The Universal Soldier

An idea for an sf novel:

a very long novel with many short chapters (could be endlessly serialized in magazines before eventual book publication);

each chapter shows the protagonist in combat in a major war, starting in prehistory, passing through many historical periods and the present and into the future which also has many dissimilar periods, e.g., war on Earth in the twenty-fourth century is very different from war on Mars in the twenty-sixth century;

no up-front explanation of why this guy is alive in all these periods (think of John Carter, always a soldier, remembering no childhood);

his name changes appropriately, i.e., Joannes becomes Johan, Jan, Jean, John, Sean etc;

some ambiguity as to whether he is killed at the end of some of the chapters, e.g., is he killed in an explosion or just concealed by smoke?;

maybe a future period of global peace when our protagonist does not seem to exist?;

a further future in which a Time Travel Institute plans to send a man to experience combat in many past periods;

if killed, he can be retrieved, resurrected and sent back.