Grant Morrison - We3

Alright, what I say next may not mean something to you, but I assure you it is quite controversial in the comics community.  I don't really like Grant Morrison as a writer.

For those unaware, Grant Morrison is considered one of the best writers in the comic medium of all time.  Though I personally find his work hit or miss, I truly do believe that he deserves all of the accolades he gets.  Morrison approaches comics with an incredibly intelligent style and arms himself with an encyclopedic knowledge of the medium.

Recently, I was digging through my to-read pile and picked out 'We3'.  This is a graphic novel about cute fuzzy animals... that have been weaponized into powerful mech suits.  The book's main theme touches on animals rights, but the heartfelt story is pretty engaging from the get-go.

What also sets the book apart is how it leans on a minimalist way of telling a story.  Light on dialogue, Frank Quitely's gorgeous artwork and layouts show how much you can express without words.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the book for me, is how outright violent and gory the pages get.  This was clearly done to provoke a very different tone that tends to come with innocent animal protagonists.  I'm not sure how I feel exactly about watching literal heads roll, but I know I feel something which was probably the entire point.

Overall, the book is pretty solid from beginning to end.  With so few words, it's easy to blow through this graphic novel rather quickly, but I feel that this does the book a disservice.  I found that when I paced myself slowly when reading it, the emotional impacts were more powerful and the violence was much less silly.