EDITOR'S NOTE: For a Behind-the-Scenes look at Unknown Soldier (photos and videos of Northern Uganda, script excerpts, layouts, pencils, et al.), go to JoshuaDysart.com.

Robert Murray:
Erik David Norris:
Troy Stith:

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Robert Murray:

I know it's bad form for a reviewer to begin a positive review with negative aspects of a comic book, but I have to follow my train of thought. I'm sure that readers out there, as well as my fellow reviewers, will find disagreeable elements in this first issue of Unknown Soldier. Heck, I found them myself! A slow four-page introduction segment early in the issue that doesn't match the pace of the remaining issue, the stereotypical setting of Africa in turmoil, and the facial expressions of characters oftentimes taking on very exaggerated forms are the most glaring examples. However, this would be nitpicking for me, since I ended up loving this issue up to and after turning the last page. This is the kind of Vertigo comic I crave, with an underlying mystery surrounding our main character that will drive this first arc and all subsequent arcs forward. Joshua Dysart is a writer I can trust (You'd think he was up for election this year!) to produce a quality story that works well in a graphic format. His ability to shock and entertain me has never diminished, and Unknown Soldier looks like another winner from him. Add to this artist Alberto Ponticelli, whose work is jagged and rough enough to convey this African nightmare effectively, and this first issue is pure reading satisfaction. Being a Vertigo series, the violence is very graphic, but Unknown Soldier is extremely effective at conveying this violence toward advancing the characters and the story. Gratuitous or exploitative elements are minimal, bringing to mind a graphic arts version of the Wild Bunch (without the gunfighters). This is the kind of first issue that should bring all Vertigo nuts on board for the series, but comic fans who are not especially endeared to the mature imprint will find a lot to like as well, as long as you don't mind the fact that the true face of the Unknown Soldier, the bandaged visage we all imagine, doesn't make an appearance.

Just to let you know, I never read the original Kubert version of the Unknown Soldier, but I can tell you without this experience that this isn't your father's Soldier. The main character is Lwanga Moses, a doctor on a humanitarian mission in Uganda, the land of his birth (Nice use of Biblical allegory, by the way). Since he is a healer by nature, you would think this is a passive man, a man who values peace above all else. Well, his sub-conscience thinks differently, as Moses is given to violent, irrational dreams. The most shocking scene in this entire issue comes about a third of the way in, when Moses seemingly slams his wife's face into a wall and breaks her neck with unbelievable savagery. However, this was all a dream, one which Moses will not share with his concerned wife (Would you?). When confronted with the violent reality of Uganda, this sub-conscience savagery kicks into overdrive, taking over his physical actions. Upon seeing a boy who has been brutally attacked, Moses races into the wilderness, only to find himself captured by a local militant. He suddenly erupts, taking the young man's gun and brutally murdering him. For a second, he thinks he wakes up, presented with the images of "safe" American consumerism and sex (hot chick in a grocery store). But he truly wakes up from this vision, seeing the carnage he has inflicted with his own hands. His mind can't take this act of cold murder, so he does something that no truly sane man would... Well, why do you think the Unknown Soldier has his face bandaged up? Dysart's story grabs you by the gut and doesn't let go, meaning that, like me, you'll be ready for the next issue as soon as you read the last panel.

As I mentioned, Ponticelli's artwork is gritty and effective, but it’s not nearly as spectacular as Dysart's story. The panels move the action along smoothly, though some of the overly exaggerated expressions are almost humorous. Still, the brutal nature of this tale is presented ably, and I have to give Ponticelli credit for following the writer's lead better than most artists would.

In short, this is a comic book series you should jump on at the very beginning because, like all things Vertigo, you really don't know how long it will last. Plus, if the first issue's any indication, this is a tale that will contain a lot of emotional power that will reward those readers looking for something more in their Wednesday pile.

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Erik David Norris:

There is a scene about halfway through Unknown Soldier #1 that should sell the gravitas of the book to every living soul on the planet. While working in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Uganda, Lwanga Moses (the lead protagonist) is aiding a young girl whose feet were lopped off. You come to find out this girl lost her legs all because the LRA caught her riding a bicycle.

I've always been a sucker for this setting through various forms of entertainment whether it is Blood Diamond at the movies, through my videogames with Far Cry 2(also released this week), or here in the funny books with Unknown Soldier. I've also never been a political person but something about the situation in Africa, the thought of children carrying and shooting fire-arms has always scared the crap out of me. It's something that is so wildly different from our customs here in America that it's mind-boggling.

