Ex Machina #50, September
2010
Y the Last Man
introduced many readers – including me – to writer Brian K. Vaughn. His current
ongoing, Saga, is a sweeping space
opera with some of the most beautiful art his words have ever been paired with.
But Ex Machina,
his post-9/11 story about a superpowered New York City mayor, is his most
grounded tale and my personal favorite. It also has my favorite ending of any
series I’ve read.
Don’t worry, if you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it for
you. Suffice it to say, in the beginning of the issue, protagonist Mitchell
Hundred is sitting on a step, beer in hand, soliloquizing about how superhero
comics never have the tragic conclusions that are the logical end of every
other kind of storytelling, a powerful statement from a superhero about to see
his own story wrapped up. “Happy endings are bulls---,” he says. “There are only happy
pauses.” Which sums things up as vaguely as possible.
Through a series of flash forwards, we see how things pan
out for Hundred, his deputy David Wylie, chief of security Bradbury, mentor
Kremlin and the book’s other supporting players. As in any political race,
there are winners and losers.
One of the things I love about Ex Machina is how it twists then-recent history to meet the rules of
its world, from 9/11 to Iraq to a certain issue of Amazing Spider-Man. And the book’s final historical twist is every
bit as powerful as its first one.
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