Uber vol. 6

If you’ve been following this series in trade paperback form like I have then there’s no denying that “Uber” has returned to a time where its subject matter does it no favors.  Kieron Gillen and confirmed regular artist Daniel Gete’s story of how the Nazis discovered the technology to make supermen and turned the tide at the end of WWII is going to be a hard sell for those who lament the fact that we’re living in a time when people are whining online about how unfairly Hitler’s followers are being treated.  This is even before we get to the actual content of this volume, which is easily some of the most difficult that the series has offered up so far. Even though this may seem like a really high barrier for entry for this particular volume, all of this is presented in a way that makes vol. 6 the most compelling one in the series to date.

The difficult part of this volume was foreshadowed at the end of the previous one.  A group of Nazi Ubermensch, including Battleship Siegfried, had made their way to the Atlantic coast and were about to make their presence known.  We see how that plays out in the first issue which doubles both as an extended recap of the premise as President Truman is briefed on what’s happening in the European theater of war, and a sinister unveiling of how these superpowered Nazis are going to make their presence known.  It leads to an awful gut-punch of a finish that lets you know nothing in this series is safe.

What follows is even harder to take.  The second issue is a survey of the damage from the initial Ubermensch attack told primarily in the form of black-and-white panels from a film chronicling the events.  Gillen and Gete hold nothing back here. We see everything from the physical devastation of Boston detailed in cold clinical terms by an on-screen narrator, horribly scarred people lost in the wake of the attack, soldiers trying to come to grips with what they went through.  The worst of this comes in a sequence where a woman recalls her failure to save her daughter from a collapsed and burning roof during the attack.

The second issue is as much an illustration of the threat faced by America on its own shores for the purpose of the narrative as it is a showcase for the utter horror of war.  Even though its premise of “What if the Nazis got superpowers in WWII” wouldn’t seem to lend itself to be taken seriously, Gillen has been doing everything he can to get his readers to do just that over the course of the series.  That’s something which didn’t quite hit home for me until this issue. For all of the awfulness that the issue depicts, it never crosses the line over to sensationalism, let alone exploitation. The horrors seen here will stay with you because of their purity.

From there, it’s not exactly a straight shot back to putting the Americans on even footing with their Ubermensch assailants.  While the second issue ends on a much-needed note of hope, plans to stage a second “Battle of Kursk” — where Battleship Siegmund lost an arm — go awry.  Fortunately the British Cavalry shows up in the form of Alan Turing and master spy Stephanie (even Gillen’s not sure that’s her real name). Their presence definitely helps tip the balance of power, particularly when Alan finds a way to develop a new type of Ubermensch.  Only he doesn’t know exactly what it’s capable of. That’s where Stephanie comes in.

Gillen wrote in his notes at the end of issue four — and Avatar deserves many thanks for including these end-of-issue notes with the trade paperback — that he says the title of “heroine” doesn’t fit Stephanie all that well.  I can understand where he’s coming from, as she does put a gun to a little girl’s head when capture seems imminent. Yet her ruthlessness comes across as reassuring in the context of the story. With America facing down a threat that seeks its destruction as a world power her willingness to cross certain lines is something that I see as necessary here.  Whether or not she’s able to live with the mental cost of her actions, which include the additional sights of testing the new Ubermensch type going wrong, is a question best saved for the end of the series.

Vol. 6 has a lot more to offer as well:  We get to see what the three American Battleships have been up to and what happens when one of them is placed into battle.  There’s also the fact that two of these Battleships are African-American and the racial issues they face are definitely acknowledged and potentially troubling for the outcome of the war.  Japan also deploys its own Battleship to wage war on the mostly undefended West Coast with sadly predictable results. We also see what the enhanced General Patton is up to and it looks like we’ll be seeing how well he follows in Hannibal’s footsteps in a future volume.

The volume closes out with an assault on Battleship Siegfried that involves a number of surprises for both sides.  In my reviews of previous volumes I’ve talked about the “delicate balance of terror” that’s needed to properly sustain tension in this series.  While the Nazis have the technological upper hand, seeing them walk all over their opponents will get depressing real quick. Their threat needs to be balanced with actual success by the Allies — success that needs to feel like it was really earned.  Without giving too much away, that’s what the final issue accomplishes in riveting fashion.

Now, some of you may be wondering if those first two issues obliterate that “delicate balance of terror” that I just mentioned.  The answer is no. While the losses and horrors those opening issues depict, their execution by the creators is of a superior nature.  By that I mean what we see feels necessary to the narrative in that it made me feel that it couldn’t have been done any other way. It’s rare that a comic is able to present such depressing material and not have me write it off as the kind of thing I’d only consider reading once.  Vol. 6 of “Uber” manages to have its cake and eat it too in that it successfully illustrates the horrors of war in an artistically credible manner while delivering a story that also has me eagerly wanting to know what happens next.