Almost ten years ago James Gunn expressed interest in making a movie based on a comic book about adorable little animals that were experimented on and tortured. This weekend, Gunn released Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, which features adorable little animals that have been experimented on and tortured. But back in 2014, Gunn wasn’t talking about Rocket Raccoon and the other critters that fell victim to the MCU’s latest supervillain, the High Evolutionary. Instead, Gann talked about a three-issue 2004 series called We3.

The comic is incredible. This is also emotional terrorism at the highest level, and this is the key to understanding GotG Volume 3.

Lift step for We3 can be summarized as “Way home meets Terminator“. A collaboration between acclaimed comic book writer Grant Morrison and illustrator Frank Quitely, three animals are turned against their will into cybernetic weapons of war. There are 1 (Bandit, dog), 2 (Tinker, cat) and 3 (Pirate, rabbit). When a senator visits an illegal research facility and orders the trio to be “decommissioned”, they run away trying to find a home where they can be safe, all with the military hunting them down.

If We3 has a masterstroke, that’s what the three animals can say thanks to their cybernetic enhancements, but they’re still animals. They don’t have complex thoughts or understanding of the correct syntax. Bandit, the dog, is the most advanced, although he rightly worries about whether he is a “GUD DOG” or not. A pirate, a rabbit, has the simplest thoughts, speaking in words, not something like a sentence. (“GRASS. NOW. EAT. GRASS.”) And Tinker is some of the little shit that needs to be tracked if you’re a cat owner. (“BOSSSS! ST!NK!”)

Thus We3 deliberately falls short of fully anthropomorphizing its protagonists. This makes their desperate, bewildered escape from the people who created them even sadder, and their search for “HOME” even more harrowing, because they still feel like animals despite being largely encased in sleek metal exoskeletons. filled with weapons.

Animals at Gunn’s Guardian of the Galaxy more eloquent than We3animals, which makes sense considering Bradley Cooper was the voice of Rocket, and it would be a shame to waste your sweet pipes. We3influence ended Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. This is not surprising given that Gunn has never been shy about his love of the comic, which was published by Vertigo, the now-closed division of DC Comics, Gunn’s new employer.

A few months after the first Guardian of the Galaxy the movie is out, Gunn told Morrison by using interview magazines What We3 was his “most favorite short comic” and that he cries every time he reads it. He also said that Don Murphy, the producer natural born killers and the first two transformers, continued to encourage him to adapt it for film. A year later, Gann again expressed interest in creating We3 film, recording Q&A on Facebook that the title is likely to be difficult to adapt to the screen. Hello tweeted last December We3 remains one of his favorite comics.

This Gunn would fall so hard in love with We3 has the meaning. The comic is excruciatingly emotional to the point of being almost manipulative, not unlike some of Gunn’s generous and serious climaxes, including guardians films (see: Groot’s self-sacrifice and Yondu’s funeral). Also, thanks to Quietley’s stellar art, very much violence – the opening scene is a close-up of bullets piercing the skull of a murder victim. Many of Gunn’s films also have a violent streak. You see it in slips, Greatand especially in his early work Troma, but there are glimpses of this in volume 3, also with his body of horror and an entire base made of… flesh. This combination of heartbreaking and heartbreaking is the basis of Gunn’s filmmaking.

This may explain why Gunn liked the Rocket character so much, and why the MCU version has a darker backstory than his comic book counterpart. Rocket precedes We3 for decades, debuting in 1976. The comic book rocket was genetically engineered to be an anthropomorphic animal caretaker of a planet full of mentally ill criminals. (Comics!) His MCU backstory, as detailed in GotG Volume 3much sadder. He was a sweet, innocent raccoon that the High Evolutionary experimented horribly on. He befriended other animal experimenters, including a rabbit named Flor, who, like We3Pirate is the least eloquent animal in the group. And when he is about to be written off, Rocket makes a daring escape – and not all of his friends manage to do so.

In an interview, Gunn said that telling Rocket’s story was a key part of why he wanted to come back and do volume 3 “He felt good about being an animal and turned into something else that he didn’t want to be,” Gunn said. Entertainment Weekly. “I think the transformation itself was extremely painful, but I also think it made him feel incredibly alienated from everyone else.”

Gunn didn’t We3 movie, and with the future of the DC Cinematic Universe on its shoulders, it’s doubtful it ever will be. But he doesn’t need it anymore. GotG Volume 3 is We3, wrapped in space superhero package. At the end of both, you will find yourself crying over a cybernetic animal that has escaped captivity and is looking for love. Looking for a HOUSE.