WE3 by Grant Morrison (2014-02-25)

for a guy like me that loves mature graphic novels, We3 not so great compare to graphic novels like Ex Machina, Y the Last Man or Criminal. It's a fun read, don't get me wrong but the comic is all about how cruel humans are and the humans are the actual beasts in this world. The three animals don't really have that much character to them, they are just poor little things that are scared and wanting to go back "home". After reading it once, I never picked it up again.
But defiantly check it out, great detailed art, not a bad story and the price is right.

I bought this after reading some passing mentions on a few blogs I frequent. The concept sounded intriguing - cyborg animal soldiers, escaping from a testing program and trying to find a place to call home. I saw a few images from the book on the internet and from what I saw it looked great - both absurd and touching, with enough action to keep things rolling.

Unfortunately, the scenes I saw beforehand were the highpoints. Maybe I'm just not a fan of graphic novels, but I was expecting something longer. Got through this in about 9 minutes, and about 80% of that 9 minutes seemed to be filler panels of the animals making expressions, or closeups of their weapons, or people looking terrified, or piles of guts or blood or something. I was expecting more character development and a more prolonged arc than what I got.

Other reviews I read of WE3 praised the characterization of the animals, in that they remained animals thoughout and were not overtly anthropomorphized. I thought their dumbness was overplayed, especially since it was made clear that brain implants granted them a form of intelligence and a gestalt with each other. It seemed strange that researchers would go to all the trouble to install vocal synthesizers into these animals, then have those synthesizers pronounce things in silly pidgin (gud dog? is gud dog). Also the catchphrase "SSSTINK! BOSS" was dumb and grating.

I found the ending unsatisfying and unbelievable as well.

WE3 has a fairly simple plot. The government has a secret program that involves taking three lost pets, a dog, a cat and a rabbit, encasing them in extraordinarily lethal suits and giving them just enough intelligence to follow orders and speak an extremely simple language. Secret government bio weapons is a story that’s been explored countless times but Grant Morrison manages to make it feel fresh. The title of the book should be read as We 3 in other words the 3 bio weapons and they are the stories protagonists even as they obey their directives and defend themselves by inflicting carnage on anyone who threatens them. Imagine it like Robocop with animals except if Robocop violently obliterated anyone who threatened him in a flurry of blood, eyeballs and shattered bones.

This is one of the goriest most brutal books comics I have ever read but it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It feels like the reality of what would happen if animals were trained to defend themselves at all costs by any means necessary and then given the tools to inflict massive bodily. One of the problems Morrison has had in the past (and up until today) is creating characters who feel real. Ironically the three animals, Bandit, Tinker and Pirate, are some of the most real characters Morrison has ever created. Despite being literal killing machines it’s damn near impossible not to feel tremendous sympathy for them and hope for a happy ending even as the animals inflict and receive horrific abuse.

This is another brilliant collaboration of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely and this is a collection by DC that mostly does their work justice. With only three issues there really wasn’t enough material here to sustain an Absolute or Omnibus Edition but what readers to get is a nice amount of sketches and background material. I heartily recommend this collection and unless you are squeamish about the violence I don’t see a reason not to give it a chance. One last thing. Another deficiency Morrison has is his ability to give a story an ending that equals the buildup. WE3 has one of Morrison’s best and most memorable endings. All and all it’s a great story with magnificent art.

we3: written by Grant Morrison; illustrated by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant (2004, collected 2005): Bandit the dog, Tinker the cat, Pirate the rabbit: 1, 2, and 3 of we3. They were pets. They were stolen. A secret American military project turned them into super-soldiers -- heavily armed, heavily armoured, trained to work as a team, and with a boost in intelligence from the machines grafted to them.

But after a final test run, they're to be 'put down.' The next phase of the program will involve larger animals specially bred and trained to replace soldiers on the battlefield. Weapon 4 already waits in its pen, too dreadful to be deployed anywhere near non-hostile civilians. there are kinks to work out.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely riff in unusual ways on things like the Jason Bourne books, 'lost-animal' novels that include The Incredible Journey, Japanese manga, and funny-animal comics with their talking animals. We cut between the humans and the animals for much of the narrative. The animals have developed a rudimentary language derived from English. They've also maintained their survival instincts: once they hear they're about to be killed, they escape in search of a nebulous and mostly forgotten 'Home.' They don't remember their names, but one sympathetic scientist does.

