Review: Uber, Volume 2
Uber, Volume 2 by Kieron GillenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rating 3.5 out of 5 | Grade: B-; お前はもう死んでる
After the Bombastic, Gore filled, Nightmare inducing Vol.1, Uber by Kieron Gillen is back, with a back. And this time around, the action is split between the western front, as well as the axis 'allies' in east, Imperial Japan. While the US/UK research group for Ubermensch, were on the backfoot after, (view spoiler).
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Ubermensch of Imperial Japan
What would happen, if an army comprised of impoverished, battle equipped, poorly trained soldiers, with only their Zealous patriotic devotion to the motherland, are given the catalyst to change them into superhuman soldiers. Super soldier suicide bombers, that's what's going happen.
When the Nazis decided to be benevolent and share the recipe for creation of Panzermensch with their 'allies', the Japanese, ever the innovative bunch, decided to go a separate route as to how to use them.
Unlike the Nazi & the Western Allies, who use their Ubermensch as strategic assets, form tactical offensive centered around them, and use them to gain localized advantage on the ongoing battle, the Imperial Japanese decide to take a different route.
With no strategic resources to speak of, being on the brink of invasion following the sinking of Yamato, it's crown jewel, the Japanese hold no hope of victory. What they want to do instead, staying true to their glory fueled doctrine, is to inflict the maximum casualties on their enemies and die a 'heroic' death. Hence the kamikaze attacks were devised, where pilots, riding the divine winds would ride their planes and use themselves as missiles, with the intention of destroying allied naval vessels.
Understandably, this tactic, soaked in superstition, delusions of grandeur & patriotic fervor was a flawed one, with lead to minimal success.
Now imagine, in a world where soldiers can be turned into super soldier bombs, how effect the Kamikaze attacks can be. That's exactly what the Japanese thought; using their Tank-men, as human torpedoes that, evading radars and capable of swimming several times farther than normal men, infiltrate the hulls of enemy vessels, and turn into human bombs which take the ships with them.
Suffice to say, THIS was a much more fruitful strategy. Which, combined with the Guerilla warfare they employed, hiding among the hundreds of islands in the Pacific, made the war front even more of a hell for Allied soldiers. That is until their own Tank-men came to relieve the pressure. But, it was an interesting display of how different factions incorporate the Ubermensch as part of their military doctrine.
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Soviet Union; Tank-men & Statistics
Speaking of, in the Soviet side, upon receiving the Superhuman catalyst & research for Tank-men, the communist leadership, and by that I mean Stalin, decided to take a different approach.
Befitting of the man who infamously said “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”, the alternate history version of the Boss, decides to throw the survivors of the failed Battle at Berlin, around 450000 people, into the meat grinder. Exposing them to the dangerous catalyst without any trivial things such as testing and safety, letting the unfit ones die, and then collecting the 100 of so survivors to be trained as the Soviet Ubermensch Battalion. Crude, Inhumane, but effective.
All of which culminated in the adrenaline filled confrontation between the 100 or so Tank-men with Battleship Siegfried. Who,(view spoiler)
Finally, on the German side, Siegmund & the Fuhrer have a nice dinner, while Sieglinde takes a 'vacation' to the erstwhile kingdom of Albion to pet a bulldog; enough said.
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Thoughts
With the progression of how the story was going in Volume 1, I had a suspicion that it was not going to be all Hulk smash battles between the Super soldiers on either side, and I was not disappointed.
We are reminded again and again, that the Panzermensch & the three Battleships, which overwhelming strategic assets on the battlefield, are not invincible, and can fall prey to well though out counters. Which I think will shape future confrontations.
Also interesting to read was how each faction in the War, allied or Axis, use the assets that are their tank-men in a manner which reflects their own military doctrine.
Whether it be the Nazis, with their first come advantage when it comes to the Panzermensch, who are superior tactically, but lack the strategic & logistical means to bank in on that advantage. If things progress as such, they are soon going to spent their aces, and end up losing the game.
As contrasted with the allies, who have better technological & resource bases as well as superior numbers, but are stumbling out of the gate due to their unfamiliarity with the technology & bad decision making.
While the Soviet doctrine of indifference & seeing people are resources, ironically allows them to quickly catch up to the rest, and even deal a decisive blow to the Nazis.
And then there are the Japanese, who don't really seem to care about what is happening in the rest of the war, and are only concerned about their home sphere & glory. Their tactics, driven by emotions & patriotic zealously, make their actions all the more unpredictable to allied commanders who wage a more logical warfare, and thus allow the Japanese to deal early decisive blows to the Pacific fleet.
I'm anticipating to read how these unique factions would come to shape the progress of a now long protracted war.
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