Once again, Dysart does the unexpected. This issue picks up exactly where the last one left off, only the last issue made it seem like he wasn’t going to concentrate on showing the big battle scene. But he does. In fact, there are three two page spreads in this issue. It’s the most action I can remember the series ever having; there are explosions everyone.

But the reader also gets some back story on Moses in regards to the Unknown Soldier, the voice. Dysart’s narration is a CIA report–referring to Moses as “Subject 9” (a little V for Vendetta homage there?)–walking the reader through not just the battle, but the way arms trading works in Uganda.

Necessary or not, Dysart jump-starts the series’s tone a little bit. There’s a concentration the action, but without jeopardizing the political discussion. Not to mention the readers finds out about Moses experiencing suicidal urges.

Dysart finishes the arc without giving the action payoff I was expecting (I was also expecting another issue of the arc).

It seems he’s saying goodbye to Paul too, after giving the kid a really rough lesson or two this issue in futility. Moses learns a similar lesson and ends the story in a far worse place than he started it.

Sera doesn’t make an appearance here, which confused me a little bit.

What’s most interesting about the story is the time Dysart took with it. In modern series, with their trade-ready arcs, there aren’t as many asides anymore–certainly not ones running enough issues for a trade of their own. Dysart basically took six issues to tell a story about what happens when Moses and Paul go to Paul’s old village.

It’s bold and artistically solid and great.

I can’t believe Vertigo let them make the trip.

I think this arc runs five issues and Dysart is three in–and wrapping up some of the revelations–so I was wondering how he was going to keep it going. He’s keeping it going by turning the entire comic on its head.

Turning Moses into an unreliable narrator–who isn’t reliable to himself either–isn’t an unprecedented narrative move, but it’s completely unexpected. For sixteen issues, Moses has been utterly reliable.

This issue has a little of the return to action, but it also has a bunch more character stuff. Dysart’s bringing Sera–Moses’s wife–back into the comic as a seen presence, Paul’s making decisions contrary to Moses’s orders. I never think of the series as having a cast, but it does.

This story–especially after this issue–is shaping to be a lot more important than the first issue suggested.

It’s kind of a mystery story and kind of not. Moses is very active this issue, but not in his usual way. Instead, he’s back to being a doctor, back to letting his concern for people effect his actions. I know this arc isn’t the last one, but it feels like Dysart is trying to get the character to a new place.

So while there’s the mystery and the character development–not to mention the continuing question of what’s going to happen to Paul–Dysart is implying things aren’t going to go well. There’s the direct foreshadowing of Moses realizing he’s probably going to kill the local army commander and a dying man telling Moses his redemption ritual didn’t work… but there’s also the voice.

The voice in Moses’s head can’t be gone–even though it’s not present this issue–and so it must return sometime.

Again, the most traditional arc in the series.

Ponticelli changes his style a little. His lines are muted. Coupled with Moses’s narration, Unknown Soldier feels very far away, very dreamlike. Moses’s narration brings the reader up to speed (it’s possibly a letter to his wife) and, basically, he’s loitered around the village where he found Paul a home.

Bad things happen, big and small, without getting much reaction from Moses. He’s dejected. Dysart and Ponticelli soften the focus on the grim realities of Uganda this issue… it’s grimmer because it’s about Moses. He’s running out of energy–there’s not a single action sequence in the entire issue–his quest has reached a lull.

In some ways, it’s the most traditional issue of Unknown Soldier–anyone could be experiencing the same mindset. It left me depressed in a different way than usual. Even Jack’s new life outlook depresses.

This issue is probably the most straightforward, action-packed thriller issue of the series so far.

And, wow, does Dysart really ruin any visceral thrill.

He manages to remove all the excitement from it, turning every success into failure, making every mistake a fated inevitability–Moses’s weaknesses doom him to those mistakes… and the issue ends with this startling image of the bandaged Moses downing some liquor from the bottle.

It’s a particularly strange ending because I have no idea what it means for the main character. Sure, Dysart’s established he and Jack work better as a team than Moses does alone, but there’s nothing else. It’s all, in the end, about Sera. She becomes the protagonist–Dysart moves her from subject to protagonist.

It’s a deft move and one maybe singular to the comic book medium. Like all the best work, Unknown Soldier makes one think about its form.

Eleven issues in and Dysart’s back to basics a little–it’s strange to refer to the return of the first six issue’s principal characters as “back to basics,” but I suppose it’s only natural in the era of story arcs and trade-waiting.

Moses, Sera, Jack and Margaret Wells are all back this issue, all of them about to collide. Here’s also the return of Moses’s white fiancée, the one he tossed over to return to his roots. The scenes with her and Sera are fantastic.

Dysart uses Sera to narrate the issue–one of my biggest comic book pet peeves is male writers using female characters as narrators. Dysart does the best job I’ve read in quite a while, if not ever.

But he’s also going cross culture, which might make it easier.

It’s another great issue.

In this issue’s conclusion, Dysart juxtaposes the bickering of adults–sure, it’s dramatic and violent, but they’re arguing over ideas–with children making friends with each other. It’s a profound little moment, creation versus destruction.

It might be the most profound moment in Unknown Soldier so far.

There’s a lot Dysart can go wrong with this issue, a lot of things he sets up and none of them fail.

The biggest possible failure is the face. He shows Moses talking to his wife. It’s a hallucination, but still… it’s possibly real. And Moses is fully healed, which raises the question of what is Dysart going to do with the face… it hadn’t occurred to me he might somehow fix it.

Hopefully, he doesn’t.

Then there’s Paul, the kid Moses rescued or captured a couple issues ago. Not to be glib, but I was worried he’d be Moses’s Robin.

He’s not.

Dysart gives ex-CIA guy almost the entire issue.

His name’s Jack, which I can’t believe I forgot. This issue is both prequel and sequel to the previous one, following Jack instead of Moses. What’s neat–I may have made this observation before–is how Jack is less easy for the reader to identify with than Moses. At least Moses has some mainstream to him. This issue fills in Jack’s backstory a bit–he’s been in Africa since 1965.

Moses might have had an iPod (Unknown Soldier being set in 2002), but Jack has not.

It’s actually a pretty quick read, since it’s almost all action, as Jack gets himself in some trouble and has to get out of it. There’s this wonderful moment at the end when Jack, who Dysart has narrating, reveals himself to both Moses and the reader (revealing different things).

Not a revolutionary move from Dysart, but it’s fine writing.

Hmm. I wonder if anyone’s told Angelina Jolie about Unknown Soldier, specifically the idea she’s help Africa a lot more by being murdered….

Jolie’s Unknown Solider stand-in shows up for a minute this issue, but the plot to kill her is introduced a little later. Moses has hooked up with some pan-African freedom fighters and it’s their idea.

The issue isn’t just about that meeting. Dysart delivers an action scene, then spends quite a bit of the issue showing what happens to a child soldier as he attempts to rehabilitate.

For Moses, most of the issue is spent moving, his “face” and reputation becoming known. There’s a scene where he fantasizes about his wife; while explicit, it’s rather sweet… even though I’m still unconvinced Moses the do-gooder didn’t just marry her for appearance.

My only quibble is the convenient appearance of the ex-CIA agent. It makes the setting seem tiny.