Story Synopsis: Ex Machina: Book One

Mitchell Hundred was a superhero and was able to save thousands of lives, but being the mayor of New York City is proving to be extremely challenging even for him.  Find out about Hundred’s hero days and why being mayor is harder than a superhero in this week’s Comic Rewind, Ex Machina: Book One.

Hundred was a humble civil engineer and was sent to investigate a glowing object under a bridge.  When he pulled it up and out of the water it almost blew off half his face. However, from that point on he could hear and communicate with machines.

Like any red-blooded American Hundred used this new found power to fight crime.  Hundred adopted the superhero identity of The Great Machine. He did small scale hero stuff for the most part, but on Sept. 11 he used his powers to divert the second plane from hitting the second tower of the World Trade Center.

Ex Machina

This act of heroism made Hundred practically a shoo-in for mayor of NYC.  However, it is an incredibly hard job. Hundred must deal with unions, a serial killer, controversial laws and a racist piece of art the city accidently funded.  This is going to be a tough few years for Mayor Hundred.

Ex Machina: Book One was written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Tony Harris, Tom Feister and JD Mettler.  DC’s Vertigo imprint published the volume in 2014.

Is Ex Machina Worth The High Praise?

This is a very highly rated and highly praised comic.  The story never sounded all that interesting to me, but I decided I’d give it a shot.  I’ve been wrong plenty of times about comic books, but not in this case. It was incredibly boring and not at all what I was looking for out of a comic book.

Ex Machina Hopes You Enjoy Big City Politics

I thought the comic would mostly be superhero stuff and mayor stuff sprinkled in.  However, it is the exact opposite of that.

Almost the entire book is about big city politics and I was bored out of my mind.  There is a bit of superhero stuff like The Great Machine’s origin and his retirement, but not him actually doing hero stuff.  We hear about it, but don’t see it.  

It was almost like reading a Batman comic and the entire comic is Batman sharpening his batarangs and doing crossword puzzles.  That is not what anyone would want out of a superhero comic. It removed all of the fun out of the comic.

Ex Machina

Why Do People Like This?

I have no idea why this comic is so highly praised.  The politics stuff isn’t even interesting. The only thing which was done well was the art.  However, even that wasn’t anything amazing and not worth reading just because of the art.

I suggest only reading this comic if you are really into everyday politics of a big city and hate superhero stuff.

Rating:

1/5

Where To Buy This Comic

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