Panel 1: The Unknown Soldier stands in the bombing bay of the Enola Gay, staring at the atomic bomb dubbed "Little Boy".
Caption: HIROSHIMA, JAPAN, AUGUST 6, 1945
Caption(Unknown Soldier): THEY SAY IT'S BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY.
Panel 2: The Unknown Soldier shoots refugees with the 2nd Battalion, US Cavalry Regiment at the No Gun Ri railroad bridge near Seoul.
Caption: NO GUN RI, SOUTH KOREA, JULY 27, 1950
Caption(Unknown Soldier): YOU COULD ARGUE THAT A GHOST, AN UNSEEN PRESENCE LIKE MYSELF IS AS FADED AS A MAN CAN GET.
Panel 3: We see a helicopter spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam. Maybe put in an inset showing that the Unknown Soldier is the pilot, maybe not.
Caption(Unknown Soldier): AND I'VE DONE A HELL OF A LOT OF BURNING IN MY TIME.
Panel 4: We see the Unknown Soldier driving an Abrams tank in Afghanistan. The ghost of Colonel J.E.B. Stuart floats next to him. The Unknown Soldier is much older now. We can see G.I. Robot also manning the tank.
CAPTION(Unknown Soldier): NOW THEY'VE GOT ME STUCK WITH THIS COLLECTION OF FREAKS, AND I CAN HONESTLY SAY I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE GLAD TO BE DYING.
CAPTION(Unknown Solder): YES, I'VE GOT ONE YEAR TO LIVE, AND IF I CAN USE THAT YEAR TO DO THE ONLY THING I'VE EVER KNOWN HOW TO DO IN WHAT HAS TO BE THE STRANGEST MISSION THE UNITED STATES MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX EVER COOKED UP, THEN THIS CANCER MAY WELL BE THE GREATEST GIFT I'VE EVER GOTTEN.
I love some of DC's stranger war characters, so I knew I'd like this as soon as I saw the tags. But I didn't expect to like it for these reasons: A beautiful and somewhat haunting montage of war over the decades, with Unknown Soldier as the remorseful, repentant centre. Glorious.
ReplyDeleteThis shouldn't work, but it does. Nice use of some of the other DC war characters with the US slotting in well with them.
ReplyDeleteI with Mr hill here, it shouldn't work, but damn it does. It builds up so nicely with each scene and caption being slightly more outlandish and wonderful than the last. This is a great piece of storytelling.
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