Uber #9 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Caanan White (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Michael Dipascale (colors) and Kurt Hathaway (letters)

The Story: The Soviets turn the tide on the Eastern front.

The Review (with SPOILERS): This was another very solid issue for the series.  As with the whole series (and I’ve said this before), it remains much more of a war-comic rather than an alt-superhero comic.  I feel like I need to keep pointing that out because we’ve gotten so many World War II comics featuring superheroes (like Captain America or the Invaders or Hellboy or whoever) and then there are the “clever” comics/characters (like Red Son, Red Skull, etc.) that attempt to show us how the bad guys also wanted superheroes and how the post-War could have been very different.  Uber is decidedly not THAT.  It is not focused on characters, but on the narrative of the War itself.  We do get to know a little about the humans who are turned into super-soldiers, but it’s pretty shallow.  These guys aren’t Captain America where Cap’s origin as a humble, skinny kid are vital to understanding his entire world-view.  These are just disposable human soldiers who are deployed impersonally because war sucks.

Another thing that I loved about this issue is that it shows the series is (probably) going to be pretty faithful to the factual outcome of World War II.  I doubt it’ll be a series where we’ll examine, “What if the Nazis won?”  This issue focuses on the Eastern front of the European Theatre.  Aside from little snippets about the Battle of Stalingrad, the Eastern front doesn’t really enter our Anglo-centric consciousness.  That’s probably because the Allies had their hands full on the Western front, but also because the Soviets were the bad guys and we didn’t really care about what happened to them.  If the Soviets wanted to feed hundreds of thousands of citizens into the Nazi wood-chipper, that was great because it meant that many fewer American and British boys would die.

Uber #6 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Caanan White (pencils), Keith Williams (inks) and Michael Dipascale (colors)

The Story: The story of superbeings in World War II shifts to the Pacific Theatre.

The Review (with SPOILERS): Uber continues to do thing differently enough to be interesting and unique.  The first five issues had followed World War II in the European theatre as the Germans were just about beaten…..before unleashing their superpowered beings on the Allies.  The Allies responded and we ended that story with the Battle of Paris in the last issue.

Now we shift the focus to the Pacific Theater.  The Japanese are on the ropes (this is around the time of the Battle of Okinawa) and surprise……the Japanese seem to have a few superbeings too.  What I really liked about this revelation is that it isn’t made precisely clear HOW the Japanese ended up with these beings.  Did the Germans tell them how to do it?  Given how completely beaten the Germans were in the first story-arc, it seems a little implausible that they would have time to share.  It also seems unrealistic that they would WANT the Japanese to have the same technology.  So, perhaps it is a case of independent creation?  In reality, all of the major WWII powers had their own nuclear programs, so it would appear that in the Uber universe, they all had superman programs (and all of the spying on enemies and allies that comes with such programs).  Neat!  I look forward to seeing if the Japanese supermen have the same limitations/powers as the German/British/American supermen and superwomen.

Uber #4 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Caanan White (pencils), Keith Williams (inks) and Digikore Studios (colors)

The Story: A new phase of this alternative WWII begins after the Allies access their own supermen.

Review (with SPOILERS): This isn’t a “great” comic or series, but it is different and unique.  War comics used to be a real thing in the comic industry.  Nowadays, other than the occasional series from Garth Ennis, we don’t get anything that feels like a real “war comic”.  A few years ago, there were a few war-themed titles in DC’s New 52, but they just weren’t very good and they suffered because they were set in the DC Universe, so you always had a superhero/villain mucking around with the action.

Uber does feature superbeings, but it really flips the script by treating them more like sentient weapons.  The focus on this WWII story is still 100% on the struggle between the Allies and Germany.  That makes it more of an alternate-history than a superbeing story.  Who doesn’t love alternate histories?  Even comic fans love alternate histories as Marvel has made a minor living on their What If? series for the last 40 years.

Uber also has a special sense of unpredictability.  I have no idea what will happen.  I think there are a couple of likely outcomes, but I really don’t know what path Kieron Gillen will take us down.  That sense of unpredictability in comics is pretty uncommon and it’s worth supporting and paying attention to.

Uber #0 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Caanan White (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Digikore Studios (colors) and Kurt Hathaway (letters)

The Story: Nazi Germany develops super-soldiers in the final days of World War II.

A few things: 1). More alt-WWII than alt-superhero – The best thing about Uber was something very subtle.  Comics already has a LOT of alternate versions of superheroes: “What if the Nazis developed Captain America?” or “What if Superman landed in the Soviet Union?” and that’s before you get to all the stories like, “What if Wolverine turned evil?” or “What if Lex Luthor became a hero?”  It isn’t that those sorts of stories are terrible, but we’ve seen lots and lots and lots of them.  Uber treats the superhuman as more of a weapons system than a human.  The superhumans in Uber almost aren’t even characters.  They’re more like tanks or airplanes.    So, this issue FEELS a lot more like one of those alt-WWII stories where we ask, “What if the Nazis had developed nuclear weapons?”  Once you put that spin on things, the comic becomes more interesting.  We don’t have a lot of war comics anymore and I appreciate this addition just for the sake of variety.