Bottom line: Unknown Soldier is a hard pill to swallow, but worth digesting. If you can stand the disheartening subject of war, youth violence, rape and torture Wilson’s tale is worth picking up.
Unknown Soldier #1 (Oct 08)
Created By: G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker
Writers: Joshua Dysart
Artists: Alberto Ponticelli
Cover: Igor Kordey
Vertigo | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US | Mature Readers
Premise: Welcome to Northern Uganda. In 2002, it’s a place where tourists are hacked to death with machetes, 12-year-olds with AK-47s wage war, and celebrities futilely try to get people to care. Moses Lwanga is a pacifist doctor caught at the center. But when his life is threatened, Moses suddenly realizes he knows how to kill all too well. What is this voice telling him the only way to fix what’s wrong with the country is by slaughtering those responsible? And what is Moses’ connection to another past bandage-wrapped warrior?
Written by Joshua Dysart (Swamp Thing, B.P.R.D. 1946), who spent a month in Uganda doing research, with art by Alberto Ponticelli (Sam and Twitch) and covers by Igor Kordey (New X-Men), Unknown Soldier is a monthly-shipping, all-new interpretation of the classic DC character.
Review: Unknown Soldier is not an easy pill to swallow. However if you can stomach it, it proves to be a self-aware read that is truly worth picking up. In Unknown Soldier, we are introduced to Moses Lwanga. Lwanga is a Uganda native, who escaped the country with his life after his father bribed a cabinet minister with all their earthly possessions. The then seven year old Lwanga became a U.S. citizen, trading machetes and machine guns for baseball and birthday parties. His parents worked hard to give Lwanga a good life, eventually putting him through Harvard Medical School.
Meanwhile, back home in Uganda, his home country is undergoing a bloody civil war. After finishing school Lwanga found that he could not forget his African heritage no matter how many chances he had to blend in as an American. Lwanga and his wife, also a doctor, decided to return home and help to try and rebuild their country together.
Soon after moving back to Uganda, Lwanga starts to have dark and very disturbing dreams. He repeatedly wakes up in the middle of the night after killing his wife in some sort of uncontrollable subconscious rage. His pacifist nature makes the dreams even more disturbing.
When a young boy is brought into the makeshift doctor’s office with a deeply lacerated eye, Lwanga learns that his younger sister has been abducted by rebels. Without thinking, Lwanga runs in the direction that the boy came, unsure of what he is going to do when he confronts the culprits. As a result of his hesitation, Lwanga ends up with a gun against his head. Before he knows it, the gun is in his hands and the rebel youth’s body lies riddled with bullets on the ground. An even younger boy watches from the sidelines, afraid for his life. Lwanga places the limp body of the unconscious young girl in the boy’s arms, and directs him back to the medical facility.
Now alone, and feeling that everything he stands for has is now a lie, Lwanga puts the gun to his head and tries to pull the trigger. He is unable to when a voice inside his head tells him he can still fight. That he can do good. That he was meant to bring the country together, just not through pacifist means. Trying to kill the voice Lwanga shreds his face and with a sharp rock, afraid it will force him to destroy everything he loves. Now the Unknown Soldier has been born.
The story and art are mature and shocking at times. If you can stand the disheartening subject of war, of youth violence, of rape and torture and the realities of war-torn world, Unknown Soldier is worth a read. The setting and the story are gripping, the mental dialogue keeps the reader turning the page, and the new anti-hero born out of good intentions is hard to disregard. If you are looking for something much darker than superheroes can deliver, Unknown Soldier is for you.
