A comprehensive list of all the similarities between Misfits and The Umbrella Academy

KLAUS HAS THE EXACT SAME POWER AS NATHAN

4 years ago

Look, I think the chances of Gerard Way having seen Misfits before he wrote The Umbrella Academy comics are quite low. Firstly, he wasn’t a British teen in 2009. Second, the Umbrella Academy comics were released between 2007-2008 and Misfits premiered in 2009, so unless he has Number Five (or Curtis’) time-traveling powers, it’s basically impossible. Did Misfits copy the UA comics, then? Or did they both just copy X Men? Or use common superpower series tropes?

WHO KNOWS. That’s not what I’m here for though. I’m here to point out literally every single moment of Misfits Umbrella Academy crossover because it’s keeping me awake at night how many similarities there are. I need to write it down like a mad professor and then cackle as lightning flashes behind me and my monster is made. LET’S GO.

Nathan and Klaus have the same power

Right, so in Misfits Nathan (played by Robert Sheehan) is immortal, but his crossover in the world of the dead and the living also means he has the ability to talk to the dead. We realise this in a season two episode when his brother comes to visit him, dies, and then Nathan doesn’t realise because he just keeps seeing his ghost and hanging out with him. Sound a lot like Klaus and Ben, am I wrong?

Also, Klaus and Nathan are like… literally the same character. Just saying.

Vanya not having a power straight away

Another point in Nathan’s power plotline is that he doesn’t actually realise he’s immortal straight away. Only when he dies at the end of series one and then awakes in his coffin does he (and the audience) learn that he has a power. It’s saved until the very end of the series, and its clearly the most impressive power – just like Vanya’s powers in The Umbrella Academy. Classic.

Number Five messing up the world by time-traveling

Any superhero movie, show, book or comic is incomplete without a time-traveling power. In Umbrella Academy and Misfits, this comes in the form of Curtis and Number Five. However, no time-traveling storyline is complete without… you guessed it, the butterfly effect. This is why it’s low key the worst power to have. Everything you do in the past, no matter how minuscule, affects something in the current day.

Curtis and Number Five both realise this in their respective shows, and Misfits fans will remember this from the episode where Curtis tries to fix his own life by going back in time and not getting caught with drugs. Then he comes back, and everyone’s dead (except Nathan – because he’s immortal) so he has to keep fixing the timeline to make it as normal as possible. Butterfly effect, my dude. When will they learn!

When I see this image all I can hear is Rolex Sweep by Skepta

Powers controlled by emotions

It’s such a smart but frustrating plot device having superpowers that can’t be utilised unless the character is feeling a certain way. It means the powers can’t be a one-fix-trick to everything. Curtis in Misfits and Vanya in UA are both examples of this. Much like Eleven in Stranger Things, they can only harness their powers when feeling intensely strong emotions. Smart for plot device reasons, annoying for getting-shit-done reasons.

The one who can get whatever she wants realizes her power is ruining her life

Alisha/Allison are both victims to their own powers. Alisha, in an example of a power that would NEVER be able to exist in 2020, has the ability to make people want to have sex with her just by touching them. Allison takes her power too far, gets everything she wants, and then uses it on her daughter, which means she loses everything that mattered to her anyway. Both Alisha and Allison’s character arcs surround their power making them worse people, because they get what they want but don’t have to work for it. Eventually, both of them abstain from using their powers because it just makes them feel like crap.

There are more people out there in the world with powers

You may have forgotten, but Daddy Hargreeves only found seven of the magical babies that were borned (please someone get this Juno reference) minutes apart, despite there being 36 more. In the most recent Umbrella Academy comic it’s hinted at that this will be explored, and the existence of others with powers is also a feature of Misfits. There are other people hit by the storm that caused the Asbo Five’s powers in Misfits, and these other people with powers serve as the main antagonist for the series (apart from pesky probation workers). Perhaps in a future series of UA their main enemy might be other people with powers – not the apocalypse. But guess we’ll have to wait to find out.