Brian K. Vaughan: Ex Machina

What would happen if a former superhero ran for public office? If it were anything like how Brian K. Vaughan imagined it, said superhero would want to think twice before taking the oath of office. Ex Machina follows Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer who became the superhero known as "The Great Machine" after a strange device on the Brooklyn Bridge exploded. The device gave Hundred the ability to "speak" to machines, allowing him to influence them to do his bidding. He can command complex machines (simple, circuit-less machines, like bows and arrows don't respond); Hundred can change the television channel by asking it, can jam a gun with a yell, and has gained a sort of mastery over engineering (he subsequently built a jet pack and a laser gun).

Hundred spent about a year and a half as the Great Machine, but quickly became disenchanted with the job, since he seemed to do as much damage as he prevented. He is neither muscular nor invulnerable, so being a superhero is a very dangerous job. And in addition to dealing with criminals, he has to avoid the police, who want to arrest him for vigilantism. Unlike Commissioner Gordon of Batman comics, New York Police Department's Commissioner Angotti does not see the Great Machine as a solution to New York's crime problem. Hundred eventually decided to take off the jetpack and run for the position of Mayor of New York. Running as an Independent (woot!), Hundred is initially dead last in the polls until one last job as the Great Machine propels him into the positive side of public sentiment.

Ex Machina takes place in the "real" world; Hundred is the only superhero (though a supervillain eventually came to power) and real-world events come to pass (the 2003 blackout in the Northeast provided the backdrop to one story arc). Of course, due to the events of the series, there are certain divergences in history. The "one last job" was 9/11; after the first plane hit the North Tower, Hundred suited up and stopped United 175 from hitting the second tower.

The narrative begins on Hundred's inauguration day in 2002; as we see his tenure of mayor face numerous trying situations, flashbacks to his time as the Great Machine are juxtaposed to show why Hundred tackles the situation the way he does. His relationship with Angotti, whom he retained as commissioner, is somewhat strained, especially when he uses his powers to prevent an assassination attempt. But his fear to actually suit up and use his powers to fight criminals comes from his experience with an adversary named Pherson.

Reviewers have referred to Ex Machina as "West Wing meets The Rocketeer". I can't fully comment on this, since I've never seen either of those (I know, I know, The West Wing is really good; it's on my list), but the meaning is true. This book interestingly weaves together politics and superheroics; often, the exploits of the Great Machine and the political work of Mitchell Hundred are fairly separate. But the fact that the Machine and Hundred are one person forces him to tie the two together. Since people know that Hundred is the Great Machine, he cannot do anything as the Machine that goes against his politics. Though that would be a bigger problem if he as Hundred didn't have to continually worry about the fallout from the decisions he makes as mayor (such as presiding over a gay marriage).

Ex Machina has a planned ending, but it has not yet reached it yet. I am also behind, since I am a trade-waiter (for non-comic book fans out there, trade paperbacks are the bound collections of issues that are available in mainstream bookstores in addition to comic book stores; people who wait for the trade paperbacks to come out, as opposed to buying individual issues, are known as trade-waiters). Therefore, since I don't have the whole story, I will not go in depth into the book's themes. As of right now, the book seems to be about the political divide in America as well as a realistic look at the superhero genre.

Up next: Back to the real world...