From her part in the JFK assassination to her backstory and her romance with Luthor, how has The Umbrella Academy changed Allison?
Umbrella Academy is full of fascinating characters. Allison Hargreeves, better known as Rumor, has one of the coolest powers among her adopted siblings. She can say anything and make it the truth, also giving herone of the most powerful of the superhumans in her unique comic book world.
Rumor is one of the best characters in the franchise, with a fascinating power and complex history in the original Dark Horse comics. All of the Umbrella Academy have some element of tragedy about them, but Allison is arguably the most complex, and the most enduring, of the group.
Allison shares a complex and unique backstory with the other members of the Umbrella Academy. She is one of forty-three children born at the same moment around the world, all with superpowers. Seven of them were adopted by the enigmatic entrepreneur Dr. Reginald Hargreeves.
Allison was dubbed Number Three out of the seven. While he tended to disparage or dismiss the abilities of some of the others, especially Vanya Hargreeves, he found Allison's power had a great deal of utility. As such, she became one of his most favored children.
Allison can make anything true by saying it. If she begins a sentence with the phrase "I heard a rumor..." the statement that follows will become true. This kind of reality manipulation power is very similar to the powers of the Scarlet Witch, displayed to the greatest effect in House Of M, a comic that inspired WandaVision.
Though Allison is very powerful, there don't seem to be a lot of guardrails around her power as there are with Wanda. As Allison got older, she grew out of the Number Three codename and adopted a new one: The Rumor. She also adopted a red and black costume with the letter R as her icon.
As a child, Allison participated in the Umbrella Academy's first public adventure. She was instrumental in the battle against the zombie-robot Gustave Effiel, who rampaged through Paris inside his animated Effiel Tower. She led people away from the battle by saying the Musée d'Orsay was giving away free paintings.
This act saved many lives. After Diego Hargreeves, Number Two, took down Gustave Effiel with a knife, the team celebrated their first victory together by getting ice cream in Paris. This adventure hasn't appeared in the Netflix series, at least not yet.
In the Netflix streaming series, Allison and Luther Hargreeves, AKA Spaceboy, share a longtime mutual attraction that goes back to their youth. The frustrated romance appears in the comics as well, but in one of the big differences between the comics and the show, it is more a suggestion.
In fact, it might literally be a suggestion. It's implied that Luther's interest in Allison is a product of her using her power on him. In the show, this is shown to be the case with her ex-husband. Allison used her powers to make him fall in love with her when they first met.
Allison is a complicated figure in the comics. She's also a tragic one. In one of the most harrowing episodes in the original comics, co-created by writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá, Allison loses her hand and most of her arm to the supervillain Dr. Terminal.
Dr. Terminal suffers from a disease called Eisenstein Syndrome. He is forced to invent a machine that consumes matter, which in turn keeps him alive. He captures Allison and hooks her up to the machine. She is seriously injured, and later gains a robotic replacement arm
Allison suffered again, terribly, at the hands of her own sister. In The Apocalypse Suite storyline in the comics, adapted for the first season of Umbrella Academy, Vanya finally discovers her extraordinary power to generate sound which can destroy the world. In trying to stop her, Allison is nearly killed.
Vanya generates a sound from her violin that cuts Allison's throat and vocal cords. This prevents her from speaking and using her powers against Vanya. Allison is unable to speak for a long time after and has to communicate by using a pen and pad of paper.
Allison's vocal cords are ultimately restored by the Temps Aeternalis. This extratemporal organization oversees time travel in the Umbrella Academy universe. In that way, the Temps Aeternalis are very similar to the Time Variance Authority, set to make their MCU debut in the Loki series.
The Temps Aeternalis also performed experiments on Allison's adoptive brother, Number Five. They combined his DNA with that of serial killers from across time, making him into a deadly killer himself. They weren't done interfering with the Umbrella Academy.
The restorative acts of healing Allison's injuries didn't come for free. The Temps Aeternalis demanded forced her to assassinate President Kennedy after the team had been transported back to Dallas, Texas in 1963. To do so, Allison impersonated First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the motorcade.
Allison ultimately went through with the act because the Temps Aeternalis were threatening to kill the birth mother of Number Five and Spaceboy. This plays out much differently in the Netflix series, though the Temps Aeternalis is a factor in the plot.
Allison's troubles don't end there. In the story ...But the Past Ain't Through With You from 2007, Allison is killed by The Murder Magician. But that's not the end of it. She actually witnesses her own murder. The mystery of the story is ultimately answered when it's revealed she created a copy of herself through her powers.
Allison realizes she created the double when she lied about where she was to Dr. Hargreeves one night, thus creating a copy that actually did the things she lied about. Hargreeves hired The Murder Magician to kill the copy as a way to curb Allison's behavior and power.
In the show, Allison is divorced and only has limited custody of her child. This is much the same case in the comics as well. Though she was married and happy for a time, she wasn't able to make it work. It's not clear what exactly led to the breakup in the comics.
Allison is mostly unique among her adoptive family in that she had a family of her own. But like the other members of the Umbrella Academy, she keeps getting drawn back into the battle between good and evil. Though she could potentially change all her misfortune with a single sentence, so far she hasn't.
