- "In closing, I'd like to point out that I never desired to break the children. I merely sought to foster their potential - which was unfortunately never that vast."
- —Sir Reginald Hargreeves' acceptance speech during the National Thallium Awards[src]
Sir Reginald Hargreeves, also called the Monocle, was an alien scientist disguised as a human inventor and entrepreneur. Cold and cunning, he was renowned for his many great inventions, and adopted seven superpowered children, who he trained to be the Umbrella Academy to protect the world from threats.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Sir Reginald Hargreeves was a space alien who masqueraded as a human being by wearing a mask over his true features to appear human. A world-famous scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Hargreeves was an Olympic gold medallist and a winner of the Nobel Prize due to his work in the cerebral advancement of chimpanzees. He was also the inventor of the Levitator, the Televator, the Mobile Umbrella Communicator, and Clever Crisp Cereal. Hargreeves travelled in The Minerva, his personal airship rumored to be powered by the remains of King Amen-Kharej IV and was accompanied by his bodyguard, Abhijat.[1]
Assembling the Umbrella Academy[]
When forty-three children were born around the world to mothers with no previous signs of pregnancy in 1953, Hargreeves set out to find and adopt as many of them as possible. He found seven of them, and hosted a press conference in Stockholm to announce it to the world. When asked why he had adopted the children, Hargreeves replied "to save the world, of course." Hargreeves kept the children in seclusion for the next ten years, training them at his academy. He assigned the children numbers from One to Seven, ranking them in order of their potential and usefulness.[1]
The Academy's first mission was in Paris, protecting the city from the rampaging Eiffel Tower under the control of the Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel. Hargreeves oversaw the mission from The Minerva.[1]
Hargreeves oversaw several missions of the Academy over the years, including one in late 1963 in which the statue of Abraham Lincoln seated in the Lincoln Memorial came to life and started a disastrous rampage. As the Academy fought the beast, Hargreeves met with President John F. Kennedy to deal with a nuclear missile crisis. Hargreeves took the missiles from Kennedy and promised to use them if need be.[2]
During Spaceboy's disastrous mission to Mars, Hargreeves was forced to perform emergency experimental surgery to save his life by grafting his head onto the body of a Martian Ape.[1]
Death and legacy[]
Sir Reginald Hargreeves died in 1983, twenty years after the first public debut of the Umbrella Academy.[1] He died at 7:02 pm of a heart attack. Sir Reginald's funeral was held in the grounds of the Academy. He requested that the Umbrella Academy members who attended the funeral do so in full costume. The missiles taken by Hargreeves and eventually detonated by Hazel and Cha-Cha after his death, destroying the world in the process. This was soon rectified by the Umbrella Academy, who altered history so Kennedy was assassinated before meeting Hargreeves, thus saving the world.[3]
Appearances[]
- The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite
- The Umbrella Academy: Dallas
- ...But the Past Ain't Through With You
Trivia[]
- Reginald Hargreeves shares his full name with the husband of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Notes and references[]
| The Umbrella Academy Characters from the Dark Horse comics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Umbrella Academy | Spaceboy • The Kraken • The Rumor • The Séance • Number Five • The Horror • The White Violin • Sir Reginald Hargreeves • Doctor Pogo • Abhijat | ||
| Sparrows | Mom • Number One • Carla | ||
| Temps Aeternalis | Carmichael • Hazel • Cha-Cha | ||
| Other villains | The Conductor • Murder Magician • Doctor Terminal • John Perseus X • Scientific Man • Vivian Clarke • The Shivers | ||