WE3

WE3

Membership: 1, 2, 3

Base of Operations: Washington, DC

First Appearance: WE3 #1 (October, 2004)

History: (WE3 #1) - Doctor Treadle abducted Bandit, a dog, Tinker, a cat, and Pirate, a rabbit, from their suburban homes and equipped them with cybernetic battlearmor and brain implants as part of a USAF bioengineering project. The animals, dubbed 1, 2 and 3 were WE3, a revolution in military operations meant to replace human operatives. They went on a number of covert missions, toppling Guerrera, a tinpot dictator, in a bloody massacre. Dr. Rosanne Berry trained the animals and felt a deep connection to them. Tready showed off WE3 to presidential hopeful senator Dan Washington, who said the public would be horrified by housepets turned into killing machines, and ordered them put down. Berry couldn't stand to lose her friends, and released them from captivity. They made a bloody escape, killing several military guards before fleeing to the woods to look for a way back to their owners.

(WE3 #2) - The military were sent in to terminate WE3, but the animals tore them to shreds. Treadle decided to sent cybernetic rats, predecessors of WE3 against them, and bemoaned the fact that his creations were meant to prevent the loss of human life. He blamed Berry, and told her that if the rats didn't work he was sending her in to talk to them. WE3 battled the rats on a train trestle, destroying it and derailing a train before killing the rats. They encountered a hunter and his son who mistook them for aliens, shooting 3 in the head and giving him brain damage before 1 and 2 killed the hunter. 1 felt awful that he'd killed humans his masters hadn't instructed him to, and said he was a bad dog. 2 hated humans and the way they smelled, and was fine with the body count. Treadle was ready to unleash the untested 4, a cybernetic pit bull, to take them down.

(WE3 #3) - WE3 made friends with a homeless man who fed them, and when Treadle, Berry and the soldiers entered the field the man refused to tell them where they were. 4 sniffed them out and killed 3, and Berry talked to 1, but as the snipers had him in their sights she told him his name was Bandit and he had to flee. She took the bullets for 1, who went after 4, with the help of 2. Their fight led to a busy highway, and when an officer responded 4 was ready to rip his throat out, forcing Treadle to remotely detonate bomb in his skull. 1 and 2 staid on the lam, and their armor soon fell apart. They reunited with the homeless man, who took care of them, and they decided they were home. Treadle testified against the senator and exposed the WE3 program to journalists. He saw the homeless man with his creations, and gave him hundreds of dollars, telling him to keep them healthy.

Comments: Created by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.