The Unknown Soldier

[Mr. Palmer]

Does anyone have any more info on this title? I know it's supposed to be released this year, but have no idea when.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Cash Lone]

I totally forgot about this one. I recall it looked cool. It's been so long since the previews that I forgot about it...

[Mr. Palmer]

I just talked with Joshua Dysart. We can expect the series in October.

[Ilash]

Oh I thought this was about the Unknown Soldier Vertigo mini from quite a few years ago. All I have to say is that if you haven't read that yet, pick it up as soon as humanly possible because it easily stands up as one of Ennis' greatest comics. It really is that good.

[Mr. Palmer]

I'll second the Ennis work on the mini. It was definitely great stuff. That final scene still resonates with me.

[Hulkamaniac]

Oh I thought this was about the Unknown Soldier Vertigo mini from quite a few years ago. All I have to say is that if you haven't read that yet, pick it up as soon as humanly possible because it easily stands up as one of Ennis' greatest comics. It really is that good.

totally agree with this statement. Get your hands on this mini ASAP ;)

[Bodach]

Check out the series by Jim Owsley and Phil Gascoine. An awesome series. It was made in the late 80's. About '89. The Unknown Soldier is presented as more of a rogue agent. Its brilliant. Please check it out. Its badass.:D

[Mr. Palmer]

Here's more info on the new series:

NRAMA: Are there any particulars about the series yet? Where does it take place? What time period? Can you give readers a taste of the plot?

JD: Absolutely. Our Unknown Soldier is an East African man named Lwanga Moses. His family fled Uganda months before Idi Amin fell in '79. So Moses grew up in the American immigrant experience and ended up attending Harvard medical school. In fact, he is far more American than he is African, something he is unconsciously ashamed of.

While growing up in the States, his home country was slipping into tribal civil war and went from being a poor country to being one of the poorest in the world. By '85, rebels had overthrown the Ugandan government. The new regime brought a massive shift towards peace and economic stability in the Southern region of the country. In the underdeveloped north, however, the rise of extremist Christian spiritual military leaders began, culminating in the formation of the Lord's Resistance Army, led by a very complex and cruel person named Joseph Kony who claimed to be possessed by spirits. Our series opens in 2002, Moses has decided that the nation of his birth needs him more than the West, so he's returned to Uganda to be a doctor and peace activist. How and why he becomes caught up in the war in the north, becoming the Unknown Soldier in the process, is what our first story arc is all about.

Keep in mind, by the time Moses is involved, 15,000 children have been kidnapped by rebel forces and forced to fight. Over one million displaced Acholis (the tribe in the north most affected by the conflict) have been pushed onto some 200 camps throughout Northern Uganda's "Acholiland". They have no running water and no electricity. There is no more an unknown war than the real-life struggle between the Ugandan Peoples Defense Force and the Lord's Resistance Army. No more an unknown tragedy than the interrupted culture of the Acholi people. This has gone on record as being the single longest running, most under-reported humanitarian conflict of our generation. That's where our story begins.

Currently, in the real world, Joseph Kony is in peace talks in Juba, Sudan and the conflict has ceased. So as soon as we were told it was safe here in the West, I flew there to do some research. I spent a month in Uganda, making it as far North as the Sudan border and as far west as the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). While in Uganda, I interviewed or spent time with Acholi religious leaders, various reporters and a Canadian documentary crew, a UPDF soldier who had been engaged in the north against the rebels and is now stationed in Iraq (Uganda has 5,000 soldiers in Iraq currently), two Lord's Resistance Army soldiers, several collage students in the south, Micro-financing bankers, NGO organizers and employees, countless missionaries, Acholi political leaders from opposing parities, members of Parliament, traditional Acholi musicians as well as several young hip-hop musicians in the south, two nature conservationists, many Acholi teachers and community leaders, a white peace corpse teacher who was stationed there from 1962 (the year of independence from the British) to 1971 (the year Amin took power), I talked to children in a school for war affected kids and various Ugandans from all walks of life, classes, tribes and geographic areas ranging from the South West Bugandan regions to the North Western Acholiland.

I walked alone through the slums of Kampala, I went to the IDP camps in the north, I went out into the bush to see the grass thatched huts the LRA kids were abducted from, I went to the clinics and the closed schools, saw the tree of peace that Betty Bigombe planted (the Acholi woman who almost halted the conflict in 1990, before President Museveni inexplicably fired her) and went to Severino Lukoya's church to see him speak (that's the father of Alice Lakwena who led the Holy Spirit Force against President Yoweri Museveni's military government in the late eighties). I stalked the World Food Program food drops and spied on the Landmine Action Programme meetings. I even climbed inside the original Israeli airliner that was hijacked and landed in Entebbe in 1976.

So there you go. We give you an Unknown Soldier for an Unknown War.

[the-wolf]

Personally, I'm really looking forward to it.


So was I until read what it was about. While the concept of "one man in the right place at the right time can make a difference" is a great one, IMO the Soldier needs the American angle to truly work.

I'm not even sure why. It just seems wrong to make it some guy from another country.

[dancj]

Joshua Dysart's name being attached puts me off this one. His Swamp Thing and Violent Messiahs were both pretty lame.

[Mr. Palmer]

Dysart's name is one attraction for me. I've only read his Swamp Thing run, but it was "wild" enough for me to give the Soldier a chance.

[Libaax]

So was I until read what it was about. While the concept of "one man in the right place at the right time can make a difference" is a great one, IMO the Soldier needs the American angle to truly work.

I'm not even sure why. It just seems wrong to make it some guy from another country.

For me its more poetic and fitting feel with The Unknown Soldier of a Unknown War


I look more forward to the new series cause of it.

I liked that the idea too that not every comic in this bizz has to have an american angle.

[the-wolf]

For me its more poetic and fitting feel with The Unknown Soldier of a Unknown War


I look more forward to the new series cause of it.

I liked that the idea too that not every comic in this bizz has to have an american angle.

I totally agree about the American angle; especially as it relates to superhero comics. Yet, the Unknown Soldier the comic book character, is undeniably about the ideals of what America "should be." At least to me, and that's coming from a Canadian's POV.

Besides, the Unknown War bit, which I admit is intriguing, could still be played. No one said the Soldier's gotta be in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[Libaax]

I have read only Ennis great mini who didnt say that the soldier had to be an american.

I dont mind if they change who he is if its done well.

Plus this african one doesnt have to be the only one. They can bring the back the old one ie the american one after this series.

[lboinyamouf4sho]

Check out the series by Jim Owsley and Phil Gascoine. An awesome series. It was made in the late 80's. About '89. The Unknown Soldier is presented as more of a rogue agent. Its brilliant. Please check it out. Its badass.:D

i'm interested, i dug the ennis series quite a bit like the others said before me.