- "Your jealousy turned you to a life of crime, Perseus. The world is changing - has changed. It doesn't need wicked men doing the work of the just."
- —The Monocle preparing to send Perseus IX to Hotel Oblivion[src]
Sir Reginald Hargreeves, also known as The Monocle, is an alien disguised as a wealthy entrepreneur and world-renowned scientist. He adopts the members of The Umbrella Academy at birth. Inventor of the Televator, the Levitator, the Mobile Umbrella Communicator, and Clever Crisp Cereal. Olympic gold medalist for fencing, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for his work in the cerebral advancement of the chimpanzee. He was very cold in his raising of the children in that he refused to let the children call him father, instead preferring to be called The Monocle. Also when speaking to the children he addressed them by their number, which he gave them in order of usefulness to him, in his opinion.
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
- "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."
- —The Monocle's acceptence speech during the National Thallium Awards[src]
When forty-three children were born around the world to mothers with no previous signs of pregnancy, 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]
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 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.[2]
Alternate Timeline
In an alternate timeline in which President John F Kennedy had not been assassinated, Hargreeves would have met him to deal with a nuclear missile crisis. The missiles would have been taken by Hargreeves and eventually detonated by Hazel and Cha-Cha after his death, destroying the world in the process.[3]