REVIEW: We3

We3

Written by Grant Morrison, illustrated by Frank Quitely

First published in 2004

We3

·         We3 centers around three pets who were turned into tools of war (I called them Cybermats from Doctor Who) with their wills in place. They are a bunny,  a cat and a dog (the dog being our focus for the story)

·         The beginning panels were minimalist in story telling (like the experimental comics that artists like Art Spiegelman work on) and conveyed the animalistic snapshots of conscious that the pets went through just doing things without dialogue.

·         The animals themselves have minimal cognitive processes though they do have a will that drove them in the story to leave the facility that is trying to kill them.

·         The fact that this series shows animals being used as military weapons could be a critique in itself about animal rights and the status of strays in the United States.

·         The only good humans in the comic are the Doctor who tested on them, who want to redeem her by getting the animals safe from the military, and the homeless guy who didn’t overreact to the dogs being weird and in fact was sympathetic that humans have been testing on them. The cat and the dog survive by the end to be in the care of the homeless man.

·         Despite the fact that we are supposed to sympathize with the animals, they do kill soldiers and people who want to get at them in the story. This may have been focused as being part of their conditioning as tools of war as opposed to their own sadistic sense of survival, as opposed to the humans who see them as game to shoot and kill for the sake of pay.

·         Had this series been in based in real life, PETA would have been all against the actions of the government using animals as drones of war, which is ironic given PETA’s own controversial stance on politics in the real world.

·         The animals show cunning by the end by getting rid of their armor and rigging it with bombs so as to blow up the soldiers getting at them. This is contrary to their animalistic tendencies and instincts that they had in the beginning of the series so this may convey growth of the characters.

·         The politician tried his best to cover up the bad things he has done to animals in the series, which ended up with him losing his credentials by the end.

·         The dog seems to be a strong moral character given his loyalty to innocent humans and those who don’t treat him horribly.

·         Overall, the story was okay for me. As I am used to Grant Morrison work redefining a concept, like All Star Superman, I was expecting to see a redefinition of how pets with mechanical powers could be seen. However, this was not the case with this work. However, it was an enjoyable read and I do recommend it to others.

Bibliography

Morrison, Grant, and Frank Quitely. WE3. New York: DC Comics, 2005. Print.