Funny, affecting, and not completely improbable, we3 also pointedly comments on both our mistreatment of animals and our dehumanization of soldiers in a quest for the perfect killing machine. The animals, already gifted by nature with reflexes and senses superior to human beings, make human super-soldiers like Captain America or Jason Bourne look like amateurs. With a dog as a tank, a cat as a fast-striking assassin, and a rabbit as a mine- and poison-gas-laying version of the Cadbury Easter Rabbit, we3 stages a battle that escalates until the powers that be deploy the terrible fourth weapon.

It's a thrilling ride, beautifully illustrated by Quitely and movingly written by Morrison. Moments of humour erupt throughout the carnage, as do moments of sadness. The dog still wants to be a good dog in relation to people. The cat just wants to get the Hell out of there. And the rabbit, the rabbit keeps saying, 'Uh oh' and blowing stuff up.

Grant Morrison packs a lot of heartache and innocence into his tale of science run violently amok in WE3. The story centers around three house pets that have been experimented on by the military and turned into cybernetic assassins outfitted in cutting-edge, weapon-packed exoskeletons. Trained to operate as a team, the dog, cat, and rabbit escape from the military after learning they are to be decommissioned. The dog, Bandit, is given one last order by his compassionate creator--go home. Fleeing into the woods, the animals are aggressively hunted by the military in a seek-and-destroy mission.

WE3 is easily the most accessible work Morrison has released. It's a straightforward plot and the science is presented in a realistic manner, but is neither closely examined nor as integral to the story as in other book's he's penned. Typically Morrison finds himself unraveling complex, labyrinthine plots filled with fringe science and esoteric research, but he wisely avoids that here, choosing instead to create a breathtaking, emotionally driven epic centered on cute little critters. While it is a thrilling comic, it is not for the squeamish. The amount of detailed, scrutinized gore and the ever-present threat of violence and danger toward animals makes this book an unlikely candidate for a kid's read. Adults and mature teens, however, should be able to take a lot away from the story and find themselves invested in the animal's perils.

Frequent Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely takes up illustrative duties and does so admirably, creating some truly unique panel layouts and artistic displays. The books opens with an assassination, which is crafted as an almost 3D-like presentation, expertly playing with depth and focus in order to perfectly capture the resonance of sudden violence. He revels in the book's violence, spattering pages with the gore of torn entrails and punctured eyes. He is also given numerous opportunities by Morrison's script to play with panel layouts and challenge the tradition of the artistic medium within comic books. When the animals escape, their breakout is presented to readers via CCTV footage in a six-page spread made up of more than 100 panels. Told from multiple angles, it's a tight, tense sequence. Several action scenes are built from tiny thumbnails built into a larger panel that tells the overall scene. The effect is meant to depict the animal's heightened awareness, its reflexes and lethality, as well as the sudden ferocity of violence that can propel it. His character designs give the animals a sense of both otherness and familiarity, as their exosuits closely match the natural contours of their bodies and postures.

WE3 is brilliantly crafted, a story that only Grant Morrison could effectively tell, and with Quitely on art duty, there really is no more perfect pairing. Each of the animals are well-drawn and instantly identifiable. Their cuteness, however, stands in direct conflict to an intense level of violence and serves to ratchet up the emotional involvement of the reader. There is a visceral element to the proceedings of WE3 that serves to create a bleak, painful tale of mankind's hubris and science gone wrong, a testament to both man's ingenuity and cruelty. It's a heartbreaking affair, one that is oftentimes painful in its execution, but it does offer significant closure and a promise for healing.

Reviewed by Michael Hicks

This is a graphic novel collection of the three-issue mini-series WE3 by DC's imprint Vertigo. Grant Morrison spins a familiar tale, yet keeps it fresh and exciting. Frank Quietly's art is incredible to say the least. The coloring is obviously done by computer, which I'm not a big fan of (as I'm old school in that regard). However, a great job was done on the coloring and the visual effects with motion and blurring is to be commended.

Bandit the dog, Tinker the cat, and Pirate the bunny were once household pets. They have been abducted by the military to run bioengineering and cybernetic experiments on. The three pets have been turned into military killing machines for high-risk operations. WE3, as they call themselves, have been giving the ability of rudimentary speech and the sparse communication is used by Morrison to give insight on how the animals think and feel.

