The five issues of this DC war comic I have (courtesy of my dad's collection), are all from the start of The Unknown Soldier's tenure as lead character, a spot he'd hold until the book ended around issue 204. That said, none of the comics I have contained a splash page for The Unknown Soldier I thought really showed off Kubert's work, so Enemy Ace (who became the second feature after his own lengthy stint as the lead) it is.
Kanigher takes a few issues to find his stride with the Unknown Soldier. The first couple of issues just position him as a sort of super-secret agent man, well trained in unarmed combat and disguises, while also implying that "The Unknown Soldier" has been a recurring title held by different soldiers in all of the U.S.'s various wars. This issue establishes the backstory for this specific guy (I don't know if the notion of previous Unknown Soldiers ever comes up again), as your stereotypical clean-cut kid that joined the Army when his older brother did. They're stationed together in the Philippines, and the older brother dies from a grenade when the Japanese attack.
Younger brother survives, badly scarred from the explosion, and from beating a lot of Japanese soldiers to death(?) with his bare hands. Feels like Garth Ennis pulled from that for Punisher: Born, albeit he took the notion in a very different direction. Kubert keeps the guy's face in shadow until it can be swathed in bandages like Claude Rains in The Invisible Man.
The expert in weapons and combat and disguise stuff remains, and the former sergeant introduced in issue #155 becomes what I think passes for a supporting cast, since I only have one more issue past that. I'm not sure if the Soldier achieves his stated goal of being, one man in the right place to change the outcome of the war, as he claims, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The last issue I have, he takes his own shot at Hitler, simultaneous with the Valkyrie plot. The both fail, of course. *sad trombone*
As for Enemy Ace, Kanigher writes him with a sort of fatalistic nobility. The guy believes the sky will be the only true victor, outliving them all, but he also seems determined to never come back from a mission without shooting something down. I guess you could peg that as equal opportunity for him to be shot down, and the whole thing is a death wish. He doesn't seem to take any joy in anything, Kubert drawing him as eternally grim and brooding, always separate from the other pilots and ground crew.
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