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Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier, Vol. 2: Easy Kill

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Welcome to Northern Uganda. In 2002, it's a place where tourists are hacked to death with machetes, 12-year-olds with AK-47s wage war, and celebrities futilely try to get people to care. Moses Lwanga is a pacifist doctor caught at the center. But when his life is threatened, Moses suddenly realizes he knows how to kill all too well. What is this voice telling him the only way to fix what's wrong with the country is by slaughtering those responsible? What is Moses' connection to another past bandage-wrapped warrior?

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

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122 people want to read

About the author

Joshua Dysart

389 books95 followers
I write comic books, graphic novels and novels. I'm a three time Eisner nominee, two time Glyph award winner, New York Times bestseller, a recipient of The Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year award, and have been in competition twice at Angoulême.

I've worked on Hellboy, Swamp Thing, & Conan the Barbarian; I co-wrote a graphic novel with Neil Young; I helped restart Valiant Entertainment; and I've done on-the-ground research in Uganda (2007), Iraq (2014), & South Sudan (2016), writting graphic novels about war and famine in those regions.

Goodnight Paradise came out in 2018 with long time co-creator Alberto Ponticelli and is a murder mystery set in the houseless population of Venice Beach, Ca.

My first novel (novella - it's only 100 pages) has dropped. It combines my love of slasher horror, Agatha Christie fair-play mysteries, construction sites, and bugs. It's called BROOD X. Buy it wherever trash genre books are sold!

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5 stars
136 (32%)
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197 (47%)
3 stars
64 (15%)
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17 (4%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for William Thomas.
1,231 reviews2 followers
February 3, 2011
It is a polarizing thing, violence. Some people would view even accurate portrayals of violence as a negative, seeing it in many ways a source for more violence. Others would see acts against women in art as mysoginistic on the writer's part, instead of how it fits into the story or portrays a real life act. More would say that it is disgusting or filthy. Some censor it. Some worship it. Some crave it. The idea of it evokes things to people that love or charity or kindness never can. But I feel that love and charity and kindness can be born from it.

And I am not saying that you will find this book to be kind or charitable. It is an unrelenting and unforgiving portrayal of an Africa that most people turn a blind eye to. It is a portrayal of the disorder, the violence, the attrocity, the rape, the plunder and on and on, being committed by rebel factions and governments alike. Very specifically this is a story based on the history of the war between the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and the UPDF (Ugandan's Peoples Defense Force) in Uganda. It is also pulled, visually, from an artist's experiences in the Congo- further North than where this story takes place- by the name of Patrice Masioni Makamba, who tells his own little story in the afterword about being arrested by child soldiers and witnessing violence firsthand in his own region. It is not easy to read, this book, because of the graphic nature. Dysart has done his homework. Unfortunately, there is no real Unknown Soldier to act as a Robin Hood or a Batman in the region, where Dysart inserts him to act as a punisher- a perpetrator of violence against those who would commit violence.

And the book gives us no answers on a moral level, gives us no justification of the violence. It does not seek to vindicate it's own "hero" nor does it seem to side with either faction. It takes you on a journey through the area, a handful of real stories interwoven into the fiction of the Unkown Soldier. A lot of the history of the region and the war interwoven into it's own fictional plot. Be warned that this book would have you make your own choices, and wants you to react to the violence within it. Because that is all this book knows. Even in the beauty of it's illustration, it is a wartorn and violent mess. And it will have you researching the history of the area and trying to find anything about the war in Uganda. And it just may depress you. Or it may just make you turn your blind eye. Like Schrodinger's Cat, if you don't open the box, if you don't observe it, it isn't there and anything is possible.

