Uber vol. 3

What keeps me reading this series?  Three volumes in and I can say that it’s the delicate balance of terror Kieron Gillen maintains in the struggle between the Allied and Axis powers.  At the start I was worried that a series about how the Nazis developed superhumans to fight as soldiers in WWII would mean we’d see them trample over everyone in their path until the good guys got their act together in the end.  That didn’t happen and now there’s some actual drama as to who is actually going to win this conflict after all.  It’s a balancing act that Gillen nearly upsets in this volume with all of the advantages he gives to the Nazis.  The introduction of the blitzmensch and the heavy fighters.  Sieglinde’s fate.  The surprise return of a key member of the Nazi war effort.  Finding out there may be an Uber spy amongst the British ranks.  All these developments work against what I want to see from this series.

That being said, seeing the Allies actually score a solid victory for once towards the end was definitely gratifying after all that had come before.  There were other moments of hope:  Stephanie’s breakthroughs and the implication that the African-American presence in the war is going to be a force to be reckoned with.  Yet the most welcome addition to this volume is the appearance of actual characterization!  The spotlight issue on Stephanie at the beginning illuminates her history and mindset well, while also revealing the tragic and horrific current state of the Allies’ current Battleship-class Uber.  There’s some nice dissonance in the story of Russian Uber escapee Katyusha, between her vow to protect the elderly couple she takes shelter with and how they actually see this one-woman war machine.  Vernon, the potential African-American Uber, also gets a memorable introduction as well.  You can still expect to find over-the-top levels of violence and gore throughout this story, but at this point they’re not compensating for a lack of actual substance.  Right now, I continue to see good things coming for “Uber” so long as that delicate balance of terror is maintained.