If you like Umbrella Academy, these shows are for you
Last month, Netflix released the second season of its hit show The
Umbrella Academy. The quirky dramedy following a dysfunctional family of super-powered siblings garnered more 45 million views in its debut last year and this second outing is on track to match it.
The Umbrella Academy is based on a comic book by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. If the show has whet your appetite for offbeat stories, here are six other series with graphic novels as their inspiration.
Watchmen (2019). HBO’s dramatic series is a sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking book. While the graphic novel deconstructed the idea of superheroes and questioned the society that would want them, the TV show turns these themes into a racially charged narrative about cops in masks battling white supremacists. There are plenty of twists and turns, and plenty of reasons this miniseries has been nominated for 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, including for cast members Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Irons and more.
Lucifer (2016). Fox took some serious liberties when they adapted Mike Carey’s comic about the Prince of Darkness for television. The original book sees Satan having left Hell and contending with characters from a variety of mythologies as he seeks to make a new universe in a treatise on the nature of free will. The show takes that first part and then has British actor Tom Ellis play him as a charming rogue who teams with a Los Angeles police detective to solve crimes. The show has jumped from Fox to Netflix, but the premise remains the same.
Doom Patrol (2019-). This series began life on the DC Universe app but has since made the jump to HBO Max. The show pulls heavily from the run of psychedelic writer Grant Morrison, such as including Danny the Street, a sentient, transvestite stretch of roadway. Like Umbrella Academy, the story concerns a band of misfit heroes brought together by a mysterious father figure.
Preacher (2016-2019). Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s violent tour of ’90s America was translated into three seasons of television for AMC. The story concerns Jesse Custer, a doubting preacher receiving a spiritual being and the power to command others with only his voice. Teaming up with a ne’er-do-well Irish vampire and a former flame turned hitwoman, Jesse sets out to find God, more literally than most people.
End of the F---ing World (20172019). Actor Charlie Covell wrote the adaptation for Charles Forsman’s comics about a boy who thinks he might be a burgeoning psychopath and the girl who uses him to escape a rough home. Netflix picked up the British show, which ran for two seasons and earned a Peabody Award. Prepare for heavy doses of pathos and laughter in nearly equal shares. iZombie (2015-2019). The CW managed to get five seasons out of the bizarre comic by Chris Roberson about a zombie girl who learns the thoughts of people whose brains she eats. The show sees medical resident Liv Moore working in a morgue and using her power to solve the mysteries behind some of the bodies that come in. Think of it like The
Ghost Whisperer, only she doesn’t exactly whisper.