"Not in this world." But in others?

"Ex Machina" #47 from Wildstorm Productions (an imprint of DC Comics)

The noir drama Sci-Fi superhero action political thriller's last arc continues! It's noir in style, but thriller in pace. Political, Sci-Fi, and superhero in genre. Action in content. Drama by definition.

Another great issue on the heels of the last month's! If you're not reading this, you're silly.

Tony Harris' work on this issue has a much more fleshed-out (and much appreciated) 3D look to it, because cross-hatched shadows give his thick line-work more definition and volume, a bit more weight, while losing none of the pop and drama he'd regained in the previous issue.

Vaughan brings the Sci-Fi element (established in issue #44) of the source of his main character Mayor Mitchell Hundred's powers being potentially extra-dimensional back to the fore in this issue by making reference to yet another element of DC Comics lore that a comic-book fan like Mitchell Hundred would know all about: the infinite Earths of the Multiverse!

The issue opens with Mitchell at twelve years old debating about DC Comics character's different incarnations from different Earths with his friend Max. Upon the moment Kremlin says to Mitchel's mother "Not in this world" we cut to a hallucination in the present in which Mayor Mitchel Hundred sees an alternate Earth and meets an alternate version of himself. He comes to (after last month's first cliffhanger) thanks to loyal bodyguard Bradbury giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This is followed by a great joke reminding us of the Mayor's successful effort of many, many issues ago to legalize gay marriage in New York!

Soon we learn of Mitchell's real reason for squashing the 'abortion pill' suggestion of his closest aide in issue #45 during a conversation with Mitch's lawyer, the grown-up Max. (Who looks strangely like comic-book character Clark Kent...) There's an amazing and really fucked-up scene referencing the surprise ending of the first issue. The new 'villain' of the series Suzanne Padilla floating next to the single standing tower of the World Trade Center complex. Terrifying. Almost as terrifying as the moment of sudden shocking bloody gore Padilla perpetrates later in the issue. (Which was, I thought, a bit tasteless and off-tone for the series.) After the moment at the left, seeing her own reflection in a pool of blood, Suzanne says: "I'm... I'm doing the right thing." "Right?"

As the series gets closer and closer to concluding, I'm reminded of the opening Brian K. Vaughan wrote of the first issue. It depicted Hundred after all the chaos of his mayoral term broken and miserable, but willing to tell the story to... someone? Us? How close to that moment is Vaughan going to go, I wonder?

Most comic-books don't touch this stuff. Not in OUR world. And I don't mean the gore. The cohesive superhero universes that have been slowly built since the Thirties are too sensitive and too corporate-controlled. Not that superhero characters don't run for office. Captain America tried it once and I believe Green Arrow not only ran, but won the office of mayor of Star City in fairly recent years. But any stories wouldn't have had the latitude to tackle issues like emergency contraception and gay marriage even if they were in that position. Even most indie and underground comics are tame in their political stances compared to this. DC Comics (and its imprints) HAS been pushing these boundaries for years and years. (See: "Watchmen".) Is "Ex Machina" closer to our universe (i.e., the quote-unquote real world) or closer to the worlds of superhero fantasy presented by parent publisher DC Comics? It's up to Brian K. Vaughan. That is the beauty of all fiction.

"Not in this world", they can say.
But in others?, we reply.

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?
This stuff is great because it is art that explores the worlds of possibility like Sci-Fi, while maintaining a real connection to the topical horrors of our world through political comment like CNN. A potent mixture on an increasingly epic scale. That's good fiction.

Raising The Stakes

"Ex Machina" #46 from Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comics)

If I believed that Tony Harris and Brian K. Vaughan read this blog (which I don't, I'm sure they have more important things to do like writing and drawing "Ex Machina") and if I was uninformed enough to believe that writers and artists don't begin their work on a new issue until after the previous issue is in stores (which I'm not, I realize that production of an ongoing series happens on a ongoing basis) I might think that they actually read my review of the previous issue for this blog. Why, you ask? Because it's almost as if they took every word of advice I had for them. Is that possible? No. Just means we're on the same page. Or something...

Stiff figure poses? Gone. Lack of story development? Gone. In their place is some awesome work!
The confrontation between the super-powered mayor of New York City Mitchell Hundred and the newly super-powered crazy reporter Suzanne Padilla has come MUCH earlier than the last issue had me set to believe. And it was damn exciting too. She grabs Hundred and suddenly flies ("SHE FLIES!?" said the collective readership of "Ex Machina" last month) with him up and over the East River and drops him in! Cliffhanger 1! Then we see Hundred's former sidekick, Kremlin arriving at the home of Hundred's mother and announcing that she's in danger. When she informs him that she has some 'protection', Kremlin asks "You bought a gun?" to which she replies "No... My boy gave me one of his" and produces the green and purple taser-gun-thing that Padilla seems to want so bad! Cliffhanger 2!

