Ex Machina: Volume 4

Ex Machina: Volume 4
(March to War)
Written By: Brian K Vaughan
Illustrated By: Tony Harris
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Wildstorm
Language: English
December 2006, $12.99
Genre: Comic/Graphic Novel

Mitchell Hundred has faced countless challenges in his time as mayor of New York City, from political scandals to supernatural killers, but nothing could have prepared him for America's coming war in Iraq. As a massive peace protest fills the streets of Manhattan, the mayor must choose between the liberty of his constituents and the safety of his city, but will a tragedy change that equation forever? Plus, in a never-before-told story from the mayor's super-heroic past, the Great Machine's horrific archenemy, a man known as Pherson, is finally revealed...

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Yep, I am on a comic kick. Maybe it is the art, maybe the storytelling, but its making Smirking a very happy camper. Luckily I have been reading some good ones. This week I continued my Ex Machina kick with the fourth volume. I have mixed feelings about this volume. On one hand it seems a bit shallow compared to the other volumes I have read thus far and subplots seem little more than filler. And yet at the same time I was entertained. I enjoyed Pherson and his ability to talk to animals though with the rest of the trade it doesn’t quite fit. The dialogue continues to be realistic and Harris’s artwork still rocks.

While as annoying cliché as they made Journal’s reasons to defect and be part of the march, I like Journal. It is one thing to have knowledge that your choices will impact the masses, but knowing that it will impact those you know and care about makes it weigh even heavier on your mind. While subplots were a bit watered down and didn’t quite fit I think that the main storyline and the impact of those events will spear in later volumes. Or at least I hope so. Mitchell wants to be the hero, but what happens when things don’t go as planned? How do you balance the rights of protesters while trying to keep them safe from the very thing they are protesting about?

In all it might not be the best of the volumes thus far, but it is still an amazing series.

3 out of 4 happy bibliosnark bookmarks

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