[9] In the mid-20th century, at the instant of the finishing blow in a cosmic wrestling match, forty-three superpowered infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women across the world who showed no signs of pregnancy at the start of the day.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, an extraterrestrial disguised as a famous entrepreneur, adopts seven of the children and prepares them to save the world from an unspecified threat as the Umbrella Academy.

The Academy's founder, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, was an alien disguised as a wealthy human entrepreneur and world-renowned scientist, and callously trained and experimented on the children to make them into superheroes.

Way has stated that his biggest influence on Umbrella Academy was his favorite writer, Grant Morrison, and their work on Doom Patrol with DC Comics.

He has also cited Pat McEown of ZombieWorld: Champion of the Worms and his favorite artist, Edvin Biuković, and his comic Grendel Tales as other major inspirations.

[3] Written by Gerard Way with art by Gabriel Bá, the first six-issue limited series, Apocalypse Suite,[7] was released by Dark Horse Comics between September 14, 2007, and February 20, 2008.

In the story, the estranged members of the Umbrella Academy are reunited by the funeral of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, their father and leader, whose rigorous training and experiments during their childhoods has left them each emotionally scarred.

This story sees the Umbrella Academy having split up once again after saving the world, but while each sibling is distracted by their own problems, the team is forced to reunite when the Temps Aeternalis, an organization that manages the timeline, attack the members and drag them into a time travel plot revolving around the Kennedy assassination in 1963 Dallas.

The third limited series, entitled The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion, was announced to be in development in 2009,[11] and Dark Horse initially stated it would release in 2010.

The one-shot issue Tales from the Umbrella Academy: Hazel and Cha-Cha Save Christmas was written by Gerard Way and Scott Allie, with art by Tommy Lee Edwards, and was published on November 20, 2019.

A six-issue limited series, You Look Like Death: Tales from the Umbrella Academy, written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon with art by Ian Culbard, was published between September 16, 2020 and February 24, 2021.

[1] It is a two-page preview story in which a time machine, built by Number Five, causes the Séance to briefly experience life as a Medieval French military commander, and is included in the Apocalypse Suite trade collection.

The first printed story of the series, "...But the Past Ain't Through With You" takes its title from a lyric from the My Chemical Romance song "Kill All Your Friends", co-written by Way.

Gabriel Bá wrote and illustrated the short story "Safe" for the Dark Horse one-shot Free Comic Book Day 2023: The Umbrella Academy and The Witcher #1, which was published on May 10, 2023.

[26] The series premiered on Netflix on February 15, 2019, and the first two seasons primarily adapted the Apocalypse Suite and Dallas storylines, and were met with positive reactions from critics and audiences for their humor, action, character drama, and music.