When Garth Ennis completed a run on a book with this same name, I thought of it as a masterpiece of violence. With this ongoing series from Joshua Dysart, I feel that it has become a series of movements in an opera. Go on. Go read this. Read this book and marvel at it's beauty. It is one of the most gorgeously illustrated graphic novels I have ever read, as well as a gorgeously written piece of fiction that could be modern history. Read it and see where you wind up on that polarized pectrum.
Profile Image for Zedsdead.
1,384 reviews83 followers
December 25, 2014
Call it four and a half stars. Easy Kill picks up right where the first volume left off. This time, when he's not rescuing innocents from the brutal Ugandan civil war, Dr. Lwanga becomes embroiled in a plan to murder Angelina Jolie--I mean "Margaret Wells"--to further African revolutionary causes. It's an excellent work of modern historical fiction, though it starts to get a bit weird at the end; hard to tell exactly what's real and what isn't. The questions about what happened to turn Lwanga into skilled counterrevolutionary without his knowledge go largely unanswered.

Volume 2 ends with a fascinating 7 page history of the actual war that's being portrayed in the book. There's also an Afterword by this volume's illustrator, Pat Masioni, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (he did a terrific job, by the way).
Profile Image for Aidan.
438 reviews4 followers
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December 9, 2025
I’m so into this. This series starts with Moses becoming this brutal bad ass who doesn’t have qualms in killing the child soldiers indoctrinated into the LRA, and this volume sees all the guilt catch up with him. The foregrounding of the defector Paul, and Moses’ mission to get him home is my favorite story so far.

And keeping up the espionage feel, every ally remains a potential enemy, as Moses struggles to break away from manipulation and find someone who actually wants to help the Acholi. The radical liberation group seems like a promising start, but Moses correctly picks out that their desire for Western involvement is antithetical to their supposed, and as we learn basically fabricated, values. If there was a true Ugandan/pan-African liberation organization active here there may be some hope, but every effort is quashed by interference, incompetence, and greed, often driven by foreigners or Uganda’s own urban upper class. Moses gives an angry speech about how Uganda needs real investment, but the money and opportunity keep coming with strings attached to some violent scheme that Moses’ mysterious training makes him all too suited for.
Profile Image for Frédéric.
2,020 reviews85 followers
December 31, 2016
Still raw and violent but the plot gets beyond the Punisher-like tone of the first volume.
Another faction gets into play with pure terrorism tactics to draw attention. Incidentally, the use of media is questioned, as well as the need of Africa to create its own "heroes" instead of counting on any western relay.

The cast is more defined here : the CIA man and the white actress are fleshed up whereas Mose's wife role and personality are developed as a morally strong character being more than simply "the-wife-of".

I can't imagine this series is going to end well but I'll be there to make sure.
Profile Image for BMK.
492 reviews2 followers
December 11, 2011
Big drop off in quality from the first one. Shame.
Profile Image for Friz Allen.
85 reviews1 follower
July 9, 2017
A much needed follow up to the explosive intro. Expands upon some questions asked after completing the first, but enough drama to keep you hooked. And this one is just now showing it's upper-echelon politics side. So I'm hip af for 3 and 4.
Profile Image for Timo.
Author 3 books17 followers
August 27, 2023
Not nearly as moving and intense as the previous edition. The way the story was told was annoyingly fractured and after awhile I did not even care if they get Wells killed or not. Although Howl is a very cool and interesting character, much more so than the main dude himself.
Profile Image for Michael.
3,396 reviews
April 3, 2018
I missed v.1, but v.2's very intriguing. Lots of violence, lots of regret, lots of anger. Decent but not great art. Curious to see how this one unfolds.
Profile Image for James.
125 reviews105 followers
February 26, 2012
Escalation. This is a ridiculous comparison, but I'm going to make it anyway: back in 1977, when I saw Star Wars, I was eleven years old that summer, but I had already read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and I enjoyed the visuals and the action and the characters and the speed--the velocity!--of that movie, but even then, at the age of eleven, I thought, well, that was fun, but that Force stuff is really stupid, and I wasn't really all that compelled. (I really wasn't--I guess you kind of had to know me back then.)

