Blood of the Muse: Comic Break: Unknown Soldier #3 (Vertigo)

Comic Break: Unknown Soldier #3 (Vertigo)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Unknown Soldier
Issue: #3
Writer: Joshua Dysart
Artist: Alberto Ponticelli
32 pp. Vertigo. $2.99

Reviewed by Paul Stotts

“It is in that moment…that I make peace with hate.”—Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier #3

Hate has been hard to come by for Dr. Lwanga Moses, even in war torn Uganda where ugliness and evil threaten to overwhelm. Physicians swear an oath to heal, not hate, so Moses’ internal struggle is understandable. How can one call themselves a doctor yet still do violence? Like his biblical counterpart, Moses wishes to free his people from the tyranny and violence that enslaves them and lead them to a better life. But he seemingly cannot do this as a good man. Sometimes evil must be used to fight evil.

Moses has taken asylum at a Catholic orphanage for young girls in the countryside so he can recover from his wounds. An insurgent group—no more than mere boys—raids the orphanage, capturing the girls. Soldiers need wives—even if the soldiers (or girls) aren’t even teenagers yet. Mistaken for a priest, Moses resists the captors at first. But his inability to fight back eventually leads to his capture. Moses cannot free his people.

Writer Joshua Dysart explores the perversion of Christianity in the issue. How in the name of Christianity can hypocrisy live, how can one kill and still justify it. The raiders view themselves as leading the Christian life, killing in no way invalidates that in their mind. God is on their side. The only thing worse than evil is evil done in the name of good.

The best aspect of Unknown Solider has been Dysart and artist Alberto Ponticelli’s ability to involve the reader into the African experience. Reading the series, I feel like I’ve come to know more about Ugandan life. It’s fascinating because it’s not something I get to experience often. It’s fascinating for its foreignness, but engaging because of its heart. It makes you want to go out and change the world, to weed out despair and violence and to save souls.

We need these kinds of depictions of evil in literature, just so we never forget. Just so we never turn a blind eye to suffering. Just so we can heal. Very highly recommended reading.

Final Grade: 87 out of 100