{"id":11661,"date":"2014-03-19T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=11661"},"modified":"2014-03-17T16:19:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T16:19:54","slug":"uber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2014\/03\/19\/uber\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Kieron Gillen<\/b>, Canaan<\/strong> White <\/strong><\/b>& Keith Williams<\/strong><\/b> (Avatar Press)
\nISBN: 978-1-59291-218-6<\/p>\n

There’s something of an immediately post-WWII zeitgeist in effect in Britain at the moment: exhibitions, documentaries, a few exceedingly good TV dramas (Bletchley Circle<\/b>, Murder on the Home Front<\/b>, Foyle’s War<\/b>) and even some comics.<\/p>\n

Being British, writer Kieron Gillen grew up reading war comics like Battle<\/b> and so has our peculiarly manic and trenchant viewpoint – engendered by the works of Pat Mills, John Wagner, Tom Tully, Alan Hebden and Gerry Finley-Day – to augment his own uniquely dark and sardonic imagination, previously displayed in strips and comics as varied as Phonogram<\/b>, Save Point<\/b>, Dark Avengers: Ares<\/b>, Thor<\/i>, Uncanny X-Men<\/i>, Iron Man<\/i> and many more.<\/p>\n

Now he has applied the implausible metahuman trappings of the American superhero comicbook to the bleak, gritty, apocalyptically human scaled drama of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Last Good War\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to produce a vicious, nasty and utterly enthralling sci-fi-tinged epic of staggering scope and power.<\/p>\n

This first full-colour trade paperback compilation, illustrated with stark, gory verve by Canaan White <\/strong>& Keith Williams,<\/strong> collects issues #0-5, and posits a much debated \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What If\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as Germany’s G\u00c3\u00b6tterd\u00c3\u00a4mmerung is averted at the very last moment by a very nasty miracle\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Blending scrupulous historical research with a canny take on human nature, the story begins with the triumphant Russians barbarously overrunning Berlin<\/i> on the night of April 24th<\/sup> 1945, even as arch-patriot General Sankt<\/i> delivers at long last a handful of incomprehensible human weapons to General Heinz Guderian<\/i>, just as that demoralised, defeated Reichsmann readies himself for the end.<\/p>\n

Five days later in a secret base near the Swiss border, a trusted scientist for Projekt U<\/i> murders her former colleagues and sabotages the outpost before dashing towards the advancing American forces, carrying an incredible secret\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With Hitler putting a gun into his mouth word comes of an impossible turnaround. The human \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Battleships<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Siegmund<\/i>, Siegfried<\/i> and Seiglinde<\/i>, supplemented by lesser supermen and wonder women, have ravaged and repulsed the despised subhuman Soviets\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The Generals realise even these Wunderwaffen<\/i> (the result of years of ruthless research) cannot reverse Germany’s fate, but by their ghastly actions and uncanny efforts the nation may be able to negotiate a favourable armistice that won’t leave the country broken forever.<\/p>\n

Der Fuhrer<\/i>, however, totally demented and wantonly vengeful, wants Grand Opera outcomes: Wagnerian Cataclysm and the world made into a rubble heap that would make Berlin seem merely scratched\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The madman appals his closest cronies when he orders Seigfried to execute a million Russian prisoners of war before despatching his ghastly Hell-kinder to destroy Paris and resume his holy war on Russia.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile British spy Stephanie<\/i> has made it back to England – having en route despatched two of the \u00c3\u0153bermensch she helped create – and convinced Winston Churchill<\/i> to fast-track the Allies’ own Human Tank<\/i> project.<\/p>\n

To facilitate this, she had brought stolen samples of the transformative crystalline chemical Woden’s Blood<\/i> and copies of artefacts and documents used by Nazi scientist Professor Metzger<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The ancient – possibly extraterrestrial – inscriptions and records the biochemist was working from go to BletchleyPark where brilliant cryptologist Alan Turing<\/i> lets his new Electronic Brain loose on deciphering the still untranslated majority of the writings\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Woden’s Blood only upgrades 1 in every 5000 humans, and needs repeated, gradual applications, but even so the harried Allies still find enough volunteers to get the ball rolling, and as weeks pass they slowly become a plausible answer to the now limited and stalled German superhuman project.<\/p>\n

In the intervening time, Battleship Sieglinde has led her less-developed and incomplete Mark 2 comrades in the march upon so-recently liberated Paris to carry out Hitler’s demands for punishment. Now as the fanatical \u00c3\u0153ber Soldaten prepare to raze the city they are ambushed by a hastily prepared Expeditionary Force of Anglo American Human Tanks.<\/p>\n

They are not enough\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

To Be Continued\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Savage, brutal and visually shocking, this stunning, doom-drenched drama crackles with tension, drips with mystery and suspense and comes with a chilling 20+ page gallery of covers, variants and ancillary artwork, and will appeal to lovers of fantasy fiction and unreal war stories alike\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a9 2013 Avatar Press Inc. Uber and all related properties \u00e2\u201e\u00a2 & \u00c2\u00a9 2013 Avatar Press Inc.
\nUber will be released on April 1st<\/sup> 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kieron Gillen, Canaan White & Keith Williams (Avatar Press) ISBN: 978-1-59291-218-6 There’s something of an immediately post-WWII zeitgeist in effect in Britain at the moment: exhibitions, documentaries, a few exceedingly good TV dramas (Bletchley Circle, Murder on the Home Front, Foyle’s War) and even some comics. Being British, writer Kieron Gillen grew up reading … <\/p>\n

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