WE3 - ? GUD MAN MAKE GUD BUK ?

Yes, 1, yes he did. As always, Grant Morrison weaves his magical thoughts into yet another brilliant work of sequential art. While not as long and epic as his runs on New X-Men, Animal Man, or The Invisibles, Morrison succeeds in creating three more characters that will stick with me for many years, despite their existing for only three brief issues.

First off, the collection is a nice one, and well worth picking up for a cover price of $12.99. The pages are nice 'n' smooth, making Frank Quitely's art really shine, much better than the newsprint it was originally printed on, and with the war machines 1, 2, and 3 looking cute as buttons on the cover, how could anyone resist. I mean really, come on.

WE3 are cybernetic prototypes for a new kind of soldier. Project AWE created these cyborgs mash-ups of house hold pet and machine in an attempt to revolutionize warfare and reduce the lives of humans lost in war/espionage.

The WE3 team are sentenced to be decommissioned and destroyed as a new singular WE4 model has been successfully created, but the 3 have a guardian angel which allows them escape of the Air Force Research Facility where they were created. In addition to the combined firepower of a small army, there remains in what is left of 1's mind a faint memory of a place called "home". The 3 begin to seek it out while being pursued by the forces who created them, in hopes of stopping the creatures before the story gets into the view of the public.

Morrison's perspectives on warfare, animal cruelty, and the danger of playing god all pop up in this brief epic. I believe it right to warn that this is a book created for mature audiences, and should not be given to the very young, regardless of the cute pastels on the cover. Additionally, pet owners should prepare for, if not a roller coaster size ride of emotion, maybe a rough few minutes of bumper cars. No one, human or animal is safe from violence in WE3.

As is the nature of book reviews, I can not give away any more of what happens, but I Highly Reccomend that anyone (not children however) should read this book. And with the rights to the film recently purchased by one the big studios, now is the time to pick this up if you want to be one of "those people" who talk about how brilliant the source material is and how Hollywood had best not corrupt its purity with their greasy money-grubbing fingers. That's a discussion for another time however.

WE3 are not interested in returning to ! SSST!!NK BOSS !
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