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| “ | Where has it gotten me? Nowhere. I can’t talk to the person I love. People still don’t take me seriously. I wanna be numb again. | „ |
| ~ Klaus Hargreeves |
Klaus Hargreeves, formerly known as Number Four, is one of the deuteragonists of the comic book series The Umbrella Academy and its television series adaptation. He is one of 43 Children who were born of unnatural pregnancy. He got adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves alongside his adoptive siblings, Luther, Diego, Allison, Number Five, Ben, and Viktor Hargreeves.
In the TV series, he was portrayed by who also portrayed Nathan Young in Misfits and Tom Natsworthy in Mortal Engines.
Biography[]
Comics[]
The child that would become Klaus Hargreeves was born at the same time as forty-two other extraordinary children. As a baby, he was adopted by the world-famous scientist and entrepreneur Sir Reginald Hargreeves with the express intention of training them to save the world. Klaus lived at the special academy set up by Hargreeves to train the children. Designated as Number Four by Hargreeves, Klaus had psychic abilities including being able to contact the dead. He had a morbid and fretful temperament, and Sir Reginald found that he resembled an extra from an Ingmar Bergman film.
As a boy, Klaus was sweet and vulnerable. However, Sir Reginald experimented on Klaus more than he did the other children. The experience changed him, causing him to become crueler in Vanya's opinion.
Ten years after their adoption, the Umbrella Academy made their public debut to counter the threat posed by the Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel and the rampaging Eiffel Tower in Paris. Klaus was part of the team during the battle, and tried to use his abilities to contact an engineer in the spirit world to give them advice on how to stop the Eiffel Tower. The battle ended with the death of Eiffel and the launching of the Eiffel Tower into space. After the mission, Klaus joined the others having celebratory ice cream.
Following the death of Sir Reginald, Klaus returned to the Umbrella Academy. Meeting Luther and Allison outside, Klaus intended to try and contact the spirit of their father to complain about having his allowance cut off. Klaus was present for Number Five's explanations about how he managed to return from the future, and then attended Sir Reginald's funeral in the grounds of the Academy.
TV Series[]
Klaus Hargreeves was born on 1 October 1989 at noon to a mother who had not been pregnant when the day began. He was adopted by the eccentric (yet reclusive) billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves. He started doing drugs at 13 after finding out they repress his powers shortly after being locked in a mausoleum as a child (this had occurred since he was at least 8; it is currently unknown how old he was when it started). He suffered much abuse in his childhood.
At the beginning of the series, Klaus is released from rehab. He immediately buys drugs upon his release, and learns of his adoptive father's death after being resuscitated in an ambulance. He arrives at the Umbrella Academy and immediately raids his father's office for anything of value. He is caught by his sister Allison, although she does not force him to put anything back. Luther, however, does. He takes a box which contains papers belonging to his late father. He throws the papers into a dumpster and takes the box to a pawn shop. Using the money, he buys more drugs.
Later on, during the family meeting, Klaus has stolen Allison's skirt. He isn't happy with Luther's assumption that perhaps he or another sibling killed their father. He is asked by Luther to contact the spirit of Sir Reginald. While he tries, Klaus is unsuccessful. During the funeral of Sir Reginald, Klaus smokes, and agrees with Diego that his father was a monster. When Number Five opens a portal to travel back to his time, Klaus throws a fire extinguisher through. Afterwards, he leaves with Diego, and it is revealed that although he is high, he is still able to talk with the spirit of his dead brother, Ben.
During Run Boy Run, it is shown that while he sleeps, Klaus is tormented by the voices of the dead, or perhaps simply has nightmares of them. He awakens, hungover, and begins to talk with the spirit of Ben, who admonishes him for his drug use. He is asked by Pogo about the box that went missing from Sir Reginald's office the day before, but he feigns innocence.
He later hides in Number Five's closet and listens in on his and Viktor's conversation about the apocalypse. He climbs out after Viktor leaves and it is revealed that Number Five wants Klaus to pretend to be his father. They go to the company that produced the prosthetic eye that Five is fixated on, but the technician in charge once again refuses to disclose patient information to Five. This changes when Klaus changes tactics. First, he punches Five and insinuates that he will pretend that it was the technician who gave Five the swollen lip. Then, he smashes a snow globe into his head, and when the technician attempts to call security, Klaus threatens to tell them that the technician had assaulted them.
After Klaus insinuates that the technician would be assaulted if put into prison, the technician finally gives in and looks up the serial number from the eye. The eye, however, has not yet been manufactured, according to his records. When they get back outside and Five yells at him, Klaus comes to the conclusion that Five is so wound up because he's horny. At this point, Klaus also reveals that his longest relationship lasted three weeks, although that was only because he "was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic ossobuco, though." At this point, Five teleports away.
In Extra Ordinary, Klaus searches through the dumpster he dumped his father's papers into. He cannot find them, though, which aggravates him. He attempts to convince Five that he was simply looking for a donut.
Klaus and Luther show up in the van that Five stole. After Klaus tells them about the time he "waxed [his] ass with chocolate pudding", they kick him out of the van. It's at this point Klaus decided to steal as much as he can from a nearby corner store. When Luther shows the family the surveillance footage of their father's death, Klaus eats a pack of chips and he gets a drink as Diego reveals that he took Sir Reginald's monocle from Grace. The family argues over what they should do with Grace; Klaus sides with Diego.
Soon after, during Hazel and Cha-Cha's break-in, Klaus is in the bath. Although he seems initially peaceful, he begins to visibly experience a similar spiritual onslaught to his nightmare. Agitated, he sits up, puts on a pair of headphones, and lights a joint. He then is completely oblivious to the attack on the Academy, and is seen dancing as his siblings fight Hazel and Cha-Cha. However, he is kidnapped by Hazel.
