We3

Collecting on of the most talked-about series of the year by superstar creators Grant Morrison (Seven Soldiers) and Frank Quitely (The Sandman: Endless Nights), who provides a new cover, We3 tells the unforgettable story of three innocent pets - a dog, a cat and a rabbit - who have been converted into deadly cyborgs by a sinister military weapons program.

With nervous systems amplified to match their terrifying mechanical exoskeletons, the members of Animal Weapon 3 have the firepower of a battalion between them. But they are just the program's prototypes, and now that their testing is complete they're slated to be permanently "de-commissioned" - until they seize their one chance to make a desperate run for freedom. Relentlessly pursued by their makers, the We3 team must navigate a frightening and confusing world where their instincts and heightened abilities make them as much a threat as those hunting them - but a world, nonetheless, in which somewhere there is something called "home."

This is simply a marvellous tale - it manages to combine hi-tech SF with a wonderfully touching tale of everyday pets which will tug at your heart strings without ever being schmaltzy. Grant also manages to slip in comments on the ethics (or lack of) of animal experimentation (using kidnapped family pets instead of lab animals adds to the horror - these could be your animals, he is saying) and the machinations of the military-indsutrial complex; the need for scientists to evaulate their aims and methods and take responsibility for them.

The scenes with the desperate animals and a homeless, but good-hearted man would melt anyone's heart, while the dilemma of the poor dog in particular is awful: trained to kill but hating his imposed conditioning, firing away as he was trained but muttering 'bad dog, bad dog'. It will make you sad and angry but also give you hope. It's an SF tale, its an action story, its an Incredible Journey-type epic, its simply wonderful.

DC Vertigo, paperback, 104 pages, published June 2005

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Writer: Grant Morrison | Artist: Frank Quitely | Publisher: DC Vertigo

Price: £6.38

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Reviews:

Grant Morrison, over the years, has produced his fair share of classics: Doom Patrol, Animal Man, The Invisibles. He has also produced his fair share of overrated disappointments: Arkham Asylum, The Filth.

With We3, he's taken his writing skills to new heights. An apparently simple tale of a trio of surgically-enhanced super-weapon animals - think The Incredible Journey meets Universal Soldier - this three-issue miniseries packs in more action, suspense, tragedy, pathos and inventiveness into its short run than the majority of comics do in a year. Art by the peerless Frank Quitely, also at the top of his game, is a distinct bonus.

Review by James Lovegrove