Broken Frontier

Wylie does some politicking with the family of a murdered protestor and Mayor Hundred puts on a mask to go vigilante, leading to an end no one expected.

In the final installment of "March to War," Mayor Mitchell Hundred needs to find some answers. Journal is in a coma, war protestors have been killed, and someone is responsible. Against the better judgment of Bradbury, Hundred uses his powers to follow a lead. A few altercations later it seems little is revealed, and the mayor is no closer to solving his problems than he was before the storyline began. Though the reader may be left with more questions than answers, he feels fine because the good mayor is in the same situation.

Do to monetary issues, I do not pick up this title with any regularity, but I wish I did. Vaughan mixes superheroics with political intrigue as if they were meant for each other. He voices the complexities of being a hero in a world so much like our own, it can be eerie. Ex Machina is about a noble leader struggling to keep his nobility in a society that is, at best, ignoble. When Hundred wore a costume, he was not treated well; he was ridiculed, harassed, and feared. Then he saved the second tower on 9-11 and everything changed. In "March to War" Vaughan continues capturing serious issues of the day including racism, police brutality, war, protests, and terrorism, and manages to spin them in such a way that it is as interesting, as fun, to read as any standard fair superhero comic. When considering all of his work as a body, it may feel as though Vaughan is on a mission to make all types of comic books better. I would wish him the best of luck, but it seems he doesn’t need it.

Harris and Feister keep up Vaughan’s pace nicely. They work together like gears in a clock; there several awards can attest to that. Their style, light lines, detailed backgrounds, expressive faces, and realistic, sharp figures, keep me turning the pages for more. They can capture a discussion in the posh offices of a New York mayor on one page, a frightful scene that was inspired by 9-11 on the next, and a brawl on the street on the third, never skipping a beat as they do so. These two are unique in the comic book world in that their abilities allow them to become superstars but instead of drawing books with huge fan followings or outrageous possibilities for gains, they stay with drawing the significant stories, the stories that will be talked about years from now, the stories like Ex Machina.

Ex Machina is one of the most motivating, poignant books out there. It is breathtakingly rendered and has real world echoes with complex characters that will keep any reader coming back for more, asking, "What’s next, what could possibly be next?"