At the Academy, no one has noticed that Klaus has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, Hazel and Cha-Cha torture Klaus for information. They strangle, beat, and waterboard him. These methods prove ineffective. As he begins to go through withdrawal, Klaus starts seeing and hearing spirits around him, specifically, a Russian woman.
Hazel and Cha-Cha, growing frustrated, go through Klaus' coat, finding pills and a bar of chocolate laced with marijuana. Hazel crushes the pills, and Klaus chooses not to tell Hazel and Cha-Cha that the chocolate is "special". He eventually tells them everything that he knows about Number Five's plans, after being bribed with what was left of his pills. As Hazel and Cha-Cha burn down Meritech Prosthetics, Klaus is left in a closet, giving him flashbacks to being locked in a tomb as a child. A mix of these flashbacks and withdrawal cause him to scream in anguish, but Ben attempts to calm him down. As a cleaner vacuums, Klaus screams for help, but she doesn't hear him, as his mouth is covered in duct tape and she is listening to music.
Ben tells Klaus how disappointed and hurt he is by Klaus' life choices. Hazel and Cha-Cha return, dragging him out of the closet. Klaus takes this as an opportunity to inform them that they are "scarier without the masks". He also begs to be let go but is informed by Hazel and Cha-Cha that he is now being used as bait to lure Five to their motel room. He begins seeing and hearing spirits again, but this time, he talks to them. He uses what they tell him as ammunition against Hazel and Cha-Cha, mainly the name Zoya Popova and the story of Jan Mueller. Cha-Cha eventually has enough and shuts him up with some duct tape over his mouth. Klaus sees Detective Patch through the blinds and starts banging his head on the table. She hears and gets the door open. She realizes that he is Diego's brother and cuts him free of his restraints.
Hazel comes out of the bathroom and told Patch to not shoot at him. Hazel drops his weapon and got down on his knees. Cha-Cha somehow got out and shot Patch in the back. Before Patch got shot, Klaus dives behind the bed, and grabbing his coat, crawls through the air vent, taking Hazel and Cha-Cha's case with him. He prays it is money for drugs. He gets onto a bus, where he opens the case and is transported away to another, at the time unknown, time and place.
When Klaus is transported to Dallas, 1960, he finds himself alone with only his ghost brother, Ben, from February 1960 to November 1963, (when he and his siblings met again) thus missing three months to complete four years since his arrival in the sixties with his brother.
After stumbling upon a wealthy woman, Klaus becomes somewhat famous and amazes a large cult following momentarily. This leads Klaus to turning away from drugs and alcohol — a feat which he is able to maintain for almost four years, up until November 1963.
Klaus' cult following affords him great luxuries in the 1960s, ensuring his life is greatly different than it had previously been during 2019. Things quickly change, however, when he learns that his siblings are, in fact, still alive. Allison learns that her brother, Klaus, is still alive and visits him, explaining that she survived the transport, therefore their other siblings must've survived too.
Back in Dallas, 1963, Klaus realizes that he has a chance to prevent his younger lover, Dave, from joining the military and being killed. Klaus tries to explain to Dave in a diner — where he is eating with his conservatively homophobic uncle — that he shouldn't sign up despite thinking about it. Klaus tries to convince him not to enlist, but Dave is forced to punch him in the face.
As a result, Klaus turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism for the first time in almost four years. Ben tries unsuccessfully to try and convince him not to, however he isn't able to, and Klaus' begins turning back into his previous self.
After he accepts that he and his family are responsible for the second apocalypse, Klaus agrees to help Five restore the timeline and prevent the second apocalypse. Ben is able to save Viktor from destroying the FBI building and thus, triggering the apocalypse, but is severely injured in the process. Ben tells Viktor to pass a message on to Klaus: He was never holding him back, Ben was simply too scared to go to the light.
Personality[]
Klaus is a fun-loving person who enjoys a hedonistic lifestyle, and has rebelled against his father by refusing to be the hero he wanted him to be. As an unreliable, unrepentant drug addict, and leech, his opinion is often dismissed by his siblings. However, he is shown to have a deeper insight than assumed, and has even shown to be a voice of reason to his family's impulsive decisions.
At the same time, he seems to have a better, healthier mindset of their childhood. He acknowledges and accepts that their childhood was traumatic and moves forward without dwelling on it too much. It is revealed that the primary reason for his addiction is because powers cause him to be plagued by horrific, frightening visions of dead people who constantly call out to him. The drugs and alcohol are the only things that are able to subdue his powers and make the visions stop. His loyalty to his siblings, especially Diego and Luther, is shown through his actions, though he does act like any sibling would by teasing and arguing with all six of the other Hargreeves children.
He is very sarcastic, making jokes to deal with his trauma, much to the annoyance of those around him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Fans may agree that Klaus is a combination of the Phantom Stranger in DC Comics and Doctor Strange in Marvel Comics.
- The similarities between Klaus and Doctor Strange:
- Both are people with powers rooted in the mystical.
- Both have awesome facial hair.
- The differences between Klaus and Doctor Strange:
- Doctor Strange retains the no-nonsense attitude of a scientist and Klaus takes the term eccentric to its absolute limit.
- The similarities between Klaus and Phantom Stranger:
- Both have shown that prolonged exposure to certain dead spirits can inflict severe damage to their psyche and leave them vulnerable to possession.
- The differences between Klaus and Phantom Stranger:
- Phantom Stranger knows how powerful he is, while Klaus is a mess.
- Klaus has been sober for three years.