In case you guys haven’t noticed, I’ve been reading a lot of Morrison lately. Basically, I’ve found every last thing I could of his and plan to read it all, bit by bit. WE3 is so short and sweet that I figured I could read it in half an hour, and I did. WE3 has intrigued me because it’s actually one of the few works of Morrison’s to be in production at a studio, and by the director of Kung Fu Panda no less! Could the guy who wrote The New Adventures Of Hitler and cut Magneto’s head off really be going soft on us?
No. Not at all. WE3 is just as bad ass and as bloody as anything Morrison writes. The story revolves around a secret government program that takes house pets and turn them into killing machines. Three animals (a dog, “1”, a cat, “2”, and a bunny, “3”) are all placed into this experimental program and unleashed on training exercises. It’s actually quite terrifying in a way. Sure, you might be thinking of the movie G-Force, but this is nothing like that. This isn’t a group of cute little gerbils running around doing secret missions with Zach Galifiankis. This is a group of animals who have been tested, have wires hooked up into their skulls, and are encased in metal suits of armor and armed with weapons of mass destruction. These are animals who are forced to battle terrorists in third world countries so that American soldiers don’t have to die in battle. This is Grant Morrison as his usual twisted self taking an odd turn in his own writing, because Morrison is a huge animal person (you may notice that he often places cats in levels of high importance in his books, such as Seven Soldiers and an appearance in Final Crisis). It’s odd to see him do this to an animal, but at the same time it makes perfect sense because he’s Grant frakking Morrison.
For a three-issue series, this is really quite good. The story is obviously very concise and to the point, and a lot of it is told without text. In fact, to get the whole scheme of where things begin and end, you have to just look at the cover of the issues and read between some of the lines of dialogue. It’s an interesting way to convey a story to say the least. Frank Quitely is at his best here as well. A lot of people do not care for his artwork, especially the way he draws people, but in this it really works. He also plays around with the usage of panels in a way that is very original and highly intriguing. Some of the scenes feature two page spreads with one big action sequence on it, but then interspersed on the pages are tiny panels which show individual moments of the action and bring out the elements more. There are also examples of a single character diving in between several still panels. It makes for a very interesting story telling sequence. Quitely’s grasp of the animals themselves are also what really makes the book, because this is their story more than it is that of any human. The animals themselves speak with limited phrasing, similar to that of any LOLCat but predating that trend by several years. Through the limited dialogue they produce, we see that more than anything else they’re just a small group of scared animals who want a home and someone to love them. At its very core, the book is an animal rights book.
So while this is neither Grant Morrison or Frank Quitely’s best work to date, it certainly shows the duo in top form. Grant and Frank seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, or lamb and tuna fish. You can be sure that if you see both their names on a book that you’re in for a treat, even if it is something as small and concise as this.
Final Rating: B
