Umbrella Academy Graphic Novels & Stories

The pie-shaped sections of her umbrella alternated pink, purple and gray. “Nice day, huh?” she said, smiling. She looked up at the rain bouncing off and sluicing over the edges of the invisible barrier above Leesa and Rave’s heads. “That’s pretty cool, Leesa. If you can figure out a way to add some bright colors to that thing, you might have a winner.”

He takes out a folded document, several pages held together, and he holds it out to me without looking away from my face. I take it. Open it. The heading at the top is formal. Official academy formatting, the kind used for disciplinary and safety procedures. The language is careful and specific and built around phrases like welfare intervention and power management protocol and supervised containment for the protection of the subject and the community. My name is at the top of the first page. I read down to the signature lines at the bottom. Two signatures already written in. Two faculty members whose names I recognize from my own class schedule. Already signed. Already real. Already waiting

Snow melted beneath my boots as I crossed the academy courtyard, hiding my head in the hoodie of my sweatshirt hoping that no one would notice me. No one moved out of my way as I ducked and weaved in between the crowd of happy, screaming academy elites. They never did. No one ever paid me any mind or attention unless I was the butt end of some joke. The academy banner hangs above the courtyard, snapping violently in the wind, black and silver stitched with the wolf crest of the Axton Pack staring me dead in the face. I stare back at the wolf hating everything it stands for. Every student wears this emblem somewhere on their uniform jackets.

The academy looked different by morning, transformed overnight into something almost unrecognizable. Banners Sera had never seen before hung freshly raised along the main courtyard walls, deep crimson worked through with silver thread, House Corvane's sigil catching the early light. Servants moved in careful, practiced rows, sweeping stone already spotless, polishing brass fixtures that hadn't needed polishing the day before. "They've been preparing for this for longer than one night," Mira murmured, walking close beside Sera as they crossed toward the main hall. "This isn't the kind of welcome you throw together on short notice."

"I threw it away. This one is brand new—no one else has ever touched it." I made no move to reach out and take it, causing Tristan’s fingers to tighten rigidly around the box. "Grace, please... just give me one more chance." Just then, the little girl from the activity room came running over, slipping a handmade drawing directly into my hands. The crayon sketch depicted an older girl wearing a hearing aid, with a bright umbrella drawn right beside her. She looked to be in a much better mood now. "This umbrella is for you, Miss."

“Let’s start, and the guys can join us when they figure out the umbrellas.” We all looked over at the group of guys, who were still clustered around the umbrellas. Tyler and Trevon were holding one, trying to keep it from wobbling. Adrian was jabbing the other one into the ground with all his might. He looked annoyed. He didn’t want anything to do with these stupid umbrellas, but I said shade would be nice, so there he was. Tyler, Finnian, Jerry, Sullivan, and Caspian were all talking, pointing at the last few umbrellas. Zane was just watching, a smirk on his face, like a boss watching his employees work.

"First day of classes! Aren't you excited?" "Thrilled," I muttered, dragging myself to the small bathroom attached to our room. The uniform waiting in our wardrobe was a surprise. I'd expected something traditional, conservative. Instead, it was modern and form-fitting—black pants, a crimson silk shirt, and a black blazer with the academy crest embroidered in silver thread. A wolf and a human, circling each other eternally. "We look amazing," Sophie gushed, admiring herself in the mirror. "Like we actually belong here."