Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier #1-4

by Garth Ennis, Kilian Plunkett (Illustrator)

La guerra è un Inferno, e questo è il Diavolo
Un agente segreto senza un nome e senza un volto, conosciuto solo con il nome in codice di Unknown Soldier, ha compiuto per gli americani le missioni più sporche della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, sempre in prima linea. Poi, al termine del conflitto, è scomparso senza lasciare tracce.
Quarant'anni dopo, William Clyde, un agente dissidente della CIA, si imbarca in una vasta ricerca per trovare il leggendario sistematore. Districandosi nel campo minato della burocrazia, tra operazioni segrete e sporchi inganni, Clyde scopre una scia di corruzione, omicidi e menzogne che potrebbero condurlo alla sua sfuggente preda... solo per scoprire che forse non è che una pedina in un contorto gioco di intrighi.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, War, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical Fiction

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.

Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.

Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.

Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.

While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.

Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.

After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.

In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.

Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.

In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.

In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

During his long run on Preacher Ennis found time to publish a slew of miniseries like Unknown Soldier. Like the others I've read, there's nothing here that really impresses me. It feel pretty run-of-the-mill Ennis.

Kilian Plunkett provides the artwork. It feels pretty 90s to me. The coloring at times uses some digital effects and color gradients that date the book badly, but for the most part it's just dark and grimy. The lettering is particularly bad. I don't normally notice bad lettering - but here the font choice is odd and a lot of the lines don't fit properly in the speech bubbles.

A CIA agent gets sent down a dangerous rabbit hole discovering the exploits of a classified military legend The Unknown Soldier. The CIA doesn't want him to find out more, and sends out an assassin to kill the leads he's tracking down. But there's more going on behind the scenes that we don't really discover until the final issue. It's slowly revealed that the Unknown Soldier is responsible for numerous war crimes and travesties in the name of protecting democracy.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spietato e disperato, violento oltre il pulp e grondante romanticismo e tenerezza.
E, naturalmente, disprezzo per tutto ciò che è intrigo politico, cause di forza maggiore, il nemico del mio nemico è mio amico, il male minore, ci vuole un ladro per prendere un ladro e tutte le solite scuse usate dalle nazioni (U.S.A. in questo caso) per fare i propri affari.
Il soldato sconosciuto è una delle poche vere figure tragiche della letteratura contmporanea.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the Garth Ennis comics that I've read so far, this is hands-down my favorite. It has some substance to it, raising questions of politics, responsibility, ethics, and duty. At the same time, it is a well-crafted, thoroughly enjoyable suspense tale.

[Aidan]

My favorite Ennis stories are the fucked up spy conspiracies, and so while this isn’t his best work it’s my favorite type of story he can do. His observations are about as subtle as the US foreign policy he critiques, but he accurately points out how the US used it’s WWII opposition to Nazi Germany to then justify all it’s actions pre-9/11, and foster an unquestioning loyalty that Ennis’ protagonist explicitly calls out as “unstable.” I also one of the appeals to Ennis is how he draws comedy and horror out of simplifying, boiling the US global system of oppression down to one unforgivable secret deal or a cartoonish psycho in the CIA’s employ.

The story is not only an investigation into a history of American war crimes, but Ennis’ own tendencies as a writer, confronting both his impulses to hero worship trenchcoat-wearing bad-ass vets via a horrifying metaphorical version of the Unknown Soldier, and his tendency towards Mary Sues who motivate his male protagonists via Clyde’s imagined version of Wallace. The latter feels less intentional, particularly because the climax of this story rests on the beauty of a dead woman’s smile saving Clyde from becoming another unthinking arm of US brutality, but this does position the Unknown Soldier as a sort of nihilistic incel god of said brutality who just needs to meet a woman, which is a pretty funny takedown.

The cure to American imperialism is having a nice conversation with a pretty lady once in a while!