After a particular mission, the military had decided that WE3 have outlived their usefulness. The military heads have prompted the creator/trainer of WE3 to have them decommissioned. She decides to let the animals escape and the military pursues them with the full intent of termination. As Bandit, Tinker, and Pirate run and fight for their lives, they are looking for a place called "home".

This story touches on many familiar subjects. The military's need to find new and better ways to kill people. What could happen when machines go bad or rouge? Playing God, with God's creations.

Considering that we are now cloning and that we are on the verge of self-replicating nano-technology, cyborgs (animal or man) are realistically in our future. So, Morrison's tale might not be that far fetched. We, as a society, are just that close to realizing something like WE3, the Terminator, or the Matrix for that matter.

WE3 is highly recommended read. If you're a comic fan, or Morrison fan, or just a reader wanting a bit of sci-fi action with a dose of reality, this hits the spot.

I've never considered Grant Morrison a particular good writer of superhero books. Sure, he had some interesting ideas with Doom Patrol and even Batman .... but, his desire to be surreal results in rather dull and messy execution.

On the other hand, self-contained stories, like WE3, is where Morrison becomes a different writer. In WE3, the animals are characters who have had a cruel existence forced upon them. Their intelligence is limited, which is reflected in their dialogue. They do their jobs well, the dog doing motivated out of approval, the cat out of fun and the bunny ... well, he just seems to be there for the ride.

Unfortunately, the humans in the book who spent so much time turning the animals into killing machines, also consider the animals expendable. There is no retirement to a forever home for them, just death in the name in science.

Well, one scientist has a heart, though possibly misguided, as she saves the animals' lives by releasing them but she has also released one of the most destructive forces created by man.

The story is heart wrenching, as the reader emphasizes with the animals as they seek "home." They aren't complex in their thought process, which in a way, makes their emotions and thoughts easier to know. There's a bit of tragedy and a lot of violence. But when the reader finishes the last page, they will be moved.

Now, I can't say it's not got its problems. The problems are more of a logic stand point though. As a reader pointed out, sure the missing pet posters are sad ... but why would the government need to steal pets when there are already millions of animals available in shelters? There's a couple of more things along those lines, but I won't spoil the novel for the reader and they aren't totally a big deal, as they aren't as insulting as the leaps in logic we're asked to take in most Hollywood flicks.

I should have known better than to read this, being the sucker for animals that I am, but being such a fan of Grant Morrison's work on Batman I decided I had to try it.

We3 is one of those works that leave you stunned after reading. What's even more amazing is that the majority of it is pure gibberish, just the vocalized thoughts of animals as created through software. Each and every word of that gibberish, however, pulls at the heartstrings and does more for developing a character than an entire page of dialogue. Each of the animals is its own person, but each one is also just a pet that got lost from home.

Frank Quitely's art is also nothing short of phenomenal. The kinetic, nearly electric paneling is hard to grasp at first, but does wonders for the action. Add to that the achingly familiar "lost pet" posters, and you can see why he is the perfect guy to complement Morrison's work here.

You can't go wrong with this story, even if it only clocks in at three issues, and if you have anything in your heart for an animal, prepare to hold something back.

Brave New World-themes must be played out by now, right? Wrong -- at least if Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, comic-book creators extraordinaire, have something to do about it. We3, another great collaboration between writer Morrison and artist Quitely, must be one of the most disturbing and relentlessly sad comic books I have ever read, a vivid illustration of Heidegger's observation that animals are "poor in world."

The three animals of the comic's title are former pets, a dog, cat, and rabbit who have been abducted by the U.S. Airforce and experimented upon as part of a top-secret bio-weapons program. The program's objective is the creation of armies of living weapons, hyper-violent syntheses between animals and machines, to serve as soldiers of the future. But when a Senator visits the experimental facility to see how the program is getting along, he is shocked to find out that one scientist has engineered the animals to speak -- and they don't seem like happy campers. Realizing that talking, malcontented animal soldiers would be very bad publicity indeed, the government decides to "decommission" (i.e. kill) the three animal-androids, and to make sure future "soldiers" are appropriately mute. Unfortunately for the powers-that-be, Dr. Roseann has gotten a bit too attached to her animals, and would rather see them free -- and indulging their combat instincts -- than dead. So free the animals are, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake and the U.S. military in hot pursuit, all the while trying -- and failing -- to make sense of the world around them.

