Ex Machina, Book Three

Ex Machina: The Deluxe Edition #3

by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris (Illustrator), John Paul Leon (Illustrator)

In this volume, Mayor Mitchell Hundred - formerly known as the super hero The Great Machine --faces difficult decisions regarding New York City's drug laws. But will a string of brazen, violent robberies and a shocking suicide affect the the Mayor's policy? And in a second story, "Power Down," set during the New York blackout of 2003, the mayor must deal with a city gone dark. Award-winning writer Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, THE LAST MAN) deftly combines big city politics and superheroes in this critically acclaimed series. Collects issues #21-29, Ex Inside the Machine, and Ex Machina Special #3

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Superheroes, Politics, Comic Book

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 25, 2010

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

Reviews

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most politically intelligent comic book series ever (and, yes, I'm aware that many of those words in that sentence seem like they don't belong together), Brian K. Vaughan's Ex Machina Book Three, continues the adventures and misadventures of former-superhero-turned-elected-official Mitchell Hundred's tenure as Mayor of New York City. In this one we get a few more clues as to what gave Mitchell his super powers. More importantly, we see the evolution of Mitchell's unrealistic "I can fix everything" superhero mentality to a more fatalistic but probably more realistic "not everything can be fixed" mentality...

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 500th book!!!! I BEAT MY GOAL!!!!!!!

I actually wanted to pick a 500th book that I almost knew for sure I'd love! I go into my Nerd Cave this morning and look around at my 100+ graphic novel collection (I know. Good thing I married BEFORE I started really collecting) and finally decide on Ex Machina. It's one of the only Brian K. Vaughan titles I haven't finished and he is my favorite author of all time. SO here we go, volume 3!

Hundred is dealing with a few issues in this book. First up is legalization of weed. How the laws and how his old crime fighting days effected someone who was just selling some weed. It's really cool to see how they connect. Next up is a guy going around making people believe there is a fire in their building and attacks them. This causes the city to panic. If that's not bad enough the next part is all about a blackout of the entire city, and this time it's not Hundred doing it.

Good: I really loved all the past stuff in this volume. We get a nice look into Hundred when he first gets his powers and decides to do good. We see one of his chase missions. One of the best moments is watching him on 9/11 and how he saved the 2nd plane. I also enjoyed the villains in here, well the firefighter liar. The other one, not sure if you'd call him a villain, makes for a interesting set up for the future.

Bad: I thought Bradford's story here wasn't as strong as I had hope. His background is just okay.

Overall, Ex Machina remains strong. It's not a 5 star like volume 1 and 2, but still great, and a easy 4 star.

[rachel, x · Rating 4 out of 5]

*flails* For those that don’t know, this is my favourite graphic novel series. I have no idea what it is about these books that I love, but love them I do. The art style is realistic and just stunningly coloured. It isn’t as gorgeous as the Amulet series, but something about its simplicity and believable characterization makes me happy. The story follows Mitchell Hundred – an ex-superhero vigilante with the ability to communicate with machines who is the current mayor of New York City. Even though it mostly just follows his political career with flashbacks to his vigilante days, I cannot help but be engaged. It’s somehow incredibly personable and realistic. I love Hundred as a character, and find it so easy to slip into this world. I think there’s only one more bind-up in this series, and I’m going to be sad to see it over with.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This remains a great series. This reminds me of an HBO series at its best. The different subplots and odd characters and weird situations. This is really a political comic with some superhero moments tossed in, and it's amazing how well that works.

[Romulus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niezła trzecia część. Pojawił się w niej zarys ciekawego wątku, który może zmienić całą opowieść popychając ją w nowym, nieoczekiwanym kierunku. W zasadzie za to daję czwartą gwiazdkę. Kolejny tom, z kolejnymi epizodycznymi wątkami już by mnie trochę znużył. Aczkolwiek ta pierwsza historia z tej części była znakomita. Stawiała głównego bohatera w dwuznacznej roli, bez łatwych rozgrzeszeń. Do tego trochę manipulowała czytelnikiem zapowiadając się na komiczną przygodę, gdy tymczasem od początku wpisana była w nią tragedia.

