Ex Machina: The Great Machine by Dave Wachter

I imagine everyone has a story, or stories, they revisit numerous times over their lives, and each time they do, they connect with on a deeper level. The feeling it gives you just closes all the circuits of your imagination. For me, that story is a comic book called Ex Machina. A cautionary tale of the world’s first superhero who becomes Mayor of New York City. Mitchell Hundred, a well-intentioned costumed do-gooder who over the course of the series, loses his ideals to become a craven, political opportunist. Created by writer Brian K Vaughan and Artist Tony Harris and published through DC Comics’ Wildstorm imprint from 2004-2010. Over its 50 issues and four annuals, BKV and Harris engineer a riveting political tragedy about wielding power, both political and super, and the cost that power takes on your soul–themes that are more relevant today than ever before. BKV, Harris, Inkers Tom Feister and Jim Clark, and colorist JD Mettler masterfully intertwine the past, present, power, politics, and science fiction together in such an inspired manner as to create a rich tapestry of a comic. With clear-cut storytelling that grounds even the most fantastical elements, Ex Machina uses flashbacks of Mitchell’s time as his alter ego, the Great Machine to provides action that is exciting, and sometimes comical. The series shines in its largely political, dialogue driven scenes. BKV’s dialogue is at its sharpest with this series and Harris ‘deft character focused art keeps the story moving and compelling, just as exhilarating as the costumed adventure segments. Harris’ art is unbelievable, it does an excellent job creating clarity for the reader as we move back and forth between the past and the present. His characters feel real and reflective of the real world we live in. Harris is such a gifted artist, storyteller, and costume designer. I love the color palette JD Mettler uses; the tone of the color choice is unique in that it uses a shade of colors not typically used in comics. In its initial pitch, BKV described Ex Machina as The West Wing meets Unbreakable. I would also include Mad Men (a show that did not exist at the time of the comic’s release). Mitchell Hundred reminds me a lot of Don Draper in how close he keeps his cards to his chest, my comparison to AMC’s Mad Men is not really focused on similarity in content, but in the layered and complex characters much like the cast of the Matthew Weiner series. Like a magician who tells us exactly what they are going to do, which BKV really was as a child, we are given the ending in the first two pages. Mitchell says to his audience “it may look like a comic, but it’s really a tragedy.” Over the series we are lulled into a false, hopeful feeling, believing that maybe, just maybe Mitchell Hundred and his partners, best friend Rick Bradbury, and surrogate father “Kremlin,” will succeed and overcome the external and internal threats to New York City and Mitchell’s administration. Ex Machina is the ideal distillation of my interests. Politics, superheroes, and science fiction, with complex, conflicted glorification of our country and heroes, trying to reconcile what they should be and what they are. I have spent a lot of time thinking about why I keep coming back to this comic. I am not entirely sure. It is most certainly not an uplifting story, but its emotional impact is profound.
This sketch was drawn by the awesome Dave Wachter on Free Comic Book Day 2022. I love this piece and would love to get a more detailed commission of the character by Dave.