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly brutal investigation of the American Military experience Post World War II, couched in an espionage thriller. William Clyde is a CIA agent who gets put on the trail of the Unknown Soldier, a spook who has turned the tide of wars for decades, and not necessarily for the better. Clyde gets unexpected motivation to uncover the truth even as bodies are falling all around him. It's grim, especially the secrets he uncovers, and it pretty strongly interrogates the 'might makes right' military attitude on display, especially in light of political corruption. The art has aged and doesn't stand up quite as well today, but it serves the story suitably. It's a gut punch of a story, and the violence, especially the senseless nature of some of it, is hard to read. But it's also asking an important question, and reaches its conclusions strongly, in a well-articulated story. It's not entirely a pleasant read, but it is a worthwhile one, even two decades after its release.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One man, in the right place, at the right time, can make a difference. And win a war.

Another charity shop find and not something I would have picked up if it wasn't by Garth Ennis. I'm glad I did!

The unknown soldier, his face lost to enemy action, has always been there in the background of every major conflict since WW2. His purpose is to uphold the higher moral ground, by any means necessary. Backed, and hidden from history, by the CIA, he remained a mystery until some names were leaked to CIA Agent William Clyde.

Will he be able to discover the truth; will the CIA's hitman get to the names first? Find out in this collected version of the story.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I was expecting. The Unknown Soldier himself is only a bit player, an enigma to be tracked down and uncovered. The protagonist is a bit of a bumbler, an "apple pie and mom" naive do-gooder, who sets out to uncover the Soldier and, in doing so, finds the dark side of America's wartime history - Nicaragua, Vietnam, and more.

I enjoyed the story for the most part - the protagonist was alternately relatable (for his idealism) and humorous (for his "relationship" with his memory of a girl he barely knew). The Soldier's violent actions were horrifying and dramatic.

The big finale - the Hitler reveal - was too much though. As if the Soldier's actions weren't horrific enough, to undermine the story by suggesting that his government would've allowed Hitler to escape in order to facilitate the acquisition of some scientific mumbo jumbo --- the Soldier didn't need a loss of faith. The story was about his trying to find a replacement and the idealism of Agent Clyde versus the Soldier's violent, America-at-any-cost mentality.

Plunketts art is sloppy, but mostly effective.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, when the Unknown Soldier goes out for his corporate retreat, I'm guessing "tolerance for ambiguity" does not show up as one of his StrengthsFinder results. The man saw a concentration camp, went berserk, and therefore everything the U.S. military does is righteous and morally good. In this contemporary tale by the always-nasty Garth Ennis, our antihero's dark ops artistry sends a true boy scout, Agent Clyde, on a confusing mission with a high body count, lots of exploding heads, and the ghost of his recent crush riding shotgun. A wonderfully bleak tale devoid of both jingoistic military piety and red-diaper flag-mocking.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 5 out of 5]

De las trincheras editoriales del DC más puramente bélico, el personaje del Soldado Desconocido convivía de forma más sútil e independiente con el más puramente heroíco Sgt. Rock y su batallón. Algo que realmente representa una función hasta metacomiquera en cómo este personaje debe mantenerse en el anonimato y secretismo absoluto mientras realiza sus operaciones de infiltración y escaramuzas para realmente cortar (sic.) de raíz los conflictos armados.

De la década 90" de Vértigo surge esta miniserie que trasladaba a este personaje a un contexto actual que igualmente plantaría una óptica total al pasado entre guerras que se narró en sus años editoriales originales. El autor designado fue un Garth Ennis que por aquel entonces ya estaba cumpliendo sobremanera con la editorial con su particular saga PREDICADOR. Teniendo esto en cuenta, se puede intuír cómo esta miniserie presenta un estilo más "meditado" y depurado de lo que Ennis acabaría por dejarse llevar en sus relatos bélicos ya sea con el Castigador de Marvel Comics o cualquier nuevo personaje que se le sigue ocurriendo para incidir en su particular anti belicismo que se muestra por la oda total a la hiper violencia.

Un apocado joven agente de la CIA es designado a un pesado trabajo de oficina por mantener sus valores humanos impolutos a expensas de las frías demandas de sus superiores que priorizan el trabajo eficaz por encima de las vidas humanas. Lo que parece solo un trabajo de entrevista y redacción de informes rutinarios, comienza a intuir una gran conspiración que seguir manteniendo en secreto haciendo callar de forma definitiva a cualquiera, como William Clyde. Quien ya ha decidido seguir este hilo hasta poder descubrir quién es El Soldado Desconocido.