Three years later, I was older but not really much wiser, and The Empire Strikes Back will always remain, for me, a high water mark in what a sequel can truly accomplish, because that film took what had come before and kicked everything I didn't like or felt moribund about OUT and put a whole lot of crazy dark mind-expanding mess IN. It was eye opening.

More than thirty years later, I'm typing on a computer a bunch of words that I will soon send out into the world, for better or worse, and Star Wars has been sequelled into irrelevancy, but storytellers have moved on, and gotten wiser, and learned to craft compelling story arcs . . .

The first book of Unknown Soldier was all about the set-up: the characters, the main character, Uganda, the violence, the horror, the brutality.

This second book is a definitive ratcheting up of the tension and the violence (I didn't think the violence could be more overwhelming than it was in the first book but I was wrong) and the stakes involved for the characters, and it's just tremendous.

And there is a wonderful note from one of the artists, as well as a very insightful and brief essay surveying the tragic history of the Ugandan "nation"--the imposition of borders, the religious fervor, all the things you may have known but still need to learn.

And . . . one of the many distinct and powerful advantages of choosing to tell a story, especially a graphic story like this one, in a graphic narrative, is that it is so simple and yet so very complex, at the same time. Choices in mood and camera angles are as easy to change as pen nibs. But here, ah here, in this arc, we see how drawing what you cannot fully explain can be used also as a method to heal, within a story of how nearly impossible it will be to end such internecine conflict.

I TOLD you to read this. Why haven't you started yet?
Profile Image for Jeff Lanter.
727 reviews11 followers
November 18, 2012
I had high expectations when I picked up the second volume of Unknown Soldier and thankfully, it delivered. The story is just as unflinching (if not not more so) than the first volume. The protagonist is also one of the most realistic and in-depth examinations of what it means to be a vigilante "hero." Moses tries to do the right thing, but in the morally complicated world that we live in, that is never as easy as it sounds. To make matters worse, everything is escalated in this volume which makes for great reading. For me, there is a moment at the last couple pages that was not only surprising, but also heart-wrenching. There were other powerful parts, but this one was such a surprise and yet so human that it nearly brought me to tears. The art continues to be fantastic in this series and perfect for the tone of the book. I also appreciated the essay on Uganda and Kony in the back. That was useful information for me. If you want an idea of what is going on with Kony and why he should be stopped, you need to ignore the suspect viral videos and read this series instead. It will break your heart, but you will emerge as someone who better understands the depths of suffering on our planet.
Profile Image for Nnedi.
Author 155 books18k followers
April 18, 2010
I absolutely LOVE this series.

Moses Lwanga is an awesome character. When I think of war torn nations like Uganda (during the time of this story, at least), I always wonder how one can prevent oneself from getting swept into the madness. Pacifism can be easier said than done in certain situations.

Lwanga's firm belief that Africans should be able to solve their own problems rather than relying on aid from the West, even after he witnesses and participates in terrible atrocities...that is damn good well-informed unflinching storytelling. Many of the scenes were absolutely heart-wrenching. The children...oh, the children. This indeed is a believable story of how a pacifist can get caught up. Moses' wife is a force in herself. All the characters are. And the art is AWESOME.

On top of all this, the last few chapters are drawn by Patrice Masioni Makamba, a native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It warmed my heart to see Vertigo not only telling African stories, but reaching out to artists on the continent, too. Yes.