Few things in recent memory have moved me quite as much as these three animals "speaking" -- that is to say, the broken sentences and stray words these animals can mouth communicate nothing so much as their vulnerability and alienation, not only from the world around them but even from their own bodies, hardly recognizable to them beneath the layers of weapons and bio-engineering. "Home" remains a powerful call (at least for the dog; the cat is, well, stereotypically cat-like, offering up most of the few moments of comedy in We3), and is defined as a place where the three animals won't need to run anymore.

It is hard not to see the specter of the great Emmanuel Levinas in all of this, specifically of his notion of ethics that is beyond the human, that is, an ethics that is not reducible to humanism: the animals are purely other, by definition other-than-human, yet present a call to us the urgency of which cannot be denied. For Levinas, as in We3, it is not the ontological status of the "other" -- human "like me" -- that determines one's ethical engagement, but his or her need -- the vulnerability that is presented to one's sight as the other's very face -- that does so. That is to say, the provision of home precisely for the homeless. Morrison and Quitely stress the unconditional nature of the ethics that must help the other, represented in We3 by a homeless good Samaritan who simply accepts the animals as they are, and is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to help them. That is to say, in stark contrast to the nation-state, which thinks in terms of borders, citizens, and enemies, and is rather obviously the "villain" of We3, Morrison and Quitely end with the provision of home by the homeless, and, by the end, a community that is neither reducible to a group nor a dwelling. Poor in world, but not unwanted.

Excellent. Less cerebral than Morrison typically is, and I found that refreshing. And a testament to his versatility. Also the art is remarkable. I don't love Frank Quitely but this was great.

Only missed a star because I wanted a bit more. Maybe some background on the program but that might have bogged it down.

Huge Morrison fan, and I'd put this in the upper half of his catalog. Not as amazing as Invisibles, Doom Patrol or Batman but super solid.

Grant Morrison, We3 (Vertigo, 2005)

I can't remember the last time a graphic novel made me cry. We3 had me bawling like a schoolgirl finding out the Backstreet Boys had broken up. Morrison's tale of three altered animals (a dog, a cat, and a rabbit) trying to figure out what to do (and how to avoid the forces hunting them) after being freed from their armed forces research facility on the verge of their being decommissioned is heart-rending, and Frank Quitely's artwork is, if anything, stronger than the story itself; the emotions the characters show belie their rudimentary speaking abilities. Morrison and Quitely have packed an incredible amount of emotion into a very short story. Easily one of the best books I've read this year, and perhaps the best so far. *****

We3

Let me begin by stating that I am not terribly fond of graphic novels. Even as a child I had no particular love for comic books. Nevertheless, a positive review of Morrison's and Quitely's We3 in the Washington Post, which included a stunning illustration of a cybernetically besuited cat springing at the viewer before a lightning-torn sky, inspired me to check out this work.

I immediately loved it. It's quirky, insightful, exciting, and profoundly moving. One could be trite and call it "Incredible Journey" meets "The Terminator." But this is a much more complex work, and such a comparison does it a disservice. The graphics are innovative and beautiful (even the violence and gore is rendered with a loving attention to detail). The artists manage not only to break out of two dimensions and add depth-here are bullets half the size of the page, flying uncomfortably close to the reader, there a fight spills off the bottom of one page only to crash down on the top of the next-but also to add an element of time as well. No old-school comic this; time and depth and skillfully rendered with clever tricks of the graphic arts.

The story is a simple one: Three family pets, abducted by the government and turned into lethal killing machines, are about to be "decommissioned" (read euthanised). A helpful scientist helps them stage a violet escape, and they begin their journey "home," though what home might be, none of them has a clue. The animals speak in a simple, synthesized patois of AOL-speak. The cat uses "ST!NK" to describe that which it doesn't like, and refers to the dog's (who is called "1") not knowing anything as "1 KNOW 0." The dog is obsessed not only with home, but with being a "GUD DOG." The authors show great skill in allowing the animals to express an amazing depth of feeling with a vocabulary of only a few dozen words.

