In some ways, this issue is one of Unknown Soldier’s least depressing–Paul gets a good ending (at least for this issue) and Moses gets a chance at some relief. But it’s somehow even more depressing, because Dysart gives Moses this chance to reflect, to think about himself and what he has done and will do.

It’d actually make a great end to the series, because it’s so open. I know there’s another issue but even with that knowledge, the issue is still rough. Even with all the terrible things Dysart shows, the hardest parts of Unknown Soldierare when the reader gets to empathize with Moses, when the series becomes grounded in the reader’s reality.

This issue, in a few pages, is incredibly powerful. Without trying, Dysart and Masioni are pushing the limit of how affecting a comic book–which is comfortable in its artifice–can be.

It’s profound.

I think I was unprepared for Unknown Soldier after the lighter fare I’ve been reading lately.

Dysart’s doing a two-parter following up on the kid Moses brought to the school. Now, I’m assuming Dysart researched it, so when the school sets the kids loose on each other in a war game–which really messes some of them up–it’s real and terrifying. And then it’s tragic.

The art perfectly captures the lost childhoods; not just the child soldiers, but the child mothers. It makes the whole thing devastating, especially since Paul (the kid) has this girl he’s friends with and it’d be so easy to write them a happy ending in one’s mind.

But there’s no room for it.

Though Dysart makes a lot of room. The pacing in this issue is particularly strong–it follows Paul from school, to running, to finding Moses again.

It’s stunningly, horrifically brilliant.