I am quite saddened that Brian K. Vaughn was wrapping up his comics career (hopefully not forever, though) just when I was getting into them. I have so far read the first 4 trades of Y: The Last Man, Pride of Baghdad, and his first run on Runaways...and I've loved them all. He has such refreshing and interesting ideas, and it's a shame we are missing out.

Story:

The story here is just as strong as you would expect from Vaughn (BKV just sounds like the name of a serial killer to me). It all starts with a brilliant concept (as per usual)...what if a superhero had saved one of the Twin Towers from destruction on Sept. 11th, and then used this event to launch a political career? The world he presents in this first trade is filled with realism and real, authentic characterizations of the people inhabiting it. All the little details and comments make it feel like a Ne York City within the realm of possibility. Additionally, the threads of a number of interesting storylines are put out there, creating many possible future stories.

9/10

Art:

The emotional realism of Tony Harris’s masterful pencils act in a complementary fashion to the realism in the writing and characterizations. The way in which he renders his faces creates a sense of meaning and expression that transforms both the most dramatic and the most functional scenes into composite pages capable of standing on their own. I know that a number of people have taken issue with how he creates his art, but looking at the final product, I appreciate the lengths he goes through to present to the reader the most useful and accurate image possible. If taking photos of a person making a particular face and then drawing from that allows him to produce art of this quality, then I am all for it. I appreciate the artistic procedure pages included in the trade as well...the transparency is well-appreciated. I should also give a pat on the back to Feister's inks and Mettler's colors as they are extremely strong in this as well.

9/10




Overall:

At it's core, Ex Machina is an adult comic that deals with an adult world, and people looking for the escapism offered by many superhero titles will be disappointed here.This book is somewhat unique on that it truly spends as much time on creating situations, characters, and settings as it does on action and suspense. In addition, Vaughn's wit (and a little splash of science fiction) bring a little well-needed happiness when necessary. All in all, this is a quality book which is worth every penny.

9/10