I hadn't seen either
of the first two volumes of Ex Machina, but one of the virtues of
this story (issues 21-29 and two specials of the comic) is that its
structure, with flashbacks to multiple stories, brings the reader up
to speed quickly, with no need for 'previously in Ex Machina'.
Mitchell Hundred has
the ability to speak to and control machines; he also has the curse
of having to listen to them. He was turned into the world's first
super hero, The Great Machine, by a Russian emigre called Kremlin,
flying with the aid of what looks like a vacuum cleaner strapped to
his back; it's the most bizarre super-hero get-up since Commando
Cody. His career as a super hero doesn't appear to have gone too
well; part of the story here is the fate of a low-level pot dealer he
captures after an epic chase. But on 9/11, The Great Machine saves
the second airplane from flying into the Twin Towers, and on the wave
of that success, Mitchell Hundred winds up elected mayor of New York.
Now in Gracie
Mansion, some of his past is coming back to haunt Hundred, not least
the tragic fate of the pot dealer after he was sent to prison, and
also the death of one of his aides, Journal Moore, whose sister is
now working for Hundred.
What's intriguing
about Ex Machina is its portrayal of the inside of politics; it's
like a more realistic version of The West Wing set within the
confines of a super-hero story. There are elements working against
Hundred's adminstration, and the who and why is an ongoing mystery,
but the main conflict is between Hundred's desire to do 'the right
thing' and the political realities that make that sometimes next to
impossible. Given that Hundred is in effect a Superman, you can sense
occasionally a touch of the Ayn Rands slipping in, but by and large,
it's a better glimpse into New York City politics than you'd see in
most fiction. And given that Hundred is very much a flawed hero,
those conflicts parallel many of the macro-concerns his governance
throws up.
The time-shifting
story-telling works brilliantly, and Tony Harris' art is very good at
the relatively static political scenes, able to convey some internal
drama. I was intrigued, enough to play catch-up with the series and
follow it going ahead.
Ex Machina: Book
Three
by Brian Vaughn
(writer) and Tony Harris (artist)
WildStorm/DC Vertigo
£19.99 ISBN 9781401250034
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