Despite the story's simplicity, there is much beneath the surface. What does it mean to have a home? Are the animals mere "amoral killing machines" as the military describes them, or do their actions display a moral, albeit non-human, undercurrent? Graphic novels rely on the reader to use his or her own brain to tease out themes and meaning from the story. A good graphic novel, such as this, provides an interactive experience.

Unquestionably, the hyper-violence of this work means that it's not for children, or the weak-of-stomach. But do yourself a favor. Even if you scoff at comic books, pick up a copy of We3-you'll enjoy it. I've read a lot of literature, but few works have left as big an impression upon me as this one. Days later, I still found myself thinking about it. In the end, the thing that best describes the brilliance of We3 is the fact that even though the story is brought to a definite conclusion-one that doesn't really allow for sequals-I'm quite sad that there won't be more We3. In under a 100 pages of illustration, and sparse text, I found three characters that were more real, more interesting, more engaging, than those I've met in countless other bloated novels. Read We3. It will leave a mark on you and make you think.

I've always had issues with Grant Morrison. The closest correlation I can draw is his writing feels like reading interviews with Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan: While you can acknowledge that the ideas come from a human being, because what are the alternatives, it's hard to completely accept. The Invisibles felt like a snake that never got tired of eating its own tail, and All-Star Superman felt like a joke so cryptic I couldn't decide if it didn't work or if I simply didn't understand it, like one of those infuriating New Yorker cartoons.

But We3 bypasses all that with the magic of sad animals. I don't know why it works, but the vulnerability of animals put in an extreme situation tugs at the heartstrings. This is the reason I can never recommend this book to my girlfriend, who makes a very loud noise of sadness when she reads even a little of a sad animal story on Reddit.

I think it's because the human brain is torn between empathy for a creature that at times has our emotions, but is also truly incapable of understanding the situations humans put them in.

A drama teacher I had in high school once observed that the truest tragedy is one where we know it will end poorly from the offset, and Morrison's stark storytelling in here is ominous from page one. We can intuit that absolutely nothing positive will come from three heavily armored, weapon-clad animals getting free.

Their strange pidgin English doesn't help matters, giving us a clearer understanding of just how lost they feel when dealing with their freedom, pinned between the fear of capture and the confusion of the real world, which has absolutely no place for them.

It makes for Morrison's most accessible work, because it doesn't feel like the creator's private joke shared only with himself.

The innocence and animal-ness of WE3 contrasts startlingly with the terrific violence that they unleash on humans. They don't really know what they're doing, but they have goals and they want to achieve them. Humans that get in the way end up killed with a child-like innocence that is both touching to behold and horrifying in it's significance. Tinker illustrates this best during a quiet moment by using his 'long claw' to bring down a hawk and 'play' with it. This is just something cats do, but the implications are scary. Bandit's simpleminded loyalty (protect, help boss, find home, be 'gud') drives the narrative and forces a contrast between his violent actions and the simple concepts that drive those actions. This is a sad and shocking story.

The only problem I had with WE3 was some of the art. Quitely's style is a bit disjointed and often unclear. This, combined with numerous silent sequences, makes the story hard to follow sometimes. It's nitpicking, but it did detract from the power of the story. Overall, this was an astounding graphic novel.

We3 is the story of three Animals who have become military weapons. Simply put I'm not going to talk about the plot any further because truth be told the plot is very simple, any further detail borders on being a spoiler. The story is a short read, you can complete it in 20 minutes or more depending on how much you want to stare at Frank Quietly's beautiful imagery. Every page is wonderfully done with very unique panels. The expressions on the animals and humans are just impressive. The writing takes a minimalist approach which makes sense as our protagonists are animals with limited speech.

Overall I'm giving it 4 stars for the strangely heartwarming tale and for Quietly's Art. My only problem is that it is short, and it unfortunately doesn't include any extras or even a preface. I don't think I'm going to be rereading this story anytime soon. But I'll definitely remember it.

And lastly despite it being about a Dog, Cat, and Bunny this comic certainly is not for kids. It is filled with gore.