I cannot wait for the next installment. I'm utterly hooked. Bravo, Dysart. Bravo.
Profile Image for Arnold.
72 reviews26 followers
May 27, 2010
There's something going on here that was what I thought lacked in the very first issue (chapter) in Vol. 1. It felt rushed--the first issue-chapter did--and the pay off was unearned, i.e., what followed didn't feel like the consequences of what happened. Looking back, the problem was/is that that's somewhat the point. He suffers from some form of PTSD (which mirrors the PTSD of all those involved in the war - the child soldiers, displaced villagers etc etc - and makes this version of Unknown Soldier pretty awesome) but he doesn't know why and it's partly his journey to discover this and also to fight it. Still, the first issue-chapter could have been better. The rest of Vol. 1 is pretty solid, I gave it a 4.1 and rounded it down to 4.
I give Vol. 2 a 4.5 and round it up to 5. The reason is this: despite everything going on (and a lot is going on), the character development is incredible, the pacing is just right and every decision is a reaction that makes perfect sense in the world created by Dysart and his artists.

I haven't enjoyed a political comic as much since DMZ Vol. 2 (with the possible exception of Waltz with Bashir).
Profile Image for David.
15 reviews1 follower
March 21, 2011
Dysart, along with artists Ponticelli and Masioni, maintains the steller quality of this series with the second volume of Unknown Soldier. The story continues to delve into Moses Lwanga's mixed psyche and also continues to unflinchingly portray scenes from the crisis in Uganda.

While the stories in this series are nearly unparalleled among graphic novels, I think my favorite part of this volume was reading Dysart's notes on the Lord's Resistance Army and Masioni's reflections on working on the series. Dysart passion about the story and the plight of the victims of the LRA's actions comes through not only through the series, but also in the depth of his research. Masioni, the artist on the second story presented in this volume who is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who lives in France, brought his insight and unique style to his art. His reflections were a touching read after finishing the volume.

So far, this entire series gets my highest recommendation!!
Profile Image for David.
179 reviews8 followers
April 28, 2012
I was particularly pleased with this series, especially because it focuses on a delicate political and cultural situation- the war in Uganda, which has migrated now to the Congo and the Sudan. Where children are forced to be soldiers as a matter of daily fact, and whole peoples are marched about from camp to camp to seek refuge from the attacks from any and all sides, with little help from any government. All in the name of various religous groups (christianity in the case of Uganda and the Congo, though Islam is making a push in the Sudan now, that is not discussed in these volumes, which focus on Uganda)... it's mind-boggling how this is a very real, horrible situation, yet this graphic novel is a little bit.. 'super hero' about the way the main character pursues the plot and his ultimate goal of ending the wars... Very nicely done- but the violence might put some folks off, so be forwarned.
Profile Image for Lynne.
1,101 reviews
January 23, 2014
My consciousness is raised: about the Acholi people of Uganda/ Democratic Republic of Congo / Sudan and the destructive Lord's Resistance Army under brutal warlord Joseph Kony. I understood better (than I did for book 1 in the series, Haunted House) the graphic presentation of the interior struggle of the bandaged soldier, the role of nightmares, the movement back and forth in time. From Wikipedia: The storyline took place in Acholiland Uganda in 2002 during the war between the Lord's Resistance Army and Ugandan People's Defence Force. Dysart spent a month in Northern Uganda for research.[1][2] Issue #1 of Unknown Soldier was released in October 2008. The book was a monthly. It was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2009.[3] and won a Glyph Comics Awards for Best cover. In 2010 Unknown Soldier won the Glyph for STORY OF THE YEAR.
Profile Image for Rick.
116 reviews1 follower
June 23, 2011
This wasn't nearly as solid as the first volume. This volume has two distinct story arcs. The first which speaks to the classic moral question of whether or not it is permissible to perform an immoral act for the greater good. I felt that this was a well developed arc and I was able to continue my investment in the mind of our main character.