Esta miniserie se presenta en un ejercicio argumental y conceptual estupendo de hacer que un personaje nuevo e ingenuo como el lector (sobre todo no conocedor del anti héroe que da título a la obra), vaya reuniendo cada fragmento posible de lo que supone este personaje clave pero secreto de los conflictos armados donde se ha inmiscuido Estados Unidos en nombre de la Justicia y sus Ciudadanos. Garth Ennis no mitifica al personaje cubierto de vendas, y ese es otro gran acierto. SI bien sí que mantiene unos cuantos elementos y detalles que hacen sobresalir un perfil tirando a super humano y que inevitablemente conforman una pura leyenda, la historia afianza lo terrenal por encima de todo. Lo cual lleva a cuestionarse de todas las formas posibles los actos de violencia que se realizan aún en tiempos de guerra total y por el bien común. ¿Qué nación puede sonreír tras haber rellenado zanjas enteras con cadáveres ya sean de soldados o civiles? ¿Cómo se puede tratar de atribuir los actos más oscuros y terribles del patriotismo a un solo individuo aunque se le niegue su propia identidad?

Por supuesto, el desarrollo de la miniserie se realiza en unos términos y tropos bastante seguros de una (anti)investigación y amenaza constante a la vida de Clyde con un personaje femenino bastante fuera de los márgenes habituales que se agradece que se presente sin ninguna excusa moral a su profesión y personalidad.

Killian Plunket es un dibujante perfecto para esta historia. Sus diseños y composiciones muestran un deje "feísta" que refuerza mucho el leitmotiv de la historia.

Sorpresa total desenterrar (sic.) este trabajo que parece tan anecdótico, pero que ya tengo en cuenta como de lo mejor que he podido leer de Garth Ennis.

[MonumentToDecency · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unknown Soldier looks like a military story about war and soldiers and guns and angry stuff that angry people, who wrap themselves in their nations flag proclaiming 'we are great again' while waving bibles and guns at people who are unlike them, would enjoy but it is a philosophical analysis of the morality of war and blind unwavering love for country.

Unknown Soldier found it's real feet right near the end, which at 100 pages isn't too far from the beginning. It is very interesting but suffers from the disease of brevity, it ought to be longer and bigger. Unknown Soldier never really gets the chance to explore itself and lay it's analysis wide open, most probably due to being constrained to those meagre few pages (around 25 pages per original issues #1-4).

Unknown Soldier makes some very important statements about the almost divine and absolute moral rights claimed by nations in their military actions and heavy-handed big brothering of (should I say at) other nations. Yet, the statements Unknown Soldier makes about morality and patriotism are mostly glossed over and, consequently, lost because the novel has to move along quickly so that it can resolve in such a short time.

Ennis does his best work in long form and this could really benefit from being a longer but still limited duration series.

This is worth reading, definitely, whether an Ennis fan or not, whether you take away it's central message or just want a fun tale of an angry man being 'chased down' by a CIA knob.

My rating: 4.5 desecrated graves out of 5
Apart from points lost for length I cannot fault the writing or art in Unknown Soldier.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

O Soldado Desconhecido é, como várias propriedades da DC Comics, um personagem do passado da editora que foi revitalizado por um escritor britânico. o escritor, no caso é o irlandês de Glasgow, Garth Ennis, num cara que tem predileção por escrever quadrinhos de guerra. Quando Ennis escreve quadrinhos de guerra, ou ele faz um trabalho muito muito bom, ou muito muito ruim. O caso deste encadernado, infelizmente, é o segundo. Talvez ele faça alguma sentido para os estadunidenses e para os britânicos que são mais belicosos que nós e tem sua história manchada por conflitos armados. Mas, sinceramente, a história não me captou, nem mesmo a tal reviravolta no número final da minissérie. Os desenhos de Kilian Plunkett também não colaboram muito, com suas diagramações de páginas verticais demais e também o layout bastante desajustado em que ele desenvolveu a narrativa de Soldado Desconhecido. A série viria a continuar como uma série regular por outros artífices na Vertigo, anos depois. Soube que ela foi bastante elogiada. Essa minissérie, vendida em encadernado por aqui, já foi publicada em duas edições por outra editora, a Tudo em Quadrinhos/Atitude e a tradução daquela era bem pior que a dessa, deixando a leitura ainda mais desagradável. Eu fico imaginando como deve ter sido essa série regular do Soldado Desconhecido, porque se for ineglutível como essa daqui, a verdade é que ela não foi feita para povos como o dos brasileiros.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain…

