Books / Comics
We3
By Chris Payton
Jan 31, 2006, 20:55

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have teamed up quite a bit over the years on stuff like New X-Men, JLA, and most recently on All-Star Superman. Thanks to his work in and out of mainstream super hero comics, Morrison is regarded as one of the top writer in his field.

Good dog is right.

That said, you would not think that writing an animal story would be the next logical step for their careers. But it was.

We3 borrows elements from stories like Watership Down and An Incredible Journey�animals band together to survive in the world. But Morrison takes that theme and twists it into an animal rights nightmare.

Bandit, Tinker, and Pirate�respectively a dog, cat, and rabbit�were abducted by some top-secret government project and turned into the soldier of tomorrow. These three pets have been turned into living weapons, armed with all kinds of cybernetic enhancements.

In fact, the government has a whole secret lair of cyborg animals, even rats that have limbs replaced with drills and other construction equipment. They can speak to their trainers in broken English, thanks to their brains being hardwired. Kudos goes to letter Todd Klein, who shows their word bubbles in a mixed online speak way.

The three ponder the meaning of being decommissioned.

One day Bandit, Tinker, and Pirate hear from their trainers the same words that every battle ship hates to hear�they have been decommissioned. The only difference is that in their case, being decommissioned means being destroyed. The three decide that it�s best to escape and to find their home. To stop them, they send out what looks like an armed to the teeth bull mastiff.

Quitely�s art is simply amazing. The animals have the perfect look, half cute like your pet, and half disturbing, with all kinds of gadgets surgically implanted. The art is full of contrast, sweet animals in one panel, death and destruction in the next. Most beautiful are the original volume/chapter breaks he created; looking like the types of posters a child would make for their missing pets.

Morrison�s script and Quitely�s art lead to many touching scenes, such as Bandit calling himself a bad dog after being forced to kill soldiers in self defense and the subsequent depression it caused, the three warning squirrels and other woodland creatures to run away during a showdown with an assault helicopter, and how they react and mourn to the loss of one of their own.

Get We3 immediately. It is an immensely powerful tale of the underlying emotions that animals have and reminds us why we love them. After reading it, there was nothing I could do but hug my dog and I was affected for days. And this comes from someone who makes jokes about putting kittens into blenders.

Morrison and Quitely really outdid themselves on We3. I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first, but this is really a powerful story.

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