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.
The variant cover art of "UBER" No. 14 by Gabriel Andrade |
A good review of an issue I very much enjoyed. Hitler's "resurrection" will be revealed soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bryan. Certainly this one restored much of the faith in the series (as did the next funnily enough). Expect a few more issues over the coming weeks as I'm hoping to play catch-up with this particular title.
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