Broken Frontier

Bradbury, Mayor Hundred’s head of security, gets a spotlight issue that digs into his storied past and how he and the mayor became entwined.

Bradbury is a pretty tough guy, but as with most sidekicks, he isn’t paid his due. He has been there for Hundred since the birth of the Great Machine, but what we don’t know is that he has been a loner for most of his life. His father left him with his grandmother (who passed away not long after), his wife left him, and even though he served in the Gulf War and works for the mayor of New York City, those in charge always seem to let him down. Because of all this, he has been forced to become a survivor who depends solely on his own means.

Vaughan hasn’t given us much in the way of one issue personal glimpses of the supporting cast with Ex Machina like he has multiple times in Y: The Last Man. Most of the time these stories are a welcome change of pace after longer arcs of four to six issues, and this one is no different. Bradbury’s character is elevated from a simpleton with a gun to something much more complex, noble and sympathetic. By the end of the issue, I was sort of left wondering if he would be staying with Hundred’s administration because he is clearly underappreciated by everyone around him.

The little extra time Harris has been given to finish his work on this title over the past year or so has really paid off. His work has always been consistently tight, clean and detailed, but even now I can see a marked improvement over some of the earlier issues of Ex Machina when it was sticking to a monthly schedule. This may also be because he works so well with his other artistic collaborators. Feister brings a minimalist approach to his inks, but at the same time expertly brings out the fine details of every shot and panel. Likewise, Mettler’s colors are perfectly attuned to every scene and setting, making this book one of the finest visual treats on the market.

Ex Machina isn’t always one of those comics that grabs you by the throat and demands you to listen. That lack of in-your-face attitude is probably why I like it so much because despite Hundred’s abilities and history, the characters, the situations and their subsequent reactions are probably about as realistic as any book out there right now.