Science Fiction

Twenty years ago writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely knocked it outta the park (again) with a limited comic book series called WE3: “Deep inside a top-secret U.S. Air Force research facility, a revolution in cybernetics is taking shape. Using ordinary domestic animals for their test subjects, the scientists of Project AWE have created a new class of cyborgs — flesh-and-metal creatures designed to rule the battlefields of tomorrow. The project’s crowning achievement is a trio of prototypes code-named WE3 — each one custom-built and trained to work as specialists within a team. With their nervous systems enhanced and supplemented by cutting-edge military hardware, WE3 are the ultimate smart weapons — programmable yet autonomous, loyal yet utterly ruthless. But successful as they are, WE3 are still only prototypes, to be dismantled when their testing is complete. Inside their fearsome mechanical shells, however, are three lost pets whose amplified traits include the will to survive— an instinct which proves to be even stronger than their makers knew. Faced with destruction, WE3 runs —out into a frightening and confusing world, where they are now as much of a threat as those who hunt them. Relentlessly pursued, WE3 fights with the combined firepower of a battalion — and a faint, warm memory of somewhere called Home.” Now, two decades later, DC Comics brings us WE3: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, including the original graphic novel compilation plus some extensive behind-the-scenes material. It also features a new forward by director James Gunn — who has admitted that aspects of Batch 89 from Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 were directly inspired by this comic.

image c. 2025 DC Comics