Ex Machina Book One

I missed out on this series the 1st time around, having read the excellent Saga and Y the Last Man by Brian K Vaughan I was eager to devour more of his work. Picking up this new book 1 has opened by eyes to a series full of fantastic character writing and story telling.Formally collected as 2 seperate volumes, this books collects issues 1 to 11 of the limited series. While the protagonist depicted in these books is a former super hero the stories touched on in the pages of this volume cover a broad range of subjects you would not normally see in a traditional super hero volume.As a self-outed ex superhero who has the ability to control machines our main character has retired and run successfully for mayor of New York. The book weaves some of the super origin story, campaign history and current political struggles into the mix. we see race and gender politics considered as well as examinations of the media.Set in a world very soon after 911 in New York it's hard to define this book as any one thing, other than brilliant. It's a modern take on the ramifications of super heroics as a well as a political drama in the style of the west wing. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Vaughan's other work and to anyone with a interest in great story telling.

Je ne peux que recommander cette édition reliée, remarquablement écrite et dessinée. J'attends avec impatience la suite, même si ce n'est pas au point d'acheter les "TPB" disponibles.Nous sommes, un peu comme au début de Kick-Ass, dans un monde sans super-héros. Sauf notre héros. Mais c'est le seul point commun avec Kick-Ass puisque dans Ex Machina, le super-héros renonce à son costume de super-héros du onze septembre pour devenir maire de New York. La suite, il faut la lire ;O))

The premise of this series is utterly inspired: The world's only superhero, a man with the ability to talk to machines, retires to become mayor of New York City. There's intrigue and action mixed with political maneuvering--West Wing Lite, you might say.The art is a bit dark for my tastes, but not bad. The writing is excellent, full of wit and wordplay. And yet the comics don't quite have that epic page-turner quality that Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man has in spades.Still, Ex Machina is a graphic novel that shouldn't be overlooked. I look forward to Volume 2.

good read

I've a read a couple of graphic novels before such as Watchmen, Y the Last Man, Kick-Ass and the Killing Joke. All those books are absolutely fabulous ! But none of those books left me begging for more so badly like Ex Machina did. It has action, mystery, thriller, humor, great writing, a gripping story, stunning art and well developed characters. I've purchased all 4 out of 5 deluxe editions so far, and I can't wait for the fifth one (I've never read it before until the deluxe editions came out".So if you've never read a graphic novel before, check this one out. You won't regret it.