Anyone who's read my review of Crossed would know that I really utterly hate that series (and find Garth Ennis an overrated juvenile hack in general). At the end of it, I recommended this particular comic. Here I'll explain why.
First off, Uber is not a series for the faint of heart and it can become a slog at times admittedly. However, it succeeds where Crossed fails by treating its subject matter with actual maturity and thoughtfulness, thanks to its author Kieron Gillen being a genuinely mature and thoughtful writer who actually does his homework and prioritizing actual storytelling over putting in the shock value just for the sake of having shock value.
Furthermore, while Crossed falls quickly into Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy by virtue of having virtually no light at the end of its tunnel, on top of really not doing anything new with its psuedo-Zombie Apocalypse setting by virtue of tediously rehashing the "humans are the real monsters" trope, the reader just feels dulled out to the characters, who are all either massively unlikable or only exist to die horribly. Uber thankfully avoids falling too much into that trap. Yes, it is a relentlessly grimdark deconstruction and the author himself has said it's not a story meant to be enjoyed, but it still leaves some hope and gives the good guys some victories here and there that are very well-earned while also showing how the villains ruin themselves ultimately. It also helps that many of the Uber characters feel like actual people rather than just props that exist for the sake of either being put through the emotional grinder or being horribly killed. While Anyone Can Die is in full effect here, they are still given a personality and depth that makes you care for them (or, in the cases of the Nazis, at least feel something towards them), which actually gives their deaths all the more impact and makes you dread the possibility of any other favorites that you have kicking the bucket by the end.
As said before, Uber is not a story meant to be enjoyed, but it succeeds where Crossed fails in being a truly darkly gripping story of exploring both the best and worst of human nature in a world that feels deprived of hope and how to keep the hope alive.
Grimdark gorn done right
Anyone who's read my review of Crossed would know that I really utterly hate that series (and find Garth Ennis an overrated juvenile hack in general). At the end of it, I recommended this particular comic. Here I'll explain why.
First off, Uber is not a series for the faint of heart and it can become a slog at times admittedly. However, it succeeds where Crossed fails by treating its subject matter with actual maturity and thoughtfulness, thanks to its author Kieron Gillen being a genuinely mature and thoughtful writer who actually does his homework and prioritizing actual storytelling over putting in the shock value just for the sake of having shock value.
Furthermore, while Crossed falls quickly into Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy by virtue of having virtually no light at the end of its tunnel, on top of really not doing anything new with its psuedo-Zombie Apocalypse setting by virtue of tediously rehashing the "humans are the real monsters" trope, the reader just feels dulled out to the characters, who are all either massively unlikable or only exist to die horribly. Uber thankfully avoids falling too much into that trap. Yes, it is a relentlessly grimdark deconstruction and the author himself has said it's not a story meant to be enjoyed, but it still leaves some hope and gives the good guys some victories here and there that are very well-earned while also showing how the villains ruin themselves ultimately. It also helps that many of the Uber characters feel like actual people rather than just props that exist for the sake of either being put through the emotional grinder or being horribly killed. While Anyone Can Die is in full effect here, they are still given a personality and depth that makes you care for them (or, in the cases of the Nazis, at least feel something towards them), which actually gives their deaths all the more impact and makes you dread the possibility of any other favorites that you have kicking the bucket by the end.
As said before, Uber is not a story meant to be enjoyed, but it succeeds where Crossed fails in being a truly darkly gripping story of exploring both the best and worst of human nature in a world that feels deprived of hope and how to keep the hope alive.