Volume three of Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina series is good, if a little disjointed. While there’s the usual enjoyable mix of municipal politics and superhero antics, I have a sneaking suspicions the issues collected weren’t necessarily planned as one cohesive narrative, but rather as a series of one-shots. (Spoilers for something over a decade old below.)There’re a few interesting narrative arcs this volume. The most obvious one revolves around an aspiring imitator to Mayor Hundred’s now-shelv...

So many things Yet to be revealed. But that's What makes it good!

Graphic Novel. Still good! Mayor Hundred orders a nonsensical crackdown on storefront fortune tellers (Egg MacGuffin anyone?), reports for jury duty, meets a new costumed crusader, and reunites with his mom. Art good! Writing...ah, Brian K. Vaughan, I am sensing your weakness. It starts with "C." Rhymes with schnontinuity? There's no hint of the artifact, and absolutely no followthrough on either this volume's costumed crusader or last volume's repeated assassination attempts, or...whatever went...

Not quite sure where this series is going, but for now I'll keep on reading.

In volume three, BKV finally digs into Mayor Mitchell Hundred's past and it's fantastic. We get to see his parents and his (presumably Vaughan's) love of comics in some much-appreciated meta fiction. And Vaughan continues to hint at Hundred's sexuality, but that still remains a mystery. The action, dialog, and artwork don't disappoint. A masterful series!

This very well written and illustrated volume collects issues eleven through sixteen of the book and has three self-contained stories. Mitchell Hundred is a superhero who communicates with and can control machines telepathically; it's set in an alternate 2002 where one of the towers has fallen, the other saved. He's also recently become the mayor of New York. In the first, single-issue, he orders crack down on fortune tellers, but that arc isn't pursued. The second, titular story is a three-part...

Finally see what's up with Bradbury.And still with the conspiring against Hundred. Good twisty plot about pot and firemen. Then I get a jolt of Canuck love:Between this reference and his later Stand On Guard For Thee series, I wondered if Vaughan had a Canadian bloodline. Turns out it's close - his wife is from Ottawa, Canada's capital city. No wonder I like this dude so much.

It has been a few years, but I finally got around to the 3rd volume of Ex Machina. Read the first two via my digital library. They never got any more volumes, and now they do not have the first 2 anymore.But I stumbled across Volumes 3, 4, and 5 on Comixology Unlimited. Yeah for me.Each volume is packed with up to 10 issues. This super-hero mayor of New York City seems to have one odd ball adventure after another. With both real life and comic book problems and characters.I will wait a week or s...

Vol. 3 of 10Each installemt still deals with political issue of the week but it is getting better as it progresses. My excitement to read them? Meh, still not reaching for the next volume before I even finish the current one. Quote: Mitch: You said dad was a saint. You said he was Atticus Finch!Mom: He was, nine days out of ten. But maybe Atticus used to beat HIS wife. Thirty chapters of good deeds never tells you a man's whole story. Recap to remind myself. ****Warning: possible spoilers ahead*...

Shit, man, there's no justice. There's just us.This was not the strongest volume. A mysterious robotic vigilante appears but not much is done with him.We meet hundred's mother and get some back story, but it doesn't really add anything to the character.A crime crackdown on fortune tellers...? Who cares? I did enjoy Hundred's jury duty stint, but then it went off the deep end. I think it would have actually been more interesting if it was just a normal trial, dealing with normal people. Imagine i...

Mayor Hundred has jury duty and finds out more about his dead father. I really enjoyed Hundred's jury duty storyline - he gets stuck in a case involving a bag of feces on a salad bar where both the plaintiff and defendant think he would be standing behind them. There's some fun meta stuff about comic books in this one as we see Hundred trying to find a certain issue of Superman for a friend. I didn't like the storyline concerning Hundred's mom and dad as much but still - good stuff!

Brian k. Vaughan's "Ex Machina" series only improves with each volume. In a review for a pervious collection, I made a comparison between this comic and the Sorkin-written "West Wing" television show and it is strange to find that, especially three comics in, this comparison holds: we got story lines that are just dropped, characters from past issues absent, political commentary wrapped in musical dialogue, and a large ensemble working for and against may Hundred. This volume continues the back

This is still pretty strong but I wouldn't mind a little more continuity; three shorter story arcs which all feel very separate, with very little comment on prior events (aside from a passing mention of getting some heat from the gay marriage bill). Language is fruity and there's some decent violence here. The artwork is pretty impressive though there are some odd facial poses and expressions. Still, pretty good and definitely keen to keep reading.

One-and-a-half stars.(view spoiler)[Three different stories. (1) A psychic apparently knew about 9/11, but still Hundred decides to crack down on psychics. (2) Hundred serves on a jury, but the jury is held hostage by a schizophrenic who demands Hundred use his "powers" to fix him. Hundred speaks to the news tickers in Times Square to alert them of the situation and the schizophrenic is sniped. Meanwhile, a copycat hero is flying around the city, much to the distress of Bradbury and Kremlin who

Political plot on jury duty and Gulf War Syndrome; Hero plot on vigilantism and father origin issues.

I’ve been reading some heavy hitters over the summer and compared to Gideon Falls, or even Vaughn’s own Y: The Last Man, this book is calm, with no real WTF moments. I feel like that makes this book easy to underrate. That would be a mistake. It is a really solid read, more importantly it is an enjoyable and engrossing one. The visuals are comparatively subdued, in part because they take place in “the real world” but I am really enjoying Harris’ low key, realistic look. The book was probably mor...

First issue was great until the ending. Other two storylines were decent (view spoiler)[Like seeing the Romani woman correct Mitchell when he said the word "g*psy" which is a SLUR for the Romani people no matter what second definition added years after the word was created says as well as delving a bit into Romani facing systemic racism and Mitchell relating to the woman Zehala over shared guilt about 9/11 was great until he snitches her out. Although hey at least I see in a modern comic saying

I'd heard a lot of buzz about this series, and I really enjoy Brian K. Vaughan's previous work, so I decided I had to check this series out. I'll echo the same sentiment I had in my review of volumes 1 and 2: I'm just kind of disappointed. It has a lot of potential, and there are some really interesting nuggets here. The main character can talk to machinery due to a freak accident, was a crime fighter (now the mayor of New York), and he's a 9/11 hero (view spoiler)[ (having saved one of the Two

I don't know what it particularly is about this comic that I like so much, but I just want to keep reading it forever. It's like lighthearted former-superhero West Wing. And that includes the bad, television-y parts of West Wing (they're there; you just made yourself forget them).The last issue with the family stuff and the two-bit, two-dimensional hick gangsters is like dumb Preacher-lite, and Hundred continues to call forth the occasional, unfortunate in-head comparison to contemporary white l...

Years ago, I made weekly trips to my LCBS.Ex Machina was one of many series that I read on an ongoing basis. And it was also one of my most prized reads.This volume contains the point at which I stopped going to the shop weekly, and, as such, contains the first stories that I had never read before.Did I build this book up too much. Are the first two volumes that much better than this one, or is this some residual memory of a time where comic books places less of a role in my life?I'm not altoget...