The late nineties were a high time for writer Garth Ennis. Alongside his creator-owned work, Ennis was enjoying incredible success and praise for both of his monthly titles, the excessive-yet-macho PREACHER and criminally-underrated HITMAN, with the latter debatably the best representation of his regular, on-going work outside of HELLBLAZER. During this time, Ennis penned a four-issue tale for Vertigo that reinvigorated a semi-forgotten World War II ghoul called the Unknown Solider. The end result being one of Ennis’ best, and now severely-overlooked, tales of his professional career.
UNKNOWN SOLIDER updates this cool-ass bandaged troop and places him as a hidden but direct force in most American conflicts beginning with Dachau in World War II and then into Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, and Nicaragua. CIA Agent William Clyde accidentally begins working a case and the more involved he becomes, the closer he gets to this hidden living legend.
Along with gorgeous art from Killian Plunkett and photo-realistic covers by Tim Bradstreet, Ennis presents more than just a series of war stories, rather, he shows one narrative about a soldier’s mad quest in the name of blind patriotism and supreme loyalty. A solider that will truly do anything that is needed for the cause of good, the way of right, and the ever-lovin’ USA. This is a haunted Captain America who never slipped into suspended animation and instead went crazy mainlining on the strong drug of nationalism fed to him by cryptic handlers. Ennis, an Irishman, shows a scary, all-too real side of America, one that desperately needs a symbolic solider to lead the fight, especially now in the 21st century.