Word: machina
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Early in Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days, the reader is hit with a surprisingly eerie re-imagining of the post-9/11 World Trade Center: the first tower is gone, replaced with the memorial beacon of light, but the second is still standing...
This new political graphic novel written by Brian K. Vaughan, penciled by Tony Harris, inked by Tom Feister and released on DC’s Wildstorm label, is full of such strikingly original moments. The First Hundred Days collects the first five issues of the Ex Machina series...
...superhero—in fact, the world’s only political superhero. Its protagonist’s remarkable abilities are an interesting wrinkle rather than the center of the plot. A civil engineer by trade, he stumbles onto a Generic Glowing Object (itself an instance of deus ex machina present in nearly every superhero’s origin story) that explodes and inscribes curving scars on his face reminiscent of the metallic tracery on a circuit board...
...real reason Ex Machina is so addictive, however, is that its characters are likeable and multi-dimensional. Mitchell’s dreadlocked deputy mayor generates much of the political tension, arguing with Mitchell over school vouchers and gay marriage. Kremlin, Mitchell’s grizzled Russian mentor, strains their relationship by trying to get Mitchell out of politics and back on the jetpack. Even Mitchell’s mother appears for a few quirky-yet-tender moments, when the story flashes back to his childhood...
Simply, there are not enough graphic novels that take place in the real world; while the strange dreamlands of The Sandman or the mutant-racism allegory of X-Men allow for beautiful artistic and narrative latitude, these books can refer to real-world issues only obliquely. Ex Machina, however, does it directly and with wry humor. Mitchell comments on the limits to his heroic powers: “People blame me for Bush in his flight suit and Arnold getting elected governor. But truth is…those things would have happened with or without...