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While loss comes with the territory when one chooses to become a superhero, it’s not something you can prepare for, especially if the loss is personal. In the Umbrella Academy comic series, Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba introduced us to seven children who were adopted, raised, and trained to use their powers to protect humanity as superheroes. Unfortunately, the Umbrella Academy’s problems, both as individuals and as a family, become too much to bear once they lose one of their own, Number Six aka the Horror, on a mission.
Ben Hargreeves had one of the most terrifying powers of all the Umbrella Academy with the ability to channel primordial and terrifying monsters. They usually manifested as powerful tentacles, through a portal that he could open in his upper body. At the beginning of the ‘Apocalypse Suite’ story-line, when the distant members of the Hargreeves family gather to mourn the death of their father, there is a statue memorializing Number Six at the front of the Academy’s home. His adopted brother’s and sisters barely talk about him, with Spaceboy blaming himself for Ben’s death, seeing it as a sign of his poor leadership. Ben is only seen in flashbacks of the Academy’s past and his statue is cleaved in half when Vanya Hargreeves, now the White Violin, destroys her former home.
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Ben would not appear to any of his siblings from the afterlife until Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #5. As his brother Klaus overdoses and is left to die in the garbage, a tattered and hooded Ben picks him up and carries his body to a nearby hospital. As the still-alive Klaus recovers in a hospital bed in the next issue, Ben sits by his bedside, lamenting that Klaus chooses to poison himself with drugs instead of accessing his full potential. Shocked at the sight of him, Klaus witnesses his deceased brother, like a superhero Jacob Marley, tell him to make better choices before warning him of a great, upcoming threat. Ben disappears just as some of his living siblings burst in his room, checking to see if he’s still alive and alerting him of their latest, world-ending problem.
This appearance of Ben as a spirit greatly contrasts his portrayal in the Umbrella Academy series by actor Justin M. Hin. In the comics, Ben is a withered up, decaying corpse still wrapped in his superhero costume with a gaping hole in his stomach where his powers once appeared from. Due to his unique abilities, Klaus is the only person who could see him and Ben is able to somewhat interact with the living as seen by his heroic saving of Klaus’ life. This is his first interaction with any of his family since his death many years ago. In the show, Ben is more of a spiritual sidekick to his brother Klaus, who is not only the only one who can see him but has been with him since his death. Ben witnesses the daily events of his siblings, offering commentary that usually goes unheard, and eventually discovers that he can interact with the living but potentially possess them, as seen when he occupied Klaus’ body for a select period of time. Ben chooses to sacrifice himself to save his out-of-control sister Vanya near the end of Season 2 and peacefully departs for the afterlife.
In the end, the death of Number Six symbolized the loss of innocence for the Umbrella Academy, and his reappearance as a spirit was simply out of respect and love for his family. In the comics, Ben returns from the grave to warn his wayward brother about an upcoming threat, one he may be unintentionally connected to. In the television series, Ben is less of a symbolic martyr and more of a silent member of the family, still affected by the actions of his flawed and dysfunctional family even in the afterlife. Although Ben’s status in both platforms remains up in the air, this may be one not-so-friendly ghost that you’d want on your side.
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