All the Powers from 'The Umbrella Academy,' Explained
The following story is Spoiler-Free enteringThe Umbrella Academy Season 2.
The Umbrella Academy season 2 is now on Netflix.
The series continues the time-jumping exploits of the Hargreeves children.
Here's a recap of all their powers and abilities.
Netflix's Umbrella Academy stands at the end of a long line of superhero literature finally ready for it's rated-R adaptation. (Deadpool voice: you're welcome.) The adaptation of the comic series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá first hit Netflix last year and featured all the time-hopping, head-hunting, and family dysfunction we expected from the source material.
The series—part Lemony Snicket, part X-Men—chronicles seven (six? six and a half?) mutant humans, all born on the same day to different biological mothers. (In the comic, it's implied they are messiah-like incarnations.) The seven are among some 43 children born with superpowers, though we haven't yet met those other heroes.
We also haven't even seen all the powers the comic series hints for our fab seven (six? six and a half?) Just last season, in a black and white fever dream/death sequence, Klaus spoke to the Hargreeves' dead father, Reginald, who told Klaus that he was yet to reach his full potential. Some of that potential spirited its way out of him this season.
We may have to wait on that one still. In the meantime, here's a recap of all the characters' powers.
Luther Hargreeves (Number One)
Every band of superheroes needs a super strong member. That's just the law of fiction. Luther is that super strength guy. Once normal looking, Luther underwent surgery after a disaster on the moon. Reginald injected him with monkey juice, making him half ape. (In the comic, all that's left in human form is his head.) In the series, Luther is pretty much indestructible. The only thing that hurts are his feelings.
Diego Hargreeves (Number Two)
Diego can manipulate thrown objects, basically causing them to defy physics. (He prefers knives.) In the comics, he can also hold his breath indefinitely. As a police officer-ish, Diego is also familiar with law enforcement and criminal investigation. Five once joked he's basically Batman, just not as good.
Allison Hargreeves (Number Three)
Allison is able to manipulate others through telling lies. In the comics, it's implied that she can manipulate the world in other ways (she also has a cybernetic hand), though what we've seen in the series so far is coercion through one particular phrasing: "I heard a rumor." Anything uttered after this phrase a listener will do. The range of this power seems to only be speaking distance, which must make super loud gunfights where no one can hear pretty much her kryptonite.
Klaus Hargreeves (Number Four)
In the comics, Klaus has telekinesis abilities. In the series, he's more of a medium with the dead. He's also able to make spirits corporeal, i.e. cause ghosts to punch people. This power, however, diminishes in relation to Klaus' sobriety; benders cost him powers. So basically like the opposite of Alice in Wonderland.
Five (Number Five)
Five (because everyone forgot his name ... sad) can jump. In the comics, this is mostly through time (his teleportation, simply micro jumps). In the series, time jumping is more of an acquired (and unreliable) skill, with teleportation being his primary ability. When time jumping, he also managed to age backwards.
Ben Hargreeves (Number Six)
It's unclear how Ben died; he appears only through Klaus' conjuring of him. Ben apparently possesses inter-dimensional monsters under his skin, employing them at will. That means issuing tentacles from his stomach and straight up killing dudes. It's unclear what other monsters he has at his disposal.
Vanya Hargreeves (Number Seven)
Vanya is by far the most powerful Hargreeves. She uses sound waves to distort reality, though her ability to control this is basically zero. She also flies into fits of Dark Phoenix level telekinetic rage. In the series, she's basically a bomb. Damn, is this what happens when you don't nurture children?
Reginald Hargreeves
The Umbrella Academy founder gets much more backstory this season, including his pre-children-rearing activities, his relationship with Grace, and his experiments on Pogo. We learn the patriarch once worked for a deep state shadow organization to which he revealed his actual identity, taking off his face and making extraterrestrial noises. Powers TBD.
Lila Pitts
We didn't know Lila had any powers (outside of being a good fighter) until the Season 2 finale—but with her origin revealed, it makes sense. We now know that she's another one of the babies just like the Hargreeves children, but was stolen from her home by The Handler. While fighting against the Hargreeves gang, we saw that she's got a very useful and unique ability—she can mirror the powers being used with/against her. We saw her jump like Five, manipulate waves like Vanya, and turn Allison's 'rumor' right back on her. Lila also found a briefcase, and used it to escape—to we don't even know where. We'll find out. But now we know what she's capable of.
Harlan
Sissy and Carl’s autistic son, Harlan, turned out to be way more than Vanya’s literary animus; he’s also her superhero prodigy. When Vanya revived the boy after drowning, he absorbed much of her powers, including telekinesis and whatever that Dark Phoenix tornado thing was at the end. It was also insinuated that he retained some of these abilities. Watch out for the return of Harlan in season 3.
The Swedes
Most of the Commission’s assassins are just regular folks from across time. Season 1 followed Hazel and Cha Cha, whose powers, like the rest of them, are mostly standard weapons abilities. This season we meet the Swedes who say little, kill even more, and also have some weird outer-worldly knowingness. One even took a knife to the knee—like a champ—but we’ll just chalk that up to being a blonde bad guy.
A.J. Carmichael
He’s a goldfish who controls and uses a robotic suit to talk. It’s funnier if it’s not explained. And it isn’t.
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