Umbrella Academy is about of team of superheroes, but they're not really like any superhero team comic book fans may be familiar with. Diego Hargreeves, also known as Kraken, is just one of the unique members of the family and team of individuals that make up the titular squad.
Lots of speculation centers on developments for Diego in season three of the Netflix streaming series, fans of the original comic books may have some ideas about where it could be going. While there have been some changes between the comics and the show, a lot of Diego's comic book history could manifest on screen in different ways.
Number Two
Diego is one of forty-three children around the world born simultaneously with superpowers. He and a few others are adopted by the mysterious scientist Dr. Reginald Hargreeves. Diego is dubbed Number Two. From an early age, he's participating with his siblings in superheroic adventures.
He is far and away the most reckless of the group, throwing himself into battle and often challenging the orders of his adoptive father. They have a contentious relationship, born out of Dr. Hargreeves' assertion that Diego's superpower doesn't seem to hold any value to him.
The Kraken
When he gets older, Number Two redubs himself the Kraken. He takes his name from the mythical sea creature in part because of his superpower. Diego can hold his breath indefinitely. For some reason, Dr. Hargreeves didn't think this power was of any value and diminished Diego's talents.
As the Kraken, Diego is the most dedicated to crime-fighting of his siblings. He often goes on missions patrolling the city, fighting crime, and adopting an approach that would be familiar to fans of Batman comics and movies. Diego might be a tad more aggressive than Bruce Wayne, however.
He Really Likes Knives
Holding his breath indefinitely really comes in handy underwater, but above the surface, Diego's primary offensive capability is throwing knives. He became interested in knives at a young age and became extremely proficient at throwing them. They became his signature weapon as the Kraken.
Diego also grew to become an extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant, in much the same way as Batman or Daredevil. Diego would become something of an urban vigilante/detective, hunting down drug dealers and other criminals in his city.
Defeats The Zombie Effiel
The Umbrella Academy faced a major test in the first adventure as a team. The young Hargreeves children took on the zombie-robot Gustave Effiel, who decimated Paris by transforming his famous tower into a spaceship. Diego took him down by throwing a knife into his forehead.
It's suggested in the comics that Diego's impressive aim with his knives, even from a young age, isn't an entirely natural skill. He may have some measure of telekinesis, which allows him to control the speed and direction of his knives. The Netflix series expanded this to include any object, not just knives.
Conflict With Luther
Diego has some pretty major differences between the show and the comics, but one thing that is consistent is his rivalry with his brother, Luther. Luther Hargreeves is the nominal leader of the Umbrella Academy and he and Diego butted heads pretty much from the beginning.
Luther in general is much more supportive and defensive about Dr. Hargreeves, whereas Luther is more apt to point out the inequities in his parenting. The two are also natural rivals for the leadership of the team, leading both to some interesting places in the comics.
Member Of The Prime-8s
Diego walked away from the team for a period of time. While he was a teenager, he formed a punk rock band with his equally estranged adoptive sister, Vanya Hargreeves, who would eventually become the White Violin, the most powerful of the Umbrella Academy. They played in a band called the Prime-8s.
Vanya played guitar while Diego played bass. On drums was Body, the chimpanzee assistant of Dr. Hargreeves. Diego eventually went back to the team when adventure called, disappointing Vanya, who was never really included in their missions as a child.
Complicated Relationship With Vanya
Of all the Hargreeves siblings, Diego has the closest relationship with Vanya. That said, it was fraught for most of their lives. Diego had sympathy for Vanya, who was ostracized in many ways by Dr. Hargreeves for not having any powers, though that wasn't true at all. But they could never connect.
The closest the two came was in the band, both somewhat in exile from the rest of their family. But Diego's desire to be part of the group and fight crime stranded Vanya. She eventually wrote a tell-all book about her family experiences, exposing and embarrassing Diego and the others.
Unexplained Injury
The comic book, created by writer Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, doesn't have a completely linear chronology. It jumps around in time somewhat, leaving gaps in the timeline. One of the biggest has to do with a so-far unexplained mystery - the injury to Kraken's eye.
At some point in his adventures, Diego suffers a nasty injury to his eye which forces him to wear a patch underneath his traditional domino mask. This has yet to happen in the Netflix series, but it's possible upcoming comic book stories will depict how he lost his eye.
Differences With The Netflix Series
The adjustment in Diego's ability to control the curving arc of objects isn't the only change from the comic books. The Netflix series also chose not to use at all his power of holding his breath indefinitely, in one of the biggest differences from the original comics.
The rationale for not including it was a desire to keep the streaming series more grounded (this also left out elements like the zombie-robot Gustave Effiel). The series also wanted to make the cast more diverse, and Mexican-American actor David Castañeda portrays him on screen.
Uncertain Future
There are many unanswered questions coming out of season two of the Netflix series. There is a great deal in the comics as well, especially for Diego. In addition to how he lost his eye, his future is somewhat uncertain. At the begging of the last major storyline Hotel Oblivion, he's hunting big game.
He's drawn back to the team when they discover that their father had created a prison in space for superpowered criminals called Hotel Oblivion. As the team battles to keep criminals in the prison, another Umbrella Academy arrives, identical in most ways to the original, suggesting they might be a better version of the Hargreeves family.