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.

This issue is something of a texture piece. While it does further the story (Moses gets a radio and a translator by the end while starting the issue with neither), it’s really about someone else. The issue’s protagonist is a college student who returns home, only he’s returning home to a war zone. He makes the trip because of a pretty girl, of course.

The one issue aside is something of a Vertigo regular, something for between arcs. Dysart’s not recreating the wheel here, but he is turning in a fantastic issue, especially when taking into account he’s got a first person protagonist narrating the story and this guy’s from a completely different culture than the reader (and writer).

What’s strange is how unpredictably tame Dysart resolves the issue’s drama.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to find out what happens to the protagonist and his romances; the focus returns to Moses.

The conclusion to the first arc is beyond depressing. It’s not just depressing because it showcases the futility of Moses’s quest (before the quest even starts), but because everything is revealed, in the end, to be futile. The good Moses has done is all for nought.

And the character accepts it and moves forward because it’s his place to move forward, which dehumanizes him almost completely–but through a conscious decision.

Like I said, depressing.

Dysart uses the same approach–the varied points of view–this time, but it doesn’t provide any relief here. It makes the issue somewhat more digestible, with the most horrific events occurring off-page.

I haven’t read further (I was rereading before continuing) so I don’t know what comes next. I can’t wait to see, since it seems like the story (just like the first issue did) has stopped.

Unknown Soldier is a fantastic comic.