Uber #14 - Avatar Press

UBER No. 14, May 2014

Containing both an arguably much-anticipated confrontation between the catalyst-enhanced German powerhouses Siegmund and Siegfried, as well as the first appearance of the grotesquely misshapen creature known as Battleship Zero, Issue Fourteen of “Uber” undoubtedly provides its readers with plenty of pulse-pounding action and suspense. But whilst such scenes depict the sort of graphic violence, bodily mutilation and colourful language the series’ fans have come to expect from “Avatar Press”, Kieron Gillen’s script rather annoyingly actually fails to bring any sort of resolution to these proceedings. Indeed the twenty-two page periodical undoubtedly raises more questions than it answers by having the Fuhrer, depicted as being quite clearly dead at the start of the comic, seemingly alive and well by the end of the book as he abruptly appears and starts rejoicing at the celebratory “news from the North Sea” of “a historic victory!”

Such a trifling irritation however shouldn’t have stopped the vast majority of this magazine’s 7,493 buyers from enjoying what is otherwise a triumph in creepy, suspenseful and horrifyingly good storytelling. For even before General Sankt begins to wind his way down a series of underground tunnels with the intention of trying to “activate another Battleship”, it is clear that something unnatural, inhuman and “[un]dissolved” lurks within the dark shadows; a creature so hideously malformed that its movement has caused huge troughs to be gouged out of the cavern’s rocky surface.

Presented with far less build-up, though just as dramatically tense, is the British writer’s clash of the Teutonic titans Werner and Markus. Stood toe-to-toe, their halo-effects crackling and the enraged Siegfried bristling at the thought that his fellow ‘super-soldier’ had purposely lied to him about Hitler’s death, it really is hard to see precisely which way the battle between the two juggernauts is going to go. Sadly though, despite the one-armed Siegmund managing to catch his opponent off-guard with a deft punch, the matter is disappointingly and abruptly brought to an end by Herr Goebbels before either man can do the other any real harm.

All of this excitement is wonderfully illustrated by Gabriel Andrade, whose terrifyingly warped rendering of Battleship Zero is as grisly and abhorrent as the monster’s disfigurement is alarming. In fact it’s hard to find any fault with the Brazilian’s pencilling, except perhaps the artist’s concluding splash-page which somehow seems to portray the triumphant Third Reich Fuhrer as a diminutive, almost child-like figure.

The variant cover art of "UBER" No. 14 by Gabriel Andrade