Like many others I thought it was a very interesting and absorbing read, but what I haven't seen mentioned as much is that it can be a bit difficult to get through, especially if you are bothered by animal cruelty. This is in this story in abundance, though a bit more abstract than what we're used to. There is certainly a charm to being able to understand and follow these animals, but they are not so developed that you're rooting for specific characters but more the basic roles and positions they are in; the abused and captive house pets trying to find their way to freedom in a frantic scramble. Not that this is wrong, no. It's not a tale that you very easily find any characters to attach to, which just as well can be attributed to how short it was. I went into this read expecting a certain amount of development to the animal characters and did not find it. The story went by quite quickly and very violently.

Following a a story with characters facing great adversity that understand whats going on is one thing and can be engrossing. However the animals in this story clearly do not fully comprehend the situation and the wrongness of it, if at all. It has been compared to homeward bound, but the animals in that story had been humanized enough to be identifiable, understand their situation, and set goals. This is not the case here. They are scared and confused animals that were doing what they were supposed to do. The message is clear, but method of delivery could be disturbing and gratuitous at times.

Either way, the point of the review was to say if you're bothered by disregard for animal life and animal cruelty, be careful who you recommend this to because it can be very upsetting.

The short version of my review is: buy this, devour it, love it. It's a must-read.

The longer version of my review comes with this observation, which is primarily directed at readers like myself who expect to be blown away by the originality of Morrison's writing: The power of this TPB is derived almost exclusively from Frank Quitely's compositions. The idea behind WE3 is just simply unoriginal. In fact, the idea of a cyborgesque super-weapon that gets loose and starts wreaking havoc is an idea that Morrison himself has already explored rather thoroughly in his New X-Men work. The fact that WE3 is about animal cyborgs ("biorgs") doesn't really save this from being a recycled plot-line.

BUT, I'll take recycled plot-lines that look like this any day. Looking at Quitely's work here is like listening to Sgt. Pepper's for the first time. Every time you turn the page, something different is happening on the page. For every single sequence, it seems as if Quitely thought to himself, "OK, what's the most original, visually stimulating way I can present this?" Normally, I would feel pretty guilty paying 13 bucks for such a thin volume, but this is the kind of TPB you can read over and over again, getting lost in the details of Quitely's pencils. You really have to see it to believe it.

We all grew up with tales of talking animals, but you've never seen anything quite like this. I grew up with comic books, they make reading fun for kids and provide a good moral compass. Now, in my twenties, like most people I crave brutally honest and deep stories with a side of unique narrative. We3 takes the typical "Milo and Otis" or "Homeward Bound" archetype story, and mix it with the violence of a Tarantino film. Grant Morrison is one of the best comic book writers to date, his work here proves it. Prepare to get emotionally invested in this heartbreaking look at animal cruelty and warfare without having an agenda. You'll weep and you'll smile. If you have a soul, you will love this book.

This is my favorite graphic novel of all; not just of Grant Morrison's work, but of all. It is an absolutely heartbreaking story and probably a perfect story, especially in how it delivers it's themes and poignancy in such a direct manner with so few pages. The artwork is flawless and matches the characters and their situation with incredible detail. It is amazingly technical yet takes nothing from the familiarity and softness of what they are. It works on so many levels, where the art and story themes completely compliment each other.

Another reviewer titled their review "not for the faint of heart," and that is absolutely true. Anyone familiar with Grant Morrison's work knows that they won't be disappointed, but the innocuous cover hides a brutal and intensely heart-wrenching story. I actually had to force myself to finish the last few pages because I was in tears and wasn't completely sure that I could handle any more of it. I'm glad that I did (finish it, that is).

A lot of the reviews on here have said that they wished the story was longer and that you couldn't really get attached to any of the characters - I disagree completely. I think that if it had been any longer it would have become unreadable. The quickness with which the story is resolved makes it all the more compelling.

This is a great story, and drawn beautifully by Mr. Quitely. But approach it with caution - you'd have to be a robot to be unaffected.

Very powerful and moving. Think The Plague Dogs, but in power armor suits, so the ability to shoot back does exist. Bred as trained military killers, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit escape from a military installation, with the help of some scientists questioning their ethics.

Something even worse is sent to hunt them down, so they will need help to survive.

Incredibly moving and graphic tale of science and nature colliding. One of my favorite Morrison stories. Quitely's art is erie and makes the numerous panels lacking a single word pop out of he book and into your soul. A must read for animal lovers with a strong stomach.

