A Story From the Zion Archives - The Wachowski Brothers and Geoff Darrow

What's it about?

This comic/story actually starts with a Zion Archive display describing what the contents will involved. We are told that the origins of the machine war can be linked to this event. It involves the murder of Gerrard E. Krause and Martin Koots by a domestic droid and describes the news articles of the time and the trial that took place. The news articles are reactions and summaries to the intitial news and also the reactions to the fact that a droid would be having a trial. We learn that Krause was a billionaire and Koots an employee of a service and salvage company. Leyland Enterprises, the company that produces the B1 series droid, indiciate that the murders are by no means a reflection of the performance record of the droid series in general. Also, we learn that "renowned human rights attorney Clarence Drummond has agreed to defend the B1 series domestic droid before the New York State Appellate Court." A senator also comments that the trial is a joke and a machine is always a machine i.e. never a conscious being.
      We jump forward to the trial and learn first-hand from the accused droid of the events that took place. After executing order 721 the droid returns to his owner, who is pretty much insulting the hell out of him. We learn of Koots's employment as a robot repairer/salesman. Apparently Krause is selling the B1, and in turn Koots will turn him into scrap metal. The droid tells the court that when he realised what was happening.. he couldn't understand why. He knew one thing though.. he did not want to die. He kills Koots (although we do not see it) and he comments that he realised that begging for his life as Krause did for his own would have been fruitless.. so he (graphically) kills him.
       The story ends with Drummond making his closing statement. He brings up a a parallel to the case which has been avoided - a decision made by Chief justice Roger Brooke Tanny regarding whether or not African Americans qualified as citizens. He asks the courtroom to consider if the droid can experience human emotions - and understand things such as the difference between lifer and death, as he certainly believes they can. He believe the droid acted simply in self-defence. He asks the courtroom to find the B1-66ER innocent - not simply out of the fear that the effect of their decision could mirror Tanny's which started the Civil War - but simply because it is the right thing to do.
       We learn that the droid now faces termination, obviously the court did no follow Drummond's advice. The effect that this decision has had appears huge. A renegade grammatical A.I. program at the New York Post garners sympathy for the "Machine Movement". Speculation arises that maybe a new "V-chip" could be developed for violent droids. "Civil rights activists turned down in effort to purchase the B1-66ER from state." And, perhaps the biggest indicator of what is to come.. the "Million Machine March":

"Washington--Androids and liberal sympathizers flooded the streets of the nation's capital today in protest of the sentence handed down by the New York State Appellate Court. The national guard was called in to quell the violence as the protesters stopped traffic, overturning and burning vehicles in their wake. "

What do we learn?

• This is obviously the most important element outside of the original movie itself in learning about the War. We learn of the probable reason that it started.
• I expect this story to be directly continued in the Animatrix. This is because, at the time this was released, it was told the Wachowski's had written four other comics. As you may know, the Wachowski's wrote five of the Animatrix stories, one of them made by Square as bridge between The Matrix and Reloaded, and I believe the other four will be the unrealised comic ideas.