Umbrella Academy’s White Violin

The Umbrella Academy is a Dark Horse comic series that was created and written by Gerard Way with art by Gabriel Bá. Introduced in 2007, it begins with a cosmic event that leaves 43 women pregnant with superpowered babies. Seven of the children are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, aka The Monocle, an extraterrestrial disguised as an entrepreneur. He tasks them with saving the world as the Umbrella Academy.

The superpowered team members include Vanya Hargreeves, aka The White Violin and Number Seven. Vanya became estranged from the rest of the group when she didn’t display powers as her siblings’ abilities manifested, turning to music as her area of interest. It was later revealed that the Monocle had suppressed her powers through medication, but the Conductor was able to release those abilities. Since then, she’s been able to create destructive waves of force by using her violin. Her power has both extensive force and precision, giving Vanya the ability to destroy a building with power or cut someone’s throat with dexterity.

Vanya used her powers to kill the Conductor, then went to the Hargreeves mansion to bring it down, killing Pogo in the melee. While fighting with her siblings, Number Five shot her with a gun so that she’d lose focus on playing the violin. She didn’t die from the shot and was able to recover, though the doctors predicted that she wouldn’t be able to play the violin anymore.

In the Dallas storyline, she was with her siblings, held in the bunker under the mansion’s ruins. When Vanya had attacked the family, she cut Allison’s throat, so Allison retaliates by forcing Vanya to watch video coverage of the destruction her rampage caused. By the end of the story, Allison decided that Vanya had had enough and started trying to help her recover.

By the Hotel Oblivion book, Allison was coaching Vanya through physical therapy. Eventually Vanya left the bunker with Mother and was introduced to another team of superpowered siblings. 

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This article originally appeared in Gemstone Publishing’s e-newsletter Scoop.