Ok. So Runaways does the trick. It’s the quick fix you need for super-powered teen pulp. That’s not bad. 
Consistently entertaining, with a lot of emotional mush. No doubt that Vaughan knows how to tell a comic book story either. Vaughan’s also the writer of Y The Last Man, a series for Vertigo which got a lot of attention, and again, I have no problem with it. But where he really knocks it out of the park is Ex Machina.
Simply put, Ex Machina is the one comic book out there now that I would recommend the most. To everybody. To anyone who just likes good stories. For anyone who wants to be knocked on their ass by a graphic novel series every single time they pick one up. I’ve been reading it in the trades, and after making my way through 3 I’m still hungry for more.
Ex Machina is about a former-superhero who becomes mayor of New York City. Not bad? I mean it’s what would happen ya know? Just check where the Terminator ended up.
Through a freak accident, Mitchell Hundred, a former engineer, gains the power to talk to machines. His first move is to strap on a jetpack and try out the super thing as a hero called the “The Great Machine”. But ya see, the story is too realistic to make this easy. Ex Machina’s New York is done as realistically as possible– so you can’t just expect to fly around pulling cats out of trees and saving babies. There’s not a lot really to do–and the police will just try to shoot you down whenever they see you.
So, Hundred hangs up the Jetpack and decides to run for office– but no one really gives a damn. And then 9 11 happens. What? Yeah. Only in this world– Hundred actually stops one of the planes from crashing and towers falling. Naturally his campaign after that is a landslide. Pretty fucking bold eh?
But what’s amazing is this is only the backstory. The actual comic then is an inside down-and dirty city politics story really about how tough it is to be mayor –whether you can talk to a coffee-maker or not. The dialogue, the scenes, the exchanges between Hundred and his staff, and his thuggish security chief– they’re all tight– wam-bam-bam rapid fire rounds of conflict. All ramping up. But then the mysterious origins of Hundreds powers start to fold into the plots, why can he talk to machines? Where did this force come from? And why does it always involve murders? Well New York’s a scary place man.
All this takes place in the shadow of one tower.
Not a bad way to play with the American psyche I’d say.
Comic-books– who knew?