[Nabila Chowdhury · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story picks up speed but loses a bit of nuance in this volume. Unsurprisingly so, as speed and nuance, most of the time, have a negative correlation. That said, BKV has the capability to balance both, and so far, it shows in the series. It features John Paul Leon as a guest artist for a special issue, Masquerade, compiled in this volume. His less realistic (I guess, also less digital) artwork was a breath of fresh air. Having said that, there is no way I am undermining the artwork of Tony Harris, which is top-class, and in this volume, we also get a glimpse of the creative process in the 'Inside the Machine' chapter.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still stays a solid story with good art. I am enjoying the political stuff a lot more than I usually would. I am wondering what the tunneler was all about...

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected a lot more from this volume.

First of all, let me give my opinions on the series thus far. I was unimpressed with the first volume but the premise was interesting enough to keep me going. The second volume was a huge improvement. There were new facets to the story and intriguing characters. I expected that Vaughan was building steam and would continue on with the strong from volume two. I fully expected to enjoy volume three.

Unfortunately, nothing really happened in volume three. Yes, there was some backstory on Hundred and Bradbury, but it wasn't enough to make this whole volume worthwhile. There was a weird new character who, some might argue, made Hundred's super powers more interesting. But the character said so little and was around for such a brief time that nothing truly noteworthy came from his cameo. Maybe the next volume will further explore that character and his role in Hundred's powers, but it seems just as likely to me that the next volume doesn't feature the character at all. What happened to the mysterious symbols that were killing people in volume two? I don't know because there was no mention of them in volume three.

On a more technical note, I'm not a fan of Vaughan's writing. It's clunky and unnatural at times. Hundred's powers also seem to be getting weirder. I mean, there's a point when he asks traffic cameras to delete all footage that features him and his friends. What? I get that he can talk to machines but that's pushing the line. Do his powers also make machines sentient enough to carry out commands like searching through footage and deleting the appearance of a few people?

That might not be so crazy though if we knew literally anything about Hundred's powers. I'm now about 30 issues into Ex-Machina and basically the only thing I know about Hundred's powers is that he talk to machines. I don't know anything about how they perceive him and I don't understand why he has those powers. Again, the new character kinda seemed like he would help to clarify something. In the end, he just made some vaguely interesting remarks.

The artwork was decent enough, though I don't think the artists always captured the full emotion of scenes. Sometime the characters are just staring off into space instead of showing true emotion. I also can't help noticing that as the series goes on, Mitchell Hundred is looking more and more like a generic Disney prince. It's getting to point where he's just too fake-looking for me to look at.

So in summary, Vaughan had built up some great momentum in volume two. I was excited to see him continue that momentum. Instead, Vaughan slowed everything down. He didn't mention the odd signs from volume two. He introduced a new character, but didn't do much with that character. The writing didn't improve and art continued to be just good enough (though the colors are nice if that counts for anything). I expect that we'll get some bombshell about Hundred's powers in the future of this series. Unfortunately, the potential of a bombshell just isn't enough incentive to keep me reading. I'll consider getting the next volume over the next few days but I think my Ex-Machina days are over.

[Hone Haapu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still no return from the tangent that vol. 2 took of on. This volume delves a little into others who have similar powers and their reactions to it.

The Good
Interesting takes on how other peoples "powers" could or would manifest.
Still some solid characterization of the mainstays throughout.

The Bad
We are still no closer to finding out what the mysterious Alien writing is or what are the true origins of Hundreds powers.
He now has an arch nemesis, which is a tad contrived because I thought the reason Hundred ran for Mayor was because being a "super hero" was nothing like the comics. Or practical. Or helpful.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want more superhero subplot, less politics.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trzeci tom Ex Machiny jest odczuwalnie słabszy od swoich poprzedników, ale i tak się prezentuje całkiem nieźle i przebija na głowę wiele innych super-bohaterskich produkcji. A w zasadzie peleryn, choć takowe postacie tu występują, nie ma prawie wcale. Są ludzie i ich problemy, a moce są bardzo niestandardowe.

Burmistrz Mitchell Hundred ma wieczne problemy. Jakby samo zarządzanie Nowym Jorkiem nie było wystarczająco kłopotliwe, tak ciągle coś wyskakuje, co wymaga interwencji jego interwencji. A to kwestia legalizacji lekkich narkotyków, a to konsekwencje dawnych czynów, które teraz zbierają żniwo w bardzo okropnej postaci. A to dopiero początek, gdyż potem padnie światło w całym okręgu, a na horyzoncie pojawi się kolejny przeciwnik, który zwiastuje coś poważniejszego.