The second arc, however, was a complete letdown. It felt a bit schmaltzy, didn't have the emotional punch of the first arc, and came off as quite heavy-handed. I realize that the author is trying to make some good points about the situation in Uganda with this series... but don't hammer home so bluntly.
Profile Image for Daryl.
685 reviews20 followers
October 30, 2013
Not quite as powerful as volume 1, but maybe only because it was no longer "new." The fill-in art on the final two chapters/issues by Pat Masioni, while quite acceptable, doesn't have the impact of Ponticelli's more ragged, crowded, sketchy work. Dysart wisely branches out his story to include and focus on other characters. I was particularly interested in the story of somewhat-fallen CIA agent Jack Lee Howl, as well as that of former child soldier Paul. Still looking forward to the next two volumes.
Profile Image for Sarah.
142 reviews9 followers
September 21, 2016
The general feel of this volume is truly depressing. Moses is faced not only with his inner demons, but also haunted by the dozens (if not hundreds) of LRA soldiers (children) that he has been forced to kill in retaliation, not to mention being hounded by LRA and the government.

Heavy subject matter, and again, no punches pulled in the fighting scenes. An incredible conclusion on redemption though, and a poignant message regarding the power of the media on an international scale.

4 1/2 stars.
Profile Image for Neil McCrea.
Author 1 book43 followers
September 6, 2016
My father has done a fair amount of aid work in Eastern & Central sub-Saharan Africa. Over the years I've gleaned enough information from him on the state of affairs in those countries that most American fiction that takes place in Uganda, Tanzania, the DRC, or other nearby countries sends me into an eyerolling fit of disappointment.

Who would have thought that a DC reboot of an obscure war comic character would get it right? Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Mohammed  Abdikhader  Firdhiye .
423 reviews7 followers
November 17, 2011
A horrofic,important series about a forgotten war,the things that happen to civillians in civil wars that look like it wont ever end.

I was impressed by how the creators was able to make the story so gripping,strong,emotional for so many issues. The horrible things that happen can get old fast if you dont handle it well.
Profile Image for Adam Oyster-Sands.
Author 1 book5 followers
April 1, 2010
This is the second volume of a graphic novel dealing with the longest running war in Africa. It's a pretty interesting look at the conflict and this volume brought up some issues that I deal with as one who tries to be a practitioner of non-violence; mainly, is it ok to kill an innocent person if their death will save many lives?
Profile Image for Joey Heflich.
344 reviews18 followers
July 30, 2014
This is one of those books that doesn't do well in a vacuum. It presents a layered bunch of moral quandaries without really resolving any of them, so you just have to discuss this with everyone around you once you read it. Wish I had read and talked about this when it was in floppies; this type of long, hard look is what I felt DMZ lacked as it went on.
Profile Image for Mike.
1,592 reviews149 followers
November 27, 2010
Fascinating tales, people from a literal world away from my own experience, and much like the world of Aaron's Scalped, I feel like I'm inhabiting that world quite completely. Very helpful history outlined at the back.
Profile Image for Sonic.
2,400 reviews66 followers
January 29, 2011
Amazing!~
This is both an enjoyable (true) Horror story, as well as a soul nurturing look at what is going on over in Uganda.
One is hesitant to emphasize either aspect of this book too much.
The writing and art are simply brilliant!
Highly recommended.
263 reviews3 followers
May 28, 2012
Volume #2 of 'Unknown Soldier' compiles issues 7-14 of Vertigo's series of modern African strife and warfare. While the storyline isn't particularly memorable this time around, the artwork by Congolese artist Pat Masioni is the standout highpoint of this volume.
Profile Image for Aaron.
1,098 reviews113 followers
October 1, 2010
Dysart amps up an already stellar series, not looking back or backing down. Bold and daring storytelling that doesn't slow down or bat an eye.
Profile Image for Keith.
76 reviews14 followers
May 20, 2012
I really wish I had read this series while it was a monthly. I would have been a cool book to have on my pull list.
Profile Image for Sean.
84 reviews4 followers
May 22, 2012
A bit more pulpy than Vol 1, but still gripping stuff.
Profile Image for Hakan Jackson.
635 reviews7 followers
December 11, 2012
Amazing read with complex characters and a complex plot. I also enjoyed the extra info of Ugandan history at the end of the book. I'm looking forward to continuing the series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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