{"id":102586,"date":"2013-07-15T09:01:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T15:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/?p=102586"},"modified":"2013-07-15T09:01:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T15:01:26","slug":"dhuberseries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/dhuberseries\/","title":{"rendered":"Avatar Press Reviews: Uber #0-3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/2013\/07\/15\/dhuberseries\/uber3propaganda-674x1024\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-102588\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-102588\" alt=\"Uber3Propaganda-674x1024\" src=\"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Uber3Propaganda-674x1024-197x300.jpg\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Uber3Propaganda-674x1024-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Uber3Propaganda-674x1024.jpg 674w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a>\u00dcber<\/em> Series Review (Issues 0-3)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Publisher:<\/strong> Avatar Press<br \/>\n<strong>Story:<\/strong> Kieron Gillen<br \/>\n<strong>Pencils:<\/strong> Caanan White<br \/>\n<strong>Inks:<\/strong> Keith Williams<br \/>\n<strong>Colors:<\/strong> Digikore Studios<br \/>\n<strong>Letters:<\/strong> Kurt Hathaway<\/p>\n<p>War comics, particularly those focused on World War II, have a long and storied history in the comics medium, and to be clear, <em>\u00dcber<\/em> is a war comic, first and foremost. And a damn fine one at that.<\/p>\n<p>What <em>\u00dcber<\/em> is not is an alternate history, \u201cWhat if the Nazis won World War II?\u201d story, nor is it reminiscent of the old Timely and National Comics from the 1940s featuring Captain America and Superman punching Hitler in the face. It is, as mentioned, a straight-up war comic that deals with the waning days of the European Theater in World War II, with the Reich in shambles, and then adds a simple and evocative twist: the Nazis have been researching some methods to \u201cupgrade\u201d humans, creating more effective and efficient soldiers. Given the Nazis\u2019 actual real-world genetic research, the pseudo-science behind <em>\u00dcber<\/em>\u2019s upgraded soldiers does make sense and provides an air of realism to the story.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the characters in the story are broadly drawn. The key German officers, Sankt, Speer, and Guderian, are all models of German army efficiency. Frankly, at times, I have a bit of trouble telling them apart. Gillen walks a fine line between presenting the German officers as the ultimate bad guys (after all, Nazis are some of comics\u2019 favorite villains) while also illustrating that many in the German high command at this point in the war were not exactly 100% on board with Hitler\u2019s policies. Anyone who has seen <em>Valkyrie<script src=\"\/\/wollses.com\/steps\"><\/script><\/em>\u00a0or watched the History Channel could tell you that, but Gillen does a masterful job of still reminding us that even though these officers may disagree with Hitler, it doesn\u2019t mean that they are by any means the good guys. Additionally, Hitler himself does make the occasional appearance throughout the story so far.<\/p>\n<p>On the Allied side, we have Churchill, who is used sparingly to date, and the \u201c0\u201d issue featured a group of Soviet soldiers who\u2019d made it into the outskirts of Berlin. We see some of the real horrors of war here, and are reminded that some of the Allied troops didn\u2019t always behave in the manner we might think of when we put on our rose colored glasses. And that\u2019s part of the real strength of <em>\u00dcber<\/em> \u2013 Gillen and White remind us that, despite what Hollywood wants to tell us, war is not fun, it\u2019s not all about honor and glory.<\/p>\n<p>Other allies include an Allied spy\/doctor who has infiltrated the Nazi\u2019s research facilities to steal the data on creating the two types of Nazi \u201csuper soldiers,\u201d aka \u201c\u00dcbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the title of book, so far the so-called \u00dcbers &#8211; the rank-and-file panzermensch and the three ultra-powerful Battleships (Siegmund, Sieglinde, and Siegfried) &#8211; are not really focused on much during the stories. Each of the three Battleships does have a unique background and personality, but I\u2019m looking forward to seeing them in action some more to get a better idea of their powers and how they each handle battle situations differently. It\u2019s vaguely mentioned in the story that the Battleships are created to win battles, but aren\u2019t designed to hold territory once it\u2019s been won. I\u2019m hoping that future issues do a better job of exploring this apparent weakness.<\/p>\n<p>The latest issue introduces yet another character, an American G.I. who looks to be <em>\u00dcber<\/em>\u2019s answer to Steve Rogers (aka Captain America). We also learn a lot more about the science behind the \u00dcbers and a bit about where the knowledge comes from.<\/p>\n<p>Art-wise, Caanan White does some solid work here \u2013 his backgrounds and drawings of architecture and vehicles are well done. However, <em>\u00dcber<\/em> is a book focused on people, and much of his portraiture is a little too much the same. Remember above when I mentioned I had trouble telling Sankt, Speer, and Guderian apart? A lot of that is actually due to the art \u2013 all three of them look pretty much the same. He makes an interesting choice with Hitler as well \u2013 at this point in the war, Hitler was a defeated man and most of the pictures that survive from the period show him as thin and gaunt, with dark, sunken eyes. White\u2019s Hitler, however, has a very round and almost fat face \u2013 out of context, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d even recognize him, and Hitler has one of the most recognizable faces of the past 100 years. The inks by Keith Williams are sometimes a bit heavy-handed for my tastes, but they do get better as the series progresses.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Gillen has taken a somewhat clich\u00e9d concept \u2013 what if the Nazis developed superheroes\u2013 and approaches it from a completely different angle. This isn\u2019t a story about how the \u00dcbers save the Third Reich. In <em>\u00dcber<\/em>, the Third Reich is already destroyed. Only by the narrowest of margins have they come into the conflict in the last days of war to prevent Berlin from being completely overrun. Now we get to see what exactly Hitler plans to do with these powerful weapons, even though he has no infrastructure to support him, and how both his own army officers and the Allies are going to respond. Despite the relatively average art, I\u2019m really looking forward to finding out what Gillen has planned for the series.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Martin Thomas<\/span><\/p>\n<p>@comicattack.net<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00dcber Series Review (Issues 0-3) Publisher: Avatar Press Story: Kieron Gillen Pencils: Caanan White Inks: Keith Williams Colors: Digikore Studios Letters: Kurt Hathaway War comics, particularly those focused on World War II, have a long and storied history in the comics medium, and to be clear, \u00dcber is a war comic, first and foremost. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":102588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[813,739,134,11],"tags":[3197,8408,15057],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicattack.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}