But again, this series does not skimp on the politics! Before the confrontation, we also got further development on the 'abortion pill' question Mayor Hundred is wrestling with. Can (or should?) a mayor officially and financially support something as controversial as the 'morning after' pill? Can (or should?) a mayor do something unpopular, but healthy, on his way out of office since no one can stop him or do something unhealthy, but popular, in hopes of a future presidential campaign and thus more chances to help more people? Mayor Mitchell Hundred still has much to think about if he survives the drop to the river and the swim back to shore!


Harris' art has regained that OOMPH! that was missing (for me anyway) from last issue. The posing is smart, the framing is smart. The faces feel real again. Some of these panels are gorgeous! Dynamic tension rules the day! There's visual tension all over these pages and it works with the story wonderfully! The pose Padilla strikes as she drops Hundred into the river is all angles in her arms thrown akimbo in joy at defeating him. (The devilish smile on her face is priceless.) Those same angles are playing beautiful music in the shadows behind Mitchell Hundred's mother on the final page.

It's like a superhero comic made by Fritz Lang.

Jonny likey.

The only thing I'm missing is the resolution of that awesome flashback from last issue! We get a different and unrelated (at least by all accounts, it SEEMS to be unrelated) story of Hundred's super-hero past as The Great Machine. It sets up something VERY IMPORTANT about the aforementioned purple taser-gun-thingie, but I do hope we get to see if and how The Great Machine delivers that woman's baby on the Roosevelt Island tram.

Suffice to say, I am even more excited for the upcoming issues and the seres' conclusion! Vaughan and Harris are doing good work here for sure. As always, if you enjoyed Vaughan's "Y the Last Man", if you think superheroes and politics can and should mix, or if you just like drama, you should be reading "Ex Machina". And that's THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT!

Vaughan and Harris Ring In the New!

"Ex Machina" #44 from Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comics)

I just bought and read the latest "Ex Machina" yesterday. (I forgot it on Wednesday!) And it is excellent.

(I only wish that I had read issues #33-43! For you should be aware of this up-front.)

This series has finally broken through the barrier into a full-fledged Sci-Fi and I couldn't be happier! I'm not going to give away the first clues as to the origins of Mayor Mitchell Hundred's powers revealed in this issue. But be forewarned! They are SCI-FI. With a capital S and F. Unless they merely seem to be. Which is possible. This is not a simple cut-and-dried superhero book. It is a political superhero story about an engineer who suddenly gains the ability to communicate with machines under strange circumstances and becomes a superhero for a year before deciding it was dangerous and stupid and parlays the celebrity into a winning bid for the office of the Mayor of New York.

Weird, yes? Good also!


The first thing we see in issue #44 is Mayor Mitchell Hundred's faithful bodyguard Bradbury in flashback on the eve of Hundred's victory as mayor staring at some off-panel glowing thing and saying: "What the hell is it?" and there are a few times over the issue where the reader is in the same position. But, you know, in an enjoyable way: the head of a mechanical-looking man explodes to reveal a sentient, talking purple box. That kind of Sci-Fi-I-can't-yet-tell-what-is-going-on-but-I-like-it.

The really weird thing is that it involves a color spectrum of super-powers in a similar manner to what Geoff Johns has done with Green Lantern over the past few years. Far be it for me to call a professional out on cribbing from another's work. That IS after all part of how we all get better at what we do. I'm certainly guilty of it. Well...

Tony Harris' art is gorgeous once again. His smooth as liquid line-work gives every page great life and movement while the judicious use of that line allows every shape a weight and realism that escapes most comic-artists. Somehow only drawing the rough outline of lips (and sometimes not a completely enclosed outline) creates a more realistic rendering. Most shading is left up to the colorist, which is a smart technique that the comics industry should have picked up on sooner as quote-unquote 'fine' artists have been making portraits in oil paint that way for centuries.

As always the flashbacks (a hallmark of the series) are smart and fit in perfectly with the rest of the story.

The promise in this issue of a new direction and focus for the book (which coincides with the New Year's celebrations occurring in this issue and implied in the arc's title "Ring Out the Old") has me very excited about "Ex Machina" for the first time in several years!

You can be sure I will be picking up and reviewing this book next month!