I think Unknown Soldier's greatest success with its first issue was how it captured Uganda's political climate, harnesses its widespread panic, all within the confines of an action-thriller comic. Joshua Dysart was wise to choose present day Uganda for the new setting of this classic DC character, and it looks like his extensive research abroad has paid off immensely by delivering a story that hits all the right emotional/political notes of a war-torn Africa while simultaneously dodging the bullet of too much real world exposition resulting in a bogged down narrative. However, I did think the nightmare Lwanga had where he snapped the neck of his wife was a little out of place. Whether it was a bit of foreshadowing or just a way to plant the seeds of how ruthless the character will become, it still seemed rather excessive compared to the other uses of violence Joshua Dysart resorts to in his script.

Alberto Ponticelli is also a very capable artist for this book. A few weeks prior to Unknown Soldier's launch a friend asked me how the book looked after I had seen a preview in the pages of House of Mystery. I told him, "It looks like a Vertigo book." He understood instantly. Not caught up on the shine and uber-polish of most super-hero books, Vertigo titles instead let their artists flex their muscles and come up with extremely expressive work that captures the grit and real worldliness of the subject matter. Unknown Soldier is no different. Also, kudos to Ponticelli for drawing gaping wounds that are just as hideous as their real world counterparts. You can literally see the layers of flesh peeling off the face, revealing the bone underneath, and it made me squeamish every time.

I think Unknown Soldier, as an ongoing series, has a lot going for it. It hit all the right notes with its first issue, such as detailing the political climate of Uganda, giving deep enough character development to our main cast without revealing too much, and delivering a memorizing and nightmarish cliffhanger to keep the hooks in. These are all the ingredients of a series that plans to stick around for a good long while and by what I saw in issue #1, it has the potential to do just that.

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Troy Stith:

Plot: While treating patients at an IDP camp in war torn Acholiland Uganda, Dr. Lwanga Moses' nightmares start to come true as he comes to grips with being the Unknown Soldier.

Comments: When I first saw the Igor Kordey cover for this book accompanying a Joshua Dysart interview, I knew I was going to read it. A powerful image of the Unknown Soldier in all his madness with child soldier newspaper articles foretelling the contents of the book. Within that same article, Joshua Dysart told of the time he'd spent in Uganda and how it played into the book (but don't worry if you missed that interview; the last page of this book has a new interview with Dysart addressing those very topics and more).

Since I had read up on this book in advance, I knew that we'd know who the Unknown Soldier was this time around, no longer the nameless killer of the Kubert days. Even with this change, the mystery element of the title is still there, only Dysart takes a different approach to it. He chooses Dr. Lwanga Moses to be put through the mental crisis of being the Unknown Soldier, which the writer executes this really well.

The book opens with a climatic "end point," and then follows Moses' thoughts, retracing his steps as to how he ended up in the "line of fire" in Acholiland. Turns out, Dr. Lwanga Moses was a child when he left Uganda, his parents sacrificing everything to get their son to America to live a life they never had. Becoming his parents' dream, Moses campaigns for peace in Uganda and dedicates his medical expertise toward helping refugees in Internally Displaced Camps (IDP) with his wife.

Even though Moses is a peace loving man, he's having recurring carnage-filled nightmares. Ponticelli's dream sequence is one of the artistic highlights of the book. From the fetus in the womb surrounded by violence, despair, and decay, to the surprise killing of Moses' wife, the scene plays out seamlessly until you're snapped back into reality when you realize you've been witnessing a dream. This sets the tone for the rest of the book.

Once arriving in Uganda, Moses becomes depressed by his surroundings. Unable to cope with all of the carnage and abuse of the people in his homeland, Moses finally loses it when a child comes back to the IDP with a machete gash across his head. He charges into the brush without thinking, thus bringing the reader back to the start of the book and resulting in a rush of violence from Moses, being led by a confident "killer" voice within. Left with questions and remorse, Moses acts out and starts carving his face to cleanse himself of his doings.

Dysart's 1400 photos he took while in Uganda really paid off. Ponticelli captures the scenes as well as any photograph you'd see in National Geographic. Oscar Celestini uses a color palette of earthy tones that accompany Ponticelli's raw, gritty yet real illustration. When the story calls for violence, Ponticelli doesn't hold back in showing what a machete or an AK-47 can do to a human body. The artist expresses rage and remorse perfectly across conflicted panels. The closing pages of Moses' self-mutilation and murder are gore filled and emotionally charged, equating into a thumbs up approval of Ponticelli's artistic skills.

As a collective, the creative team achieved their goal in getting me to feel for the people of this war torn part of Africa, depicting the atrocities of tribal belief systems in the way of mutilated children and corrupted minds of youngsters molded into ruthless soldiers. Due to the socio-political nature of the book, I felt it started off a bit sluggish but picked up speed once the story moved to Uganda, hooking me for the purchase of the second installment of this book. After all, I need to know who the hell Moses really is.

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