol. 2: Dallas (Review).

A sequel to this volume has not been announced yet.