Uber #27 - Avatar Press

UBER No. 27, July 2015

Considering that this comic is supposedly the culmination of a three year long project by Kieron Gillen which has resulted in the publication of twenty seven editions, as well as an “Uber” Special and “a free recap issue entitled Uber: The First Cycle”, the narrative for this twenty-three page periodical is disappointingly rushed in places. Admittedly the former music journalist does manage to impressively incorporate the entire title's cast within his volume's final storyline, and additionally ends it with a sensational, terrific-looking cliff-hanger. But this laudable approach is only achieved by him frustratingly leaping from character to character every few panels or so; an approach which must surely have left some of its 5,427 readers rather puzzled as to why the odd event actually panned out as its portrayed?

For starters why when Bernard Montgomery has “another two hours of options” does the British Government without any warning abruptly capitulate and agree “the Anglo-German peace deal”? Admittedly, in the wake of H.M.H. Churchill’s catastrophic defeat during the Battle of Calais the Spartan General’s prognosis that the Empire “can expect London to start burning within the week” is not encouraging. Nor is the realisation that “the South Coast is lost.” However as Monty highlights, that still leaves North Africa and Italy as secure staging posts, “and Southern France remains with the Americans.” Why does the ‘Bulldog spirit’ suddenly evaporate overnight and the country’s (historically accurate) early war stance of simply “hanging on for the Americans’ strength to come into play” find itself being so unhesitatingly dismissed by the new Prime Minister? It’s almost as if the GLAAD Media Award-winner couldn’t wait to rid himself of the war effort in Europe and instead wanted to quickly move on to the German invasion of the United States and Daniel Gete's superbly illustrated concluding double splash…

Equally as poorly conceived is the incredulous belief that having lost their allies “in the European Theatre of Operations, a soldier ‘armed’ with a “fast developing film” camera would solely be responsible for the safety of “an extraordinary meeting of all available United States Army Commanding Officers”? This ‘oversight’ is preposterous, especially given the attention to detail the Stafford-born writer has previously displayed when researching the contemporary military strategies of the Second World War. If the Yanks had developed “entirely unprecedented technology” fearing “any remaining Geltmensch”, then surely the “extreme security” they employed would not just be a photographer simply snapping a Polaroid of the catering staff right outside the very room within which the conference delegates are sat in debate?

Disagreeably the insinuation that the British,  following their surrender to the Third Reich, may well have had a hand in this grisly elimination of the Senior American ranks makes this atrocious sequence even more unpalatable. Though even this implication pales in comparison to the utterly absurd declaration that a heavily-muscled three star-wearing General Patton actually survived the assassination attempt on account of being a “catalyst-sensitive” enhanced superhuman.

The regular cover art of "UBER" No. 27 by Daniel Gete