How did Umbrella Academy end in the comics? Source material Vs. Netflix adaptation

The Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy has concluded, with all 6 episodes of season 4 being released on August 8, 2024. The show's source material is the comic book series created and written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá.

So far, three volumes of The Umbrella Academy comics have been published, with a fourth installment in the works. Thus, while the Netflix show reaches a definitive end with the finale of season 4, Volume 3 of The Umbrella Academy comics is far from a conclusion.

The Netflix adaptation ends with the Hargreeves siblings sacrificing themselves to the Cleanse to restore the universe to its stable timeline. However, the comics have not reached a conclusion yet.

In the latest issue, the Hargreeves siblings defeated the freed prisoners of Hotel Oblivion, and The Sparrow Academy has been teased. There are significant differences between how the graphic novel series and the show have panned out over the years.

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The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion ends with a cliffhanger

The full version of Volume 3 of the comic book series, titled Hotel Oblivion, was published on September 17, 2019, after a 10-year gap from Volume 2’s publication. The first issues of Volume 1 of the series, titled Apocalypse Suite, and Volume 2, titled Dallas, came out on September 19, 2007, and November 26, 2008, respectively.

In Hotel Oblivion, the superheroes, or the Hargreeves siblings, are initially scattered after saving the world from two apocalypses in the two preceding volumes. The titular Hotel Oblivion is revealed to be a space existing in a different dimension, and it acts as a prison for the worst villains yet defeated by the Academy.

As each member of the Hargreeves family goes on various adventures, a dire threat is let loose upon the world when some of the villains manage to break out of Hotel Oblivion and start attacking the world. As a result, the Academy’s superheroes team up one more time.

A massive showdown ensues between the opposing forces, and at the end of The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion, the existence of a parallel Academy from a different timeline is teased.

The show's viewers would know that it is The Sparrow Academy, which, incidentally, is also the title of the upcoming volume of the comic. Thus, so far, the comics have a very different ending than what the adaptation has offered.

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The Umbrella Academy season 4 concludes the storyline definitively

The fourth and last season of the TV adaptation of the comics has brought the story to an absolute end. The TV series has taken several liberties when it comes to adapting the source material.

For instance, The Sparrow Academy has already played a crucial role in the Netflix adaptation, whereas the last comic book volume only teased it. Similarly, the ending of the TV adaptation does not follow the source material since the latter is still an ongoing project.

In season 4 of The Umbrella Academy, the Hargreeves siblings realize that their repeated acts of saving the world from multiple apocalypses have fragmented the timeline into various shattered timelines. The only way to fix the situation is to sacrifice their lives to the Cleanse.

The Cleanse is an apocalyptic event that is carried out by a monster created from the reaction between Marigold and Durango when Ben and Jennifer interact. The Durango of the monster can cancel out the Marigold in the superheroes and restore the universe to a stable timeline.

The finale ends with the Hargreeves siblings embracing death and erasing themselves from history. This ending is quite different from the plot elements provided by the source material thus far.

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The Umbrella Academy TV show will not return with a fifth season. However, the comic book series will return with a fourth volume, whose publication date is not yet known. Stream all four seasons of the series on Netflix.