W dodatku mamy jak zwykle całkiem sporo powrotów do tego co było i te flashbacki nie są jakoś nachalne, a dobrze skrojone. Dzięki czemu Ex Machinę czyta się z nieskrywaną przyjemnością. I ogląda, bo Harris daje tu ponownie popis. Plansze są wyraziste i szczegółowe. Tu akurat stały i olbrzymi plus całej serii.

Trzeci tom historii, która dostaje już nieco zadyszki i się zobaczy co przyniesie nam czwarty tom. Niemniej to nadal fajna historia, choć nieco inna. Tu bohaterem jest gość, który nie ma super siły czy szybkości. Gada z maszynami i wydaje im rozkazy. To pewne novum. I warto je docenić.

[WadeofEarth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been my favorite one so far, us until this point I have been mostly just enjoying the idea behind the story and the tension inevitable in a superhero/vigilante turned public servant. This book starts to add intruige to the how and why, while also filling in some much needed depth in the supporting cast, namely, Bradbury. I have felt, since the first book, that BKV was slacking in his character development, but tried not to hold it against him since he was doing a great job of balancing multiple timelines and maintaining the tension between legality and morality. In this third book Bradbury finally feels real to me, rather than just being Hundreds muscle, he had his own real background and complexity; while I still am a little bummed by lack of character development in this story so far, I can see it is not completely off the table.

This book was the first one that really left me jonsing for more (little inside joke with myself since this one touches on the idea of drug legalization); there are several theads in this one that seem to be picking up momentum, are definitely grabbing my attention, and I am excited to see how they weave in.

In Ex Machina, BKV continues to post interesting political ideas mashed in with a fascinating story.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

In which we think we are starting to see where Vaughan is going with the origin of Mitch Hundred's powers: he follows up the Witten name-drop and brain/brane homonym game from Vol 1 with new clues of the multiverse, embodied by a new mysterious character from an alternate Earth.

But then maybe we don't, and this is just going to end up being another season of Lost.

There's more of the usual political calculus and impossible choices that plague the denizens of City Hall. A nice afterword by Vaughan reveals his extensive research (he has embedded sources in government), and it shows in the plot and in Harris' artwork. Theirs is a true collaboration among masters of their craft, which is why they share the creator credit.

Vol 3 has another breakneck-paced plot, though it is risking getting unmoored. Even so, without the fantastical elements, we'd still have plenty of tension to keep the pages turning.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this series and wish I didn't keep hearing that the ending is not very good. Because of the way I tend to read series these days (spread out over years rather than one after another), I appreciate when storylines are longer but self-contained in one volume, and this series is so great at that. There are some dangling plot threads, like January working with Kremlin to oust Hundred from office from the inside so that he goes back to full-time superheroics or the nature of the mysterious visitor from an alternate timeline, but the main arcs are thought-provoking and resolved within the pages of a single volume. My only complaint is that due to the number of flashbacks and the fact that they're only flashbacks to a few years earlier, it's hard to keep track of whether we're in the "present" or the past. Basically if Hundred is wearing his Great Machine suit we're in the past, but the quick cuts can be jarring.

[Henry Blackwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those stories where I can’t see what’s coming next. I always marvel at novels and comics like that. Ones that you can’t predict what’s going to happen next but also confident that no matter what it is, it’s going to be good.

I’ve already explained pretty much the synopsis of what this series is and what it does in my last two reviews.

All I’ll say in this is that there hasn’t been a quality dip that I can discern and every issue is like a puzzle piece that fits into the board allowing more clarity at the full picture. Which is amazing. BKV is talented beyond any measure at the craft.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I picked up a volume of Ex Machina. I decided recently that I should go ahead and finish reading the series. I didn't have any trouble picking up on it again, even though it's been more than five years since I read the last volume.
It's still a very good series, with some great stories. The stories are fairly topical and sometimes specific to NYC in 2003 (or thereabouts) in a world that is similar (but not quite identical) to our own. But it doesn't feel at all dated, really.
Tony Harris' art is still great. And the one issue with John Paul Leon art is also really good.

[Daniel Freer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just keeps getting better and better

I absolutely love this story. I loved Y:the last man, and have read a little bit of Saga, none of paper girls I think it's called but this has been my favorite of Brian K. Vaughans, where Y had more action maybe or something I feel differently, the story in this that crosses into other genre's and stories and encompasses SO many great questions , thought provoking, with tons of great insight. At least that's how I feel, give it a read, you won't be disappointed.

