- "We’re different than everyone else. We’re special. And good or bad, that means we don’t get to live normal lives. Here or anywhere."
- —Luther Hargreeves[src]
Luther Hargreeves, originally codenamed Number One, is one of the forty-three children who were all born on the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989 to mothers without any previous signs of pregnancy. Luther was one of the seven babies adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves with the intention of training them to save the world. Ranked by their individual usefulness, Luther was Hargreeves' Number One and the leader of The Umbrella Academy. He used to possess superhuman strength and durability.
Luther was the only member of the Academy who did not leave and who continued to loyally serve Sir Reginald, although he sank into a lonely depression without the others around. When sent on a solo mission to stop a biochemical threat, Luther is critically injured and Sir Reginald is forced to use a serum to save his life. The serum gave Luther an ape-like physiology, greatly increasing his muscle mass and strength. In an effort to give him focus, Sir Reginald sends him to the moon to supposedly watch out for extraterrestrial threats, and Luther lives alone in seclusion on the moon base for four years while sending regular reports back to his father.
Following Sir Reginald's death, Luther is summoned back to Earth and comes to believe their father was murdered. As events unfold, Luther finds out that Sir Reginald never read any of the reports he sent back, and subsequently believes that he was a failure and was sent away for not being a good enough Number One, which takes a massive toll on his self-confidence.
Having been caught up in Five's failed attempt at dodging Viktor's apocalypse, Luther finds himself in Dallas, 1962. It is here he works as a driver for the owner of a burlesque bar, and occasionally uses his super strength to win rigged fights in underground boxing rings.
Biography
Early life
Like the rest of the Umbrella Academy members, "Number One" was born on October 1, 1989 to a woman named Monica and adopted by the billionaire inventor Sir Reginald Hargreeves. Raised by their robot mother Grace, and run through brutal training by Reginald to be child superheroes, Luther wholeheartedly embraced their responsibilities and his role as leader of the team. Painfully loyal to their father figure, he was the only one who stayed behind after all of the others left and abandoned the Academy.
Reginald's secret
After Luther's inadvertent monstrous transformation to save his life, he was sent away to the moon by Reginald. During his four years alone on the moon, he wasted away in loneliness and depression and social isolation.
When Luther returned back to Earth upon his father's death, he was shocked to find that Reginald had been ignoring all of the reports that Luther had sent back to Earth; he realized that the mission was nothing more than busywork to keep him out of the way, and this dealt a crippling blow to his self-esteem as a proud superhero and former leader of the team.[7]
Relationship with Allison
Luther and Allison have always been best friends and extremely close since childhood; Viktor's memoir mentions them as children vanishing into a private world and communicating in their own secret language. It becomes visibly clear that there is a connection between them; neither of them can deny it and the rest of the Academy is aware of it, but the pair never acted on their feelings.
Luther and Allison dance before kissing.
After their father's death, however, their reunion brings them closer again. When Allison finds Luther distraught over his recent discovery surrounding his father and the pointlessness of his mission, she comforts him. The two later dance and in the midst of the moment, share a kiss. Allison invites Luther to catch the flight home to California with her to meet her daughter Claire, and he accepts.[7]
After this timeline is redone, however, Klaus finds Luther in his time of need instead of Allison, and so they never experienced this moment and Luther's descent into turmoil begins.[8]
The First Apocalypse
The Academy eventually learned that Viktor would be responsible for the impending apocalypse that Number Five time jumped back from the future to prevent. In an attempt to avert that disaster, Luther knocked out Viktor and placed him in a sound isolation chamber while the Academy tried to decide what to do.
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Luther, this isolation chamber was a particular trigger for Viktor. He fully became the White Violin, destroyed the Hargreeves mansion, killing Pogo and Grace, and escaped. By not trusting Viktor, Luther inadvertently caused the exact apocalypse they were trying to stop, and the Academy barely escaped by jumping through time with Five's powers, which left them accidentally stranded in the 1960s.
Dallas and the second apocalypse
After Five failed to protect the Umbrella Academy from the apocalypse, Luther found himself transported to Dallas, 1962, where he built up a life working for the gangster Jack Ruby. He fought regularly for him in an underground boxing-ring, and took to the man as a mentor and replacement father figure.
Luther quickly became dissatisfied with his life, however, when he bumped into Viktor and realized that all of his family were not dead as he had initially believed. He apologized to Viktor despite his amnesia, then asked Jack to find Allison for him, and he successfully did so. This didn't end well for Luther, however, as when he visited Allison's house he met Raymond Chestnut, Allison's husband, and learned all about the life she had built for herself without him.
Luther later bumped into Number Five, who told him about the second apocalypse they have caused by encroaching on the timeline in which they do not belong — as a result, they needed to find a way back home. Still deflated about his own status as a failed superhero and feeling cynical about the Academy, Luther was initially reluctant to go along with Five's plans to reunite the family.
Luther's mind was changed, however, when he bumped into Allison on the street and the two got talking about the lives they'd built for themselves. Luther told Allison about the apocalypse and the two agreed that they must try and help Five restore the timeline.