I bought this book and read it today. Some hours (and the rest of my monthly comic haul) later, I'm still shaking from the intensity of it. The fact that the main character looks very similar to my dog is another factor. When he came tail-wagging up to me after I'd put down WE3, I almost cried.

Grant and Frank together on a joint project? Only three issues then into a trade paperback the month of the third issue? Sign me up. These guys were great on the New X-men a few years back and Grant is one of my favorite comic authors. Nearly everything he pens turns to gold. Even the blurbs on the back of the book make it sound like another ground breaking philosophical breakthrough in graphic form.
So why am I not pushing this book onto my non-comic reading friends? I make them all read Preacher and the Invisibles and the Watchmen and the Walking Dead...
Truth is, this book IS good, but not for the reasons I usually love a Grant Morrison comic.
The subject of animal training by the military is not my bag. I'm not big on animal rights and I love a good steak. Grant keeps us sympathetic to but distant enough from these animals that I couldn't do more than root for their safety. Although accurate, it is so easy for an author to make the miltary the perenial bad guys. The general in the Invisibles was far more credible than the 2-D general pulling the plug in We3.
Where the book really shines is in Quitely's artistic story telling. My appreciation for his talent took another step forward from this book. The animals have only the simplest of vocabulary to draw on so more of the story came through in the layouts and body language of the three animal characters. Quitely has always been good at expressing complex situations with his facial contortions, but who knew he could pack so much information into a wordless panel with an armored rabbit, cat, and dog? If I was rating this book as a bunch of Quitely's pictures, I'd give it 5 stars. I'm confident Quitely had alot to do with the early stages of brainstorming for this trade.
All in all, it's a cheap thin trade worth picking up if you are a comic fan, a Quitely fan, or a Grant Morrison fan, but if you are a casual reader of comic books, your dollars would be better invested elsewhere.

The Artwork is smooth and 'graphic'. The characters are drawn convincingly and with depth. But the story. . .the story is very wrenching. The previous reviewer is correct. This story can provoke very strong emotions. Especially for pet-lovers, I think.

Good splatterpunk containing extremely relevant, current biotech issues, really only dealing with animal rights indirectly. Too bad that We3 only lasts three chapters -- just not quite enough to really explore the themes involved. As a result, a couple of moments Morrison resorts to almost offhand remarks that may come across as preachy and dismissive. While good, the length makes the overall effort seem hasty and leaves the reader desiring more perspectives. Above average artwork; worth reading once or twice.

This graphic novel is beautiful, original, and touching in a surprising way. It was a little gory for my taste, and too short (I think doubling the length would have been appropriate). Despite the brevity, attachment to the protagonists glues you to the story immediately. Definately worthy of your bookshelf.

This is everything that makes the medium of comics great. A compelling story, with characters you truly care for, and the most amazing art and paneling in all of comicdom. If you don't love this book, comics simply aren't for you.

I can recall reading this story from a couple years and was struck by how original a concept that this comic was at the time. It was a fun read and felt that this is something that could very well happen in real life.

"We3", although called a graphic novel, is really more like a graphic short story. A dark, intriguing story of the military-industrial complex's biological experiments and their effects on ordinary living creatures is created efficiently in a few short pages with great art.

There isn't much to this story: Three animals are outfitted like mini-mechs by the U.S. military. When they're scheduled to be euthanized, their trainer releases them. They go on a killing spree. That's about it.

The tone of the story is deathly serious. We're expected to sympathize with the "animal weapons" who, after all, just want their normal lives back. (We learn that the three animals were all beloved pets, which is bizarrely cruel--why wouldn't the military scientists just pick unwanted animals from an overflowing shelter?) But the authors tear away at that sympathy, even reminding us that some of the men who die trying to recover the animals are husbands and fathers. At one point, the animals cause a bridge to collapse under a train, and the dog tries to rescue a man from the wreckage--a man who is obviously dead, having been torn in half.

A quote on the back cover praises the comic as "realistic." I suppose that's true insofar as the animals' dialogue is concerned: They're able to express only as many thoughts as you'd expect ordinary pets to have. The dog tries to be a "GUD DOG" and "HELP MAN," the cat complains that everyone "SSSTINKS," and the rabbit barely says anything at all. As protagonists, they're too exhausting even for this short, fast-moving story.