Picture the Legion of Super-Pets serving as the core cast of The A-Team, and you're beginning to get an idea of what We3 is about. writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quietly go to extremes with this comic book. This is all about opposites, about dichotomies. Goofy and gruesome, cute and cut-throat, We3 is a horrific fable about man's penchant for mucking about with Mother Nature in the name of science, and how we can never really control either one.
A central American dictator and his bodyguards lie dead, their bodies torn apart by massive gunfire. An enemy of the United States has been eliminated, and not a single soldier or black-ops specialist had to be put in harm's way. It's all thanks to the U.S. Air Force's Animal Weapon 3 project, which sees a dog, cat and rabbit outfitted with weapons, high-tech gear and intelligence-enhancing electronics. The brass is fickle, though, and despite the recent success, the project -- and the animals -- is ordered to be scrapped. That doesn't sit too well with the scientist who worked for so long with the little critters.
Quitely plays around with perspective in this project, and it makes for a tense opening sequence that keeps the reader off-balance until the major payoff in a two-page that explodes in an unflinching and unbelievable vision of violence. Conversely, Quitely captures the cuteness of the animal characters nicely, but the reader is so immersed in the dark aspects of the story by the time the animals are revealed, it makes for a deliciously uneasy sensation. Quitely challenges the reader with his art in this book. He uses security camera screens to tell the story at cetain points, but those panels are a jumble; there's a realism to it, but it's not linear, the leaving the reader to piece the puzzle together.
Despite being limited by a crude vocabulary for the non-human characters who serve as the focus of this series, Morrison still manages to convey real personalities. The cat is a creepy killing machine, cynical and self-reliant, whereas the dog is an emotional leach, desperate for acceptance and comfort, for example. The scene in which the dog first talks is unsettling and remarkable all at once. The writer captures believable voices for characters who shouldn't be speaking at all.
We3 is all about contrasts. The title characters are incredibly innocent, but they're immersed in a world in which innocence is cast aside as casually as a used tissue. Nature conflicts with science. Instinct is manipulated to achieve political ends. Even success is met with consequences normally associated with failure. The dichotomies make for an unnatural and creepy feel, and therein lies the greatest appeal of the book -- how it makes the reader feel. Of everything I've read from Grant Morrison, this stands out as my favorite.
