Written by: Joshua Dysart
Arted by: Alberto PonticelliFor two years, Unknown Soldier has broken ground and received overwhelming critical praise both in and out of the comic book industry. Now, in this final chapter, Moses Lwanga…saves the world!
Unknown Soldier has been one of the most underrated books in the industry over the past two years, and now it’s coming to an end, much to my chagrin. Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli’s story of a man taking on a country in an attempt to be a beacon of peace through the art of war was an often moving and troubling story, and one that had a hard time finding an audience. But it was a very, very good book. A lot of books have issues concluding after highly successful runs, but would this book fall into that same trap?
Find out after the jump, and beware spoilers if you have not read this issue yet.
I think the reason Unknown Soldier had a hard time finding an audience is quite the same reason why critically acclaimed films sometimes have problems finding one. When you look at mediums like comics or film, the average viewer prefers escapism over something with an agenda or with meaning. Why be challenged when you can be entertained?
And make no mistake, Joshua Dysart never intended for this book to be simple fluff. This is a book that approaches the Uganda crisis and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in a very real way, as Dysart gained accolades from all comers for the approach he took in making sure Uganda and its troubles felt accurate. Perhaps that’s why this book never found an audience, but it’s a shame, as this issue and series as a whole is remarkable for its story and its presentation via the comic medium.
This last issue leads off with another beautiful cover from artist Dave Johnson, a simple image of our protagonist Lwanga Moses (or the Unknown Soldier or whatever you want to call him) smiling as a beam of light goes through his head. It’s a really breathtaking image, and one that means more as you go through the issue.
The issue itself is about Moses and his last ditch assault on Joseph Kony. It’s been his ultimate goal since the very beginning to take out Kony, and now we’ve gotten to that point.
At one point, I was working on an interview with Dysart, and one of my questions was about what happens when Moses finds Kony. Given how meticulous he was with his research, did he feel that he had a responsibility as a creator to not do anything that could work in opposition of reality? Or did he feel that he could, like Quentin Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds, rewrite the past in the name of art and good story? Dysart answers that question in a way he never could in an interview, as Moses appears to succeed in his quest to kill Kony and repair Uganda in one fell swoop. This moment is perhaps one of the saddest I’ve ever read in a comic, as with each passing panel you can see Alberto Ponticelli reveal this as not a triumphant reality but the fleeting dream of a dying man.
This scene is both beautifully dreamy and cruel, and Dysart and Ponticelli really throw down the perfect coda to this characters story in the opening.
The rest of the issue is designed to tie-up the rest of the story, walking readers through what happens to the other characters we’ve come to care about, like Moses’ wife Dr. Sera Lwanga and his oft brother-in-arms Jack Lee Howl. We also are dosed with the cruel reality of Kony’s present, alongside what is really going on with Acholiland, Uganda as it currently stands.
The two moments, outside of the sequence I went into detail on before, that stood out the most are the one that immediately followed Moses and his death as well as the very last page.
The one right after his death hurt badly, as a reader, because it gave us a taste of what the reality for the child soldiers that are so heavily featured in this book. The first rule of marketing, and in many ways life, is that perception is reality. From the perspective of this tiny boy soldier, this didn’t mean he was bad and that he killed a man who could have saved him. This meant, in his words, “I have made the father happy. I have ensured my place as a combatant. I have proven my loyalty. I will eat better now. Perhaps be given a wife. I will have more power and men to command. And in this I will find some measure of happiness.” It’s a gut wrenching section, as we’re given to the cruel reality that this is the life these children want post-indoctrination.
Continued belowThe final page was a stunner though, as we see the Unknown Soldier perhaps reborn in a beautifully cinematic section. A news report from the Sudan is talking about how the Lord’s Resistance Army is being warded off by a group of “Arrow Boys,” young men who fight the good fight of resistance against the coming aggressors with nothing more than a bow and arrow. All of the boys are wearing white, save one in green, a boy who for the last three panels covers his face in bandages as the newscaster says “As one arrow boy told us, ‘it is better to die fighting for peace that to live perpetually in war.'” This matches the mission the original Unknown Soldier tasked to Lwanga Moses, and it’s now living on with this boy in the Sudan in some way.
I want to point out also that it is ironic that his spirit is reborn in a child soldier, in that it is the image that has been so controversial in African wars and the one has galvanized worldwide resistance more than anything. A beautiful touch by Dysart and Ponticelli.
This might be my longest review yet, but it’s deserved. Unknown Soldier may have died too soon in more ways than one, but he went out in a way that mattered, as this issue was one of the finer codas to any series I’ve read in recent memory. Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli fought the good fight, and all I can hope is readers catch up on this book in trades, as it deserves a lot more recognition and love.
Final Verdict: 9.8 – Buy
