Ex Machina, Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The first volume of the Eisner Award-winning series featuring Eisner Award-winners author Brian K. Vaughan and artist Tony Harris. Set in our modern-day world, EX MACHINA tells the story of civil engineer Mitchell Hundred, who becomes America's first living, breathing super-hero after a strange accident gives him amazing powers. Eventually Mitchell tires of risking his life merely to maintain the status quo, retires from masked crimefighting and runs for mayor of New York City, winning by a landslide. But Mayor Hundred has to worry about more than just budget problems and an antagonistic governor, especially when a mysterious hooded figure begins assassinating plow drivers during the worst snowstorm in the city's history!

Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

One of the Top 5 Comic Books of 2004 December 1, 2004
39 out of 40 found this review helpful

Brian K. Vaughan has crafted a parallel New York City that feels absolutely real and populated it with 3-dimensional human beings that go far beyond comic book stereotypes - a legitimate spiritual descendant of Alan Moore's Watchmen. Summarizing the plot would be selling it short, because there are multiple layers at work here - superheroing, politics, the human condition - and Vaughan's barely scratched the surface so far. If there was ever a comic book that could seamlessly transition to traditional fiction, this is it. Unfortunately, that would mean missing out on Tony Harris' eye-popping artwork.

For anyone that thinks comics are about men in tights and cartoonish "BIFF! POW!" visuals, Ex Machina will set them straight. As a native-New Yorker, I'm jealous that there's no Mitchell Hundred for me to vote for mayor. As a comic book fan, I'm glad to see a book like Ex Machina being published regularly, and to much-deserved critical acclaim.

5 out of 5 stars

Never Would Have Thought I'd Like Such a Thing... October 5, 2005
16 out of 21 found this review helpful

Pronounced mah-kin-ah, this little ditty I picked up only because I saw it had recently earned an Eisner Award, which in the world of comic books, is a very big deal. The story is about a former hero turned politician. Not the stuff of captivating reads, in my opinion. On top of that, the writer, Brian K. Vaughan, was someone I was previously unfamiliar with. But, the buzz was big, the accolades were huge, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The result was quite shocking.

I loved it. If you'd told me I would enjoy a book whose main character was the mayor of New York City, I'd have told you that you were nutso. It's simply the writing and the artistry. I honestly think Vaughan and his artist, Tony Harris, could put out a comic book about an agoraphobic farmer and it would still win awards.

Mitchell Hundred is a civil servant of NYC who happens across a strange device at the base of a bridge's, er, base. It explodes literally in his face, thus granting him the singular ability to converse with machinery of almost any magnitude, the utterly simplistic to the drastically complex. For instance, he can command a gun to jam, preventing its detonation. Eventually, he dreams of a rocket pack allowing him to fly. His older friend and role model, Kremlin, helps him build it. He becomes a hero, calling himself The Great Machine. However, after only a year, he gives up the hero business, deciding that he's causing more harm than good. Instead, he runs for mayor. And he wins.

The arc of The First Hundred Days deals with a portrait of Lincoln with the n-word written across it debuted in a museum funded by the tax payers, someone killing off snow plow drivers, as well as many flashbacks to Hundred's days as The Great Machine.

As stated, this doesn't sound terribly interesting, but it is! I believe it is Vaughan's pacing and script that forces us to keep going, as well as Harris's perfectly executed sequential art. The dynamic characters, the mystery of who is murdering city workers and why, plus the conflict of the portrait's controversy creates an entrancing plot. On top of it all, Vaughan seems to know just enough about the workings of city government to make us believe that Hundred really is the mayor of NYC.

Oh, and there's a really, really interesting sub-plot (although I can't help but think it will develop into a major plot) dealing with 9/11. Yes, 9/11.

If you pick this book up looking for the stuff of Superman and Batman, you'll be disappointed. If you pick it up looking for a political drama with a touch of super hero flair, you'll be quite pleased.

I highly recommend you pick up Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days. If you like it, the second trade paperback in the series just came out. It's called Ex Machina: Tag. It's a good time to jump on board with only two trades out so far.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

4 out of 5 stars

Superhero comics ain't always about superheroes February 15, 2005
4 out of 8 found this review helpful

Well, the best ones sorta are. Watchmen, Squadron Supreme, Wanted, Authority and Top Ten. If you're still telling your friends why they should read these (even if they won't) then I strongly recommend you check out Ex Machina. There's a strong super-hero component to the story, but the focus is on real world concepts like freedon of expression as seen through the life of ex-superhero, now mayor of NYC.

Along with Sleeper it's one of the best reviewed monthly comics from the past couple of years that no seems to be reading. Here's hoping being collected into a trade paperback keeps it being published; I like getting my fix monthly. But I'll be buying a couple of these as gifts.

4 out of 5 stars

Terrific storytelling October 19, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I wondered why the art in this graphic novel was so much more "lifelike" than in most -- and then discovered, at the very back of the book, a section on the live models on whom the art was based. Not something you see very often, and it certainly worked in this case. Mitchell Hundred is a civil engineer with the City of New York who gets zapped by a mysterious device attached to the underwater base of the Brooklyn Bridge and suddenly finds himself with the supernatural ability to communicate two-way with any machine more complex than a pair of pliers. With the help of a couple of friends, he decides to fight evil by becoming a superhero -- but he doesn't consider the potential harm of jumping into the middle of things uninvited and unwanted. He finally decides to hang up his costume (and a pretty dorky costume it is, too) and use his celebrity to run for mayor on an independent ticket. But he's also promised not to use his powers, so how is he going to manage a city like New York without political experience? All this part of the story is quite good and (within the parameters of "suspension of disbelief") quite believable, and the interactions among the characters are excellent. But the final solution to a series of murders is exactly the sort of deus ex machina the author defines at the very beginning. Maybe that's deliberate, but it's damned annoying. Good story and art, though, and I'll be watching for a sequel.

5 out of 5 stars

Top Series of 2005 November 6, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a smart, gritty series set in present day New York City. The main character is a retired superhero who becomes mayor. The plot alternates between his superhero past and political present. Tony Harris' artwork fits the story and he provides some striking full-page panels. I enjoyed this so much that I started Vaughn's other series 'Y: The Last Man'. "Ex-Machina" is perhaps my favorite current series and I'd highly recommend this to people who usually don't read comics.

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