Broken Frontier

There has been a terrorist attack on a peace rally in the streets of New York City and further violence stemming from the act is inevitable.

An anti-war peace protest has been attacked, seemingly with Ricin gas. A former Hundred administration worker who participated is in the hospital as a result. Hundred and his staff must scramble to find out who is responsible for the attack and why a peace demonstration would be the target. Meanwhile, violence against Middle Eastern minorities ignites in the streets.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Ex Machina is tailor-made as a vehicle for Brian K. Vaughan to spout political rhetoric. However, the story presented month in and month out keeps politics on the fringe. And any time policy is brought up, Vaughan gives each issue, big or small, a viable argument from both sides of the party line. Perhaps that is because Hundred has declared himself an independent—a sort of free spirit in the black and white world of politics—and those in his administration come from both of the major parties. As impressive as the dialogue exchanges were this issue, though, probably the best part of the writing here was the Great Machine’s villain montage—a series of several pages shown in flashback sequence where Hundred was attempting to pinpoint a specific person or group that would want to take revenge on him through hurting the citizens of his city.

I love the art on this book. Tony Harris provides some highly expressive and ultra-clean line work, and Tom Feister allows it to shine by holding back on the finishes. Mettler’s colors are award-worthy as well, as he establishes mood almost by himself with a darkening or lightening of the panels. The combination of this talent, headed up by Harris, leads me to the only description I could think of for such wonderful one-of-a-kind work: photo surrealism. That is, the line work by Harris and Feister is on-level with photorealism, while Mettler’s moody coloring schemes leave the reader with a sense that they are watching a dream (a nightmare in this case) unfold.

There is currently a fairly small readership for Ex Machina on a monthly basis, though numbers for the first two trade paperbacks (The First Hundred Days and Tag) are reportedly strong. This series didn’t win the 2005 Eisner for Best New Series for nothin’. If you aren’t on board yet, do yourself a favor and jump on now.