After a while, Luther was able to reunite his family with Five's help, and the Umbrella Academy agreed to return to their own time and restore the timeline. When he arrived back in 2019 with the rest of his family, however, he was faced with a shocking discovery: the Umbrella Academy no longer existed, having been replaced with the Sparrow Academy, and Luther was no longer "Number One".[4]
Personality
Luther is a loving, protective and righteous individual. He is shown to immediately throw himself in harm's way and act as a shield in dangerous situations and is shown to have a firm belief in right and wrong. He was the only one of his siblings to stay at the academy and continue his work as a superhero, trusting his father's commands implicitly. Luther is shown to define himself as the leader of the Umbrella Academy and as his father's "Number One", taking his role very seriously and devoting his life to his father's cause. As a result, he never left the Umbrella Academy or developed a life outside of it, becoming isolated and sheltered. He notably mentions that he never even had friends due to his dedication. As a result, he has a somewhat naive, almost childlike aspect to him. When he discovers his father has never read his reports from the moon, he is devastated and lost, feeling he wasted his life and causing him to spiral out of control and lash out by going to a rave, taking drugs and getting drunk.
Appearance
Luther is a tall Caucasian man, standing at 6'5".[citation needed] He generally keeps his dark blonde hair cut short, accompanied by a five-o-clock shadow.
After being administered an experimental serum to treat a life-threatening injury, Luther's body took on a more simian appearance. While his legs grew a thick coating of dark fur, the effects of the serum were most apparent on his upper body: his torso and arms became broader and bulkier, with leathery hairy skin akin to that of a gorilla. To hide his ape-like appearance, Luther would wear high-necked shirts and fingerless gloves.
In the reset timeline, Luther's body has been restored to its original state, being muscular but with more human proportions.[9]
Powers and Abilities
Luther currently does not have any powers after the reset of the universe.[9][10]
Powers
- Superhuman Strength: Luther possessed immense strength, which was further amplified by his ape-like physiology. As a child, he could easily lift and throw a fully grown adult across a room and through a window. His strength was enough to raise a 1000lb farm truck off Diego's trapped leg. Upon returning back to life in the reset universe, Luther was shocked to find that not only was his body back to normal, but that he no longer possessed his super strength.
- Enhanced Resilience: Luther possessed an extremely resilience body, which was further amplified by his ape-like physiology. He was able to shrug off most physical impacts during combat, and could even take the full weight of a falling chandelier without injury. Luther is not invulnerable, however, as Diego managed to cut him with a knife and draw blood, and he is shown to hide from bullets. In the alternate timeline in 1963 when everyone's abilities, his body is able to survive a direct blast from a missile/bazooka.
Abilities
- Expert Leadership: Although he later suffers a crippling lack of self-confidence and gives up on his role as a leader, Luther does have expertise in strategy, tactics, and leadership. He's able to strategize the group's abilities, give orders to execute a mission, and often throws himself into danger to protect his teammates.
- Expert Combatant: Although he’s not as skilled as Diego or Five, Luther has shown to have expertise in unarmed combat, throughout both seasons, and mostly uses his super strength to battle his opponents.
Relationships
See also: Diego and Luther, Luther and Allison, and Luther and Viktor
Differences Between Comics
- In the show, Luther has super strength (high-level superhuman strength) and enhanced resilience. In the comics, Luther has enhanced strength (low-level superhuman strength) and enhanced durability.
- In the comics, Luther and Five are twin brothers. In the show, during Season Three, Luther and Five are confirmed to have different mothers, as revealed by the newspaper clippings regarding their mothers' deaths.
- Luther's appearance quite differs from his comic book counterpart. Luther has light/dark blonde hair and blue eyes, while in the comics, he has white hair and often uses a space-gun.
Trivia
- Luther's scars were caused by his attempts to remove his skin or to patch it with other skin, which didn't work.[11]
- Luther once fell for a 419 scam email.[12]
Appearances
| Appearances of Luther Hargreeves |
|---|
Gallery
References
- ↑ "We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals"
- ↑ "The White Violin"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Right Back Where We Started"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "The End of Something"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Seven Bells"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Run Boy Run"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Day That Wasn't"
- ↑ "The Day That Was"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Oblivion"
- ↑ Chitwood, Adam (2022-06-24). "‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Ending Explained by Showrunner". TheWrap. Archived from the original on 2022-06-24. Retrieved on 2022-07-20.
- ↑ Meslow, Scott (2019-02-26). "How The Umbrella Academy’s Swole Gorilla Man Got So Absurdly Swole". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2019-02-28. Retrieved on 2022-07-20.
- ↑ "Kugelblitz"
| The Umbrella Academy Characters on Netflix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Umbrella Academy | Luther • Diego • Allison • Klaus • Five • Ben • Viktor • Lila Pitts • Sir Reginald Hargreeves • Grace • Pogo | ||
| The Sparrow Academy | Marcus • Ben • Fei • Alphonso • Sloane • Jayme • Christopher • Sir Reginald Hargreeves | ||
| Villains | Hazel • Cha Cha • The Handler • Leonard Peabody • The Swedes • A.J. Carmichael | ||
| Other | Harlan Cooper • Sissy Cooper • Raymond Chestnut | ||