Unknown Soldier (DC Comics)
[1] The character is named after The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia (which occasionally makes appearances in the series).The series takes place during World War II, and focuses on the missions of a United States intelligence agent code-named "The Unknown Soldier", whose head and face are so severely disfigured that he typically has it completely wrapped in heavy bandages.Other writers contributing stories to the original run included Bob Haney, Frank Robbins, Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie.Back-up features included "Enemy Ace" by Robert Kanigher and John Severin, and "Captain Fear" by David Michelinie and Walt Simonson.In Star Spangled War Stories #153 (reprinted from issue #36 with a new framing sequence), by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick, a soldier named Eddie Ray is introduced.However, the last panel, taking place on May 7, 1945 after the city's surrender, shows an American staff sergeant scratching his face in the Soldier's distinctive manner, suggesting that he survived.", Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent receives a mysterious note from an unidentified soldier that leads him to uncover a plan by a renegade Army officer to cause a nuclear holocaust.[11] In Swamp Thing #82 (January 1989), "Brothers In Arms Part Two", it is revealed that the Soldier did survive World War II, but his continued existence is kept top secret, having been officially declared dead by his superiors.The series features artwork by Alberto Ponticelli, Pat Masioni, Oscar Celestini, José Villarrubia, Dave Johnson; and lettering by Clem Robins.Moses and Sera work together to help the Acholi people of Northern Uganda, refugees caught in the middle of the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in Acholiland.Disturbed by these nightmares, the violence surrounding the field hospital and his treatment of various injuries caused by the fighting strip away his deteriorating moral compass.He finally breaks, running from a hospital camp in response to the alleged rape of a girl, where he comes in to contact with child rebel fighters.Moses takes it upon himself to rescue the remaining twenty, and ends up murdering even more child militants in the process, using some innate combat skills that he fails to understand the source of.Moses' rage at the corrupt systems at play in Uganda cause him to seek to destroy the Lord's Resistance Army and kill Joseph Kony, and the alter ego seizes upon this as a war for him to fight.It is only when a group seeking to assassinate a famous American actress and humanitarian, Margaret Wells, reaches Moses through Jack do the two finally cooperate.Though Moses' operation is successful, he is unable to reconcile his killing of innocent civilians with Sera and his past life, and leaves her behind once again to continue his battle against the LRA.After smuggling out a family besieged by raiders from their hiding spot on a hill, Moses makes a last stand there, fighting against scores of armed herders.However, Moses' exposure to violence in his medical camp effective triggered his combat conditioning, and his alter ego emerged as the next "Unknown Soldier", discarding morality to engage in eternal warfare.The Unknown Soldier, still locked in to war with Joseph Kony, confronts Sera once last time, finally telling her the man that she knew as Moses was completely gone.Sera appears, telling the Soldier/Moses that no matter who he is, she always loved him, and the two embrace; however, this pleasant vision is a dream, and it is shown that he had actually been shot in the head before ever reaching Kony.In a symbolic conclusion of his morality arc, it turns out that he didn't kill a single person in Kony's camp, instead throwing its garrison of child soldiers in to disarray, who assume there is a much larger force due to a huge amount of diversionary gunfire and explosives.In the epilogue, Sera remarries to a Muslim journalist who had covered the exploits of her husband as the Unknown Soldier: the two have several children and live as a family.The Unknown Soldier has appeared in the comic GI Combat written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti where he is in Afghanistan and is fighting for the Americans.