Customer Reviews

Ex Machina, Vol. 2: Tag

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wow. If you've ever read any of the more cereberal comics that have been published over the past couple of decades, this one has the potential to be one of the best ever made.

The premise is fantastic, and long overdue. In a slightly altered future, a civil engineer named Mitchell Hundred finds a device under the Brooklyn bridge that malfunctions, giving him the ability to speak with machinery. With the prodding of an idealist friend, he takes up a costume and fights crime under the moniker, 'The Great Machine'. Jump forward, and due to his preventing the second world trade center tower's destruction, he has managed to win his bid for election as mayor of New York city.

But though the premise is great, it is not what makes this a great comic. Vaughan proved his chops with his previous comic, but the setting of it did seem to restrict him as a writer. Ex Machina could have easily played out its hook, but the characters are so brilliantly realized that you fast forget why you picked it up and start loving it for entirely different reasons.

Hundred himself is fantastic as an unlikely mayor of New York. And what makes him so interesting is that he is not the man for the job, and Vaughan realizes this. Hundred is a wonderfully naive politician, tackling problems that others wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. He leans on his staff constantly, despite the fact that they are heavily devided on every political issue. He wants to use the power of office to help people, but the beginning of the series shows him getting a hard lesson in the desires of the public. And though he continues to overcome the problems that have come his way, the reader can sense something even more dangerous on the horizon, be it political or paranormal.

The art is clean yet emotive. Tony Harris does an excellent job with what is largely a talking heads affair. Yet he manages to bring excellent setting and mood into all parts of the comic, even if they aren't expected. And when action does occur, he's still on the top of his game. Most of all, it's an extremely modern looking book, from the front cover to the interior panels.

Book 2 continues soon after the conclusion of the first collection. It delves more into the mystery of Hundred's powers, and sees him address gay marriage, a friend from his superhero days, and murderer on the loose in the city.

The book is smart, witty, and stunningly contemporary. And there is so much more than meets the eye, in terms of what the book is actually about. I hope Vaughan realizes what he has here, because something this good might not come around again for a long time.

In the next five issues of Ex Machina, Brian K. Vaughan's story of a superhero-turned-mayor of New York City, Mitchell Hundred's administration has to contend with more hotbed political issues as well as some "unnatural" occurreneces that are connected to the device that gave Hundred his powers.
After a brief, and fairly unsuccessful, stint as the superhero The Great Machine, Hundred hung up his tights and jetpack and became New York City's mayor. A strange device gave him the ability to "communicate" with machines, but while he tries to put that life behind him in his new political career, Hundred can't seem to get away from his old life.
Hundred's political career is put in jeopardy when he decides to not only endorse, but perform a gay marriage between the brother of his Deputy Mayor and his conservative boyfriend. If that weren't enough, a mysterious symbol that was found on the device that gave Hundred his powers has been showing up throughout the city, and it is having dire effects on people who stare at it for too long. Along the way, we see flashbacks of Hundred's life during his campaign and we see his history with the NSA.
While the explanation for events at the end was a little confusing, this is still a solid collection. Vaughan can't seem to go wrong as there is nothing by him that I've read that I haven't liked. Runaways, Y: The Last Man, Ultimate X-Men, and this have all been great reads.

This second trade paperback met my lofty expections with its outstanding plot, characters and artwork. Fulfills the hype and highly recommended. I'm eagerly awaiting Volume 3 and tempted to buy the individual issues until then.

Jerry, I am impressed with the quality of the Tag book you sent me, but more importantly I am very impressed with the speed in which I received the book. I will definitely look for you site to order books in the future. Thank you.

This is such a perfect blend of story and art with a terrific amount of politics and recent history to almost make you forget you're reading a comic book. The flashes to and from the present were done so well. My only slight complaint was this collection was too short. But, maybe that's just because I want more of a good thing.

The story really starts to get juicy in this second volume. While the first volume laid the foundation of who our characters are and their backgrounds; in this volume, our hero/mayor finds himself facing moral and ethical dilemmas. Vowing to not use his powers in his position as mayor, our hero is left to handle a series of murders rapidly occurring throughout the city, which law enforcement, either cannot solve, or are covering up.

TAG is the second volume of the there's-no-other-way-to-put-it BEST super-hero comic on the market today, EX MACHINA. TAG, like all of the best of Vaughan's Ex Machina stories, advances the story of Mitchell Hundred, onetime super-hero, now mayor of New York City all the while giving us important details in Mitch's backstory. TAG is motivated by two events--a piece of debris exerts a deadly influence over a few citizens in the New York area and the brother of the Deputy Mayor of New York City wants to get married to his boyfriend and have the ceremony officiated by Mayor Mitchell Hundred. The piece of debris may have some connection to Hundred's powers. And the opportunity of officiating at the wedding of two gay men begins the extremely subtle examination of Hundred's sexuality; is he or isn't he gay? The art is beautiful, the characters compelling, the plot engaging and the dialog is witty, clever and thought-provoking.

What I like about Brian K. Vaughan's writing is that each of his series are so different. He's got Runaways over at Marvel, which is a super-hero story with a tone comparable to Harry Potter. At the same time, he's also got Y: The Last Man Book which is a continuous sci-fi/adventure story spread over the course of ten volumes. Now with Ex Machina, he's created a political drama with a super-powered main character. As of now, each trade paperback seems to stand alone, telling a self-contained story, which is new for Brian K. Vaughan. The first volume was a great start and I liked this, the second book, even more.

The story of this maintains the same formula as the last one. There are two things going on in Mayor Hundred's life at once, a political conflict and something to do with his superpowers. The political conflict is more interesting than last time, and shows Hundred step up as a champion for gay rights, all the while trying to convince the public that he, himself, is not homosexual. It's funny, touching, and has a really poignant end, but the real punch of this book is the plot that has to do with Hundred's powers. Someone from Hundred's past seems to be tracking him down and killing people in the process, using the symbol that was on the artifact that originally gave Hundred his powers. Flashbacks to past events really make this story a tragic one, and Vaughan's fans know that if there's one thing he writes well, it's tragedy... and comedy. Heck, he pretty much nails everything.

8/10

Brian K. Vaughan, Ex Machina: Tag (Wildstorm, 2005)

Vaughan continues on with Ex Machina, with Hundred stirring the pot with some scary little sticks, much to the combined dismay and delight of his staff. There's a second mystery subplot involving the disappearance of Hundred's former NSA handler, but as in the first book, it's almost window dressing. (There is, however, some indication that these little plots are going to add up to something in the future.) The really gripping part of the story, somewhat surprisingly, is the political end-- how will the Mayor of America's largest city handle, say, gay marriage? (And how will the public react?) It's great stuff, though I was ready to find Vaughan and throw him (instead of the book) through the nearest window when I hit the last page and the painful cliffhanger ending. If only I'd thought to put the first three books on hold at the library instead of the first two... ****

The second volume of Ex Machina was really exciting. What was really refreshing was that it wasn't very predictable. The story itself was quite good, intertwining between a murder mystery, mysterious signs showing up in the subway relating to Mayor Hundred, and politics. The artwork also was very good. Just a really good follow up to the first volume, which was quite good itself.