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with totally episodic writing is that nothing comes off as having any consequence. Big words, big concepts, a pat ending or even not an ending at all to hig story points. And having established it's 'bit', and keeping it so small, it starts to repeat. Here, it's 'pick a hot button liberal political issue, talk about how politics is complex and never satisfies everyone, let the fucking mayor of one of the most important cities in the world wander down some dark alley and take out some underdeveloped antagonist type'.

Such a smart and brilliant concept. So terribly wasted.

[Francine · Rating 5 out of 5]

No notes. 🥰

This book features topics such as: marihuana, fire, power outage, a parallel universe(!), and the KKK.
We get to know a bit more about Bradbury's past, where Mitchell's powers come from, and an antagonist teamup, who will undoubtedly have something to do with the climax in 2005, as set up by book one. Exciting stuff!

I also really appreciated the look behind the scenes by Tony Harris at the end. It was fun to see some of the reference images and the actors used for the characters!

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ex Machina Deluxe Edition Vol. 3 collects Vertigo Comics issues Ex Machina 21-29 and Ex Machina Specials 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Tony Harris and John Paul Leon, and colors by JD Mettler.

Former superhero The Great Machine and now mayor of New York City Mitchel Hundred must unexpectedly tackle recreational drug use in the largest city in the United States after he slips that had previously smoked weed in college. Mayor Hundred also must keep a city from panicking when someone dressed as a firefighter starts conning his way into people’s homes and robbing them as well as a city wide blackout that will make Hundred question the origins of his powers.

This book continues to deliver while slowly revealing Mayor Hundred’s power origins. It’s a bit of a slow burner in that aspect, but the arcs are so gripping it’s easy for the reader to forget they are largely in the dark. In typical Brian K. Vaughan fashion, he routinely tackles important social, economic, and political issues that are relevant to the times. This series is over 20 years old at this point and it’s interesting to see that many of the topics are as relevant as ever.

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malo ipak domotava priču Vaughan ali na kašičicu.

Ali mnogo je zanimljivije, kao npr u ovoj knjizi, kad se prepliću aktuelna politička dešavanja i osnovna priča glavnog junaka ili poyadinske priče junaka i demistifikacija slučaja kako je Hundered postao to što jeste.

Dobre su ovde priče, mada je ona priča o drugom liku koji ima moći ostala u vazduhu da bi se razvlačila.

Odličan je i onaj special na kraju sa gostujućim crtačem i KKK klanom.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I look at the other reviews and I see I'm just about the only one who think there's too much superheroics and not enough politics. Downplaying the capes is what makes this series fresh, but it feels too much like the climax is going to be superheroics stuff rather than thinkpiece stuff.

It keeps becoming more and more about villains and sci-fi business.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a good series. There is some more stuff about about Hundred actually got his powers, and why. I think that is what is keeping me going right now with this series. I want to know how he got his powers. I'm really hoping it doesn't get wrapped up really quickly in the last book. It seems like they have given some clues here and there, but Hundred always seems to dismiss it as bullshit.

[Bassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, an excellent book. As usual, great art, original stories. I especially liked the standalone stories. Four stars this time, since I liked the Pherson story in book 2 more. This book hints at greater developments happening, can’t wait to read the next books.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely hitting it’s stride now. Some of the language used in the series is disappointing given the mostly progressive politics but I’m trying to look past that. Unfortunately, I find it takes me out of the story occasionally.

[Marek Michalak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this one much more interesting then volume 2, yet once again the overall themes are only tapped upon quickly and not solved at all, but the stories were interesting and the balance of power vs. superpower was well done in this one. Still a great book!

[Mr J D Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

West Wing meets superheroes

One of the smartest comics I've read. Cuts between the present and the past brilliantly and I'd love to see it turned into a TV show. The ideas it plays with, racism, politics and terrorism seem very relevant now, even though it was written years ago

[Hung · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars.
Bromance. Backstory. Even more backstory.

The missing half star was due to the excessive use of flashback. While they are all labelled clearly, it's still a little disorienting reading this volume in two sittings.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ex Machina

Whoa! This book was great. Really got the train moving on this one. And now we know where the so call bomb and from, another universe. Mind blown. Can't wait to read the next book.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series is begging to show its tread a bit. Also, it's trying too hard with the homophobic slurs to show what dialogue was like back in 2003. Still, it's a well executed tale of a fun concept that I'm glad is ending in two more volumes. Hopefully, it won't wear out its welcome.