Unknown soldier by Garth Ennis reimagines the un in own World War II hero in a modern era of conspiracies, an untrustworthy us government, and brutal foreign policy…

I’m a big fan of old dc war comics and unnnown soldier was probably my favorite. Unfortunately, what would become of the heroes of World War II by the time the 90s rolled around?

Folks often forget that vertigo initially started out as an attempt revamp various older dc properties with a different tint…and this was a Preacher/Hellblazer era Garth Ennis attempt to reintroduce the Unknown Soldier in a world where the wars he fought became far dirtier and gray than those of World War II.

It starts as a fine conspiracy arc with an idealist CIA agent directed to interview a wwii veteran. Clues someone “unknown soldier” and the murder of a colleague lead him further as he unwraps the mystery of “the soldier” and his activities across several conflicts of the second half of the 20th century…with a rising body count and eventually a final encounter with this shadowy operative.

It’s not pretty…but for those who loved 90s conspiracy stories like me, it scratches a certain itch and makes some sense if you know anything about he character’s origins.

Sadly, Ennis hasn’t written stories like this in a long time…

[Brendan Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The range that Garth Ennis has as a writer is incredible. How he can write Jimmy’s Bastards, an absurd balls to the wall crazy version of James Bond and also write something as complex/ nuanced as Unknown Solider I’ll never know.

I loved it. You can tell when it comes to these military comics he Really cares. This was a brilliant look at patriotism, morals in war and Ennis fav theme of course faith in something. MAsterfully explores all these themes set against the backdrop of a mystery that will have the reader invested from issue 1. The imagined history/ whole premise is intriguing and the reveal has lots of payoff. In terms of Ennis war comics it’s either this or Sara for my fav. Def high up on the Ennis/ Vertigo list.

[Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one recommended by the lovely Canary Comics guys, Unknown Soldier is brilliantly dark and gritty.
Centred on one man's hunt for the Unknown Soldier, Ennis takes a hard look at the CIA's history of involvement in the rest of the world's problems (usually making things worse) as our hero William Clyde.
Part historical espionage tale part thriller, Ennis grabs you by the throat from the off and doesn't let go until the final page has been reluctantly turned.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Ennis's better works

I'm not a huge Garth Ennis fan, but I liked this pretty well. It's basically a critique of American postwar foreign policy, lightly disguised as a spy thriller. I think it felt more hard hitting in the world in which it was published than in the more cynical, weary world of today, but still worthwhile. Killian Plunkett nails the art and those Tim Bradstreet covers are amazing.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly thoughtful and serious dark stuff from Garth Ennis (the last few Ennis books I read were all really goofy.) This was incredibly good. I often wish Ennis would approach other topics with the intensity and reverence he does for war stories. Moving on to the continuing Vertigo series, I wonder if it's as good as this...

[Riku Kauhanen · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was OK"

[Nicholas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garth continues to be a grown adult who thinks he is a dark and edgy teenager.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unknown Soldier

This book is great. The man behind the war hidden in plain sight, fighting injustice, never getting credit for each victory.

[Keith Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mysterious, full of action and pretty damned cool.

Makes me wanna read the older Unknown Soldier stuff.

[Steve Howells]

Quick read by one of my favorites writers Garth Ennis.

[Emil Vartušek · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Doctor Doom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to enjoy this as I have read this character back in the Joe Kubert days but the gutter language came quickly and without cause or any indication that it would end.

