If The Umbrella Academy is about one thing, it’s exploring exactly how complicated people can be. The series focuses on the titular academy – a team of superhumans adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves and raised to be heroes – but skips their teenage adventures to focus on their deeply dysfunctional adult relationships. But Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s series isn’t just about the complexity of its heroes, and it’s actually a villain – the Murder Magician – who goes through the biggest changes in the series so far.
First appearing in the short story “…But The Past Ain’t Through With You” – technically the first in-canon story Way and Ba told in this universe – the Murder Magician is a surprisingly deadly enemy, working with his sidekick the Assistant to kill the Rumor, aka Allison Hargreeves, by stalking her and then sawing her in half. A version of Allison may have survived by a coincidence of her powers, but Murder Magician carried out the grisly deed himself, having targeted the then-teenage hero for death.
Before his murder of the Rumor, the Murder Magician was already one of America’s most successful villains, having received the annual Oppenheimer Prize for Villainy. It’s suggested that the Murder Magician does have some supernatural powers – in his original appearance, it’s specified that he hypnotized an entire talk-show audience to brag about the Rumor’s murder, and in The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion, he appears to teleport a baby (albeit over a very short distance.)
Taken down by the Umbrella Academy, who also kill the Assistant, the Murder Magician is consigned to the Hotel Oblivion – a surreal prison in which Sir Reginald Hargreeves, aka the Monocle, imprisons enemies of his adopted children. Years later, Murder Magician figures out how to escape the Hotel, persuading fellow villain Obscura to join him. But after years languishing in confinement, Murder Magician isn’t hoping to return to his life of crime. Instead, his focus is on saving a child.
The Hotel Oblivion is home to all kinds of villains, and the child in question belongs to a woman named Clarissa. Cursed by an “Oracle” toy, Clarissa is prone to turning into a huge, violent monster – a condition which has worsened during her stay at the hotel – and Murder Magician believes she’ll eventually hurt her baby. Murder Magician and Obscura do escape, but when major Umbrella Academy enemy John Perseus X frees the residents of Hotel Oblivion, Clarissa immediately begins to hunt down her child. Tracking Murder Magician to his old hideout at the Regent Theater, Clarissa attacks the former villain but is ultimately stopped by Rumor, who uses her power over reality to break the curse. Clarissa returns to her senses, and Rumor accepts the Murder Magician’s apology for “sort of” killing her, speculating that he should be able to survive his injuries.
While the Murder Magician, Clarissa, or her baby Oscar may return in future storylines, his story is currently one of sincere redemption – a showy, self-important villain broken by imprisonment who finds new purpose in caring for others. In a story about broken people trying to find connection and purpose, fans can take a little comfort in the fact that Way and Ba are prepared to give a seemingly one-note villain some growth and peace. Hopefully, as the series continues, the same will be true for the heroes of the Umbrella Academy.
