Uber #25 - Avatar Press

UBER No. 25, May 2015

Focusing solely upon the Pacific Theatre and Japan’s last deployment of Miyoko to Okinawa in 1945, Issue Twenty Five of “Uber” is an oft-times troubling, depressingly fatalistic read which portrays the Emperor’s tank-men as honourable heroes and the American forces, who up until this point in the war have actually found themselves at a seriously bloody disadvantage to their superior opposition, as little more than furtive murderers who quite shockingly kill sleeping enemy soldiers where they lay in their dug-outs.

Such a bias viewpoint of the island’s fictional final battle doubtless unsettled at least a few of this title’s anaemic 5,506 followers, especially when Kieron Gillen’s narration of events throughout the comic makes the Allied atrocities upon “the beleaguered defenders” sound so frighteningly factual. However this sudden shift in the enhanced-human power struggle between the United States and Imperial Japanese Army, along with the grisly impact it has upon the 'soldiers of the Rising Sun' as they quite futilely die in a final desperate suicidal charge, also makes this entire twenty-two page periodical an incredibly atmospheric and enthralling experience.

True the British author’s portrayal of the Yanks’ tank-men as somewhat stereotypically handsome poster boys who even display war propaganda images more readily associated with Air Force bomber nose art upon their stylish leather jackets, somewhat disrupts the illusion of reality. But the former computer games journalist’s depiction of the East Asian malnourished warriors, weary and battle worn yet still nobly loyal to their Empire until the bitter end, more than makes up for this ‘nod’ to the Silver Age of Superhero Comics… And indeed who is to say that the American authorities wouldn’t have dressed their formidably powerful troopers in such garish attire if they had actually existed during the Second World War?

Possibly in keeping with this book’s dark disheartening tone is the artwork of Daniel Gete. The Spaniard’s heavily shadowed sequences involving corporal Hideki definitely lack the regular penciller’s customary clean-cut drawings. Yet rather than being off-putting, such a change in style, whether intentional or not, undoubtedly adds a layer of grittiness to his work which seems entirely fitting when these panels spotlight the dispirited Japanese tunnel dwellers.

The regular cover art of "UBER" No. 25 by Daniel Gete