[John Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garth Ennis does not write a warm
and fuzzy book, filled with trite comforting
cliched stories.
Ennis knocks you to the ground then
proceeds to put the boot in.
Savage, brutal,
intense and brilliant.
This book is about the American
moral imperative to protect it's
national interest at all costs.
And how the belief that
America is always right. That we automatically
possess the moral high ground.
What does unquestioning loyalty look like?
It's not pretty. Nor are the
compromises that it requires.

[Nate]

The Unknown Soldier was one of the stranger characters from DC’s war comics back in the day. He was a badass who wore bandages on his face and could disguise himself as virtually anyone. Garth Ennis takes the Soldier’s story fifty years into the future, where a CIA agent is tracking his post-WWII activities and runs into a conspiracy in the process. I thought this was solid. The mystery is intriguing, the story well-paced and suspenseful in parts. I like the flashbacks to different wars over the century, and how the Unknown Soldier is this enigma even among soldiers who fight with him. Negatives: the ending is kind of a letdown, and the coloring and inking are less than stellar. All in all, not the best of Ennis' war revival series, but decent enough.

[Joe Kucharski · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veredicto real: 3 y medio, por momentos arañando el 4. Motivo por el que termina en 3: la conclusión, el "backstage" y toda la mierda que sale a flote en el cuarto y último capítulo es espectacular, pero por momentos los tres primeros capítulos huelen a relleno. Y si bien el camino es bastante interesante, es recién al final que la historia toma forma definitiva, prolijita y con más golpes de impacto que una telenovela. Pero de los buenos. La misantropía de Azzarello en la que me estuve sumergiendo en estos días obtiene su reflejo antibelicista acá de parte de Ennis. Aunque todas las palabras patrióticas e hipocritoides las pone en la boca de un interesantísimo y polémico -por ser benignos- personaje estadounidense, creo que el mensaje anti imperialista es bastante claro, y supongo que en su momento le debieron llover un par de palos por su "antiamericanismo". El dibujante tiene un trazo muy sucio y a la vez prolijo que refuerza con bastante acierto las sensaciones del guion. El conjunto se deja leer con mucho gusto y deja con moderadas ganas de más.
Y para cerrar volviendo al final, que insisto que es lo que más me gustó, lamento que no fuera un poco más ambiguo. Unos ojos celestes en vez de rojo habrían dicho mucho y hubieran dejado la puerta abierta a alguna continuación no demasiado rebuscada. Pero, caprichitos al margen, es un muy buen cierre con broche de plata adornado con oro.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garth tries to update as well as explain the famous DC comics famous WW2 master of disguise with mixed results.
The idealistic government man that is our hero is a likable and interesting character and the mystery is intriguing, as well as the attempt to weave the Unknown Soldier into actual history, but the pay off is weak, a bit rushed and really doesn't quite work and then leaves us hanging.

After reading it, you want some more answers, but at the same time, I didn't really enjoy Garth's take on the Soldier, so I'm glad there was no sequel and I'd prefer to track down back issues of the old comic instead.

Most of the attempts to update or make these old characters 'realistic', just tend to take the fun out of the character and their adventures.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great graphic novel, as one person said, it was kind of shallow on the character depth, they could have been developed more and I almost feel that I was shortchanged because of it. However, that aside, it does a great job of wrecking your guts and by placing the Unknown Soldier in real historic events, is a great teaching/learning opportunity. It's not a book for heros, it's a book of shame and self-doubt. The phrase it ends with and the great art that accompanies it says it all. Rich storytelling, classic plotline (yet not trite), and gut wrenching. My mind visualizes Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now" whispering: "the horror.... the horror..." Two thumbs up for me. Not a masterpiece but really great work.

[Clint Putman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garth Ennis' "Unknown Soldier" is a great read. A CIA agent is given a list of names, which sends him on a quest to discover the identity of a black-ops operative known only as "The Unknown Soldier" Can he piece together the mystery before he's caught by those trying to kill him?

Lovers of Ennis' work will enjoy this book. Ennis indulges in his love for war stories and a combination of conspiracy theories with a dose of Ennis' traditional heart-felt characterizations. An interesting trek of history with intensity and heart.