The events of The Umbrella Academy season 1 add a secret meaning to the superhero team’s famed umbrella logo. Based on the Dark Horse comics of the same name from My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy follows a dysfunctional family of adopted siblings who reunite as superheroes to stop an impending apocalypse. Netflix’s Umbrella Academy‘s enduring popularity is highlighted by its viewership numbers’ consistency, with both available seasons seeing in excess of 40 million views within their first month.
The first season of The Umbrella Academy establishes the academy’s lore and allows a smattering of flashbacks that shed light on the academy’s founding father, Reginald Hargreeves. The Netflix series shrouded the eccentric billionaire in mysticism, as the audience is forced to piece together breadcrumbs of plot in tandem with the reunited academy siblings. At times Hargreeves is portrayed as being equally cruel as he is wise, as exemplified by his treatment of his most potent weapon: Vanya.
The Umbrella Academy season 1 adds a secret meaning to the academy’s umbrella logo by foreshadowing Vanya’s cataclysmic event. Vanya’s realization she holds incredible power is signaled by heavy rain in the foreground of the scene, providing an extra layer to the meaning behind the umbrella logo in this context. It is revealed in season 1 that Reginald Hargreeves designed the academy’s iconic umbrella to symbolize his children shielding the world from a rain of evil. While it is teased many times in The Umbrella Academy‘s first season, the academy siblings rarely face true evil, with Vanya coming to embody the first true threat to their existence. Vanya’s awakening synchronizing with rainfall suggests she is the evil that the rest of the academy must shield the world from, which is later confirmed by Vanya heralding the apocalypse.
Reginald’s unmasking in season 2 also confirms a well-known fact from The Umbrella Academy comics that Hargreeves is an alien capable of extraordinary feats, potentially even suggesting he was more aware of the threat Vanya posed than it initially appears. Examining The Umbrella Academy season 1 retroactively implies that Hargreeves may have either predicted or outright knew about the impending 2019 apocalypse and formed an opportune team to prevent it.
Their founder’s selection of the academy’s umbrella logo and hyper-specific crest message also symbolically reveals how much Reginald is terrified of Vanya’s power, which is backed up by his harsh treatment of her as a child. Therefore, the Umbrella Academy logo is laced with symbolism that foreshadows the true purpose of The Umbrella Academy‘s superpowered siblings, as well as giving a stark indication of Reginald Hargreeves’ enduring omniscience.