Ex Machina 5: Smoke Smoke

Collects issues 21-25Issues 21-24 is a four-part story in which someone is dressing up as a fireman and robbing people. What do you get when you attach a vaccuum cleaner to a gas mask? Um, you really don't want to know. Mitch contemplates decriminalizing weed. A woman sets herself on fire on the steps of City Hall. Journal's sister January becomes an intern, but she holds a grudge against Mitch. Who is she really working for? A flashback to Mitch's Great Machine career shows him spending a lot of effort to catch a drug dealer.Issue 25 is a one-shot focussing on Bradbury. We also finally see the moment Mitch decides to give up being the Great Machiine and run for mayor of NYC instead.

I love good art.I love a good story.this has neither.it has GREAT ART and a GREAT STORY!!!!!the characters are believable, flawed with good intentions.the dynamics of the art and the story are just shy of utter perfection!every issue was amazing and wish brian vaughn had more resources to continue making creations like this

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 4 volumes in this series, but this one disappointed me a bit. It didn't really seem to progress the story behind The Great Machine's origins as much as the past few entries in the series. It seemed a bit more caught up in the political issues facing Mitch as mayor in the "current" timeline.

The Ex Machina series is Brian Vaughn's well-written story of Mitchell Hundred, former superhero and now New York City Mayor. The award-winning writer has followed up his "Y-The Last Man" with this fast-paced series of stories. Fans will notice the same sharp, edgy dialogue, literary allusions, and jumpy use of time. The series is one of the finest in the "superhero" genre today. Vaughn is heavily influenced by Watchmen writer Alan Moore. Like most good Sci-Fi, he approaches real issues - would a superhero make a good mayor? How would a superhero mayor deal with everyday issues like getting the garbage picked up? How would he handle his personal demons and his uncertain past?The drawing and inking are unparalleled in this series. The use of color is fantastic and the book is printed on good quality paper that showcases it well. The artists achieve the level of painstaking detail they create through enacting certain scenes out physically before drawing. The book is hyper realistic, and thought provoking.Volume 5 has one larger story arc and one small one. The main story, comprising the first four chapters, is Vaughan at his best. He puts Mayor Hundred through the wringer: this time he's not dealing with the gay marriage issue, it's the legalization of pot. This 4-issue story arc blew me away. This story is a molotov cocktail blend of interesting characters, action, and hot-button social issues. Chapter 5 of this book was not as good as the main story and felt a bit like filler.Of course, in typical Vaughan fashion, there are always loose ends that he never ties up. These "plot cul-de-sacs" are a bit disorienting. Vaughan doesn't believe in the Hollywood movie rule of "economy of character" because he insists on bringing in interesting minor characters that don't always move the story along and disappear later.If you have not picked up a comic book for a few years since you were a kid, start here. Brian Vaughn is one of the medium's great talents and this series displays them all.

Brian K. Vaughan, Ex Machina: Smoke, Smoke (DC Comics, 2007)Vaughan continues to impress with everything he puts out. The most recent Ex Machina collection takes on the thorny (well, where legislators are concerned) topic of drug legalization. A new character pops up: January Moore, the departed Journal's sister, who Hundred appoints to step into Journal's shoes. As usual, there's a relatively dismissable mystery arc, but they're starting to tie in much better with the overarching themes found in each book. I wasn't entirely sure about this series to start, but it's getting better with each release. ****

For anyone who grew up with comic books and love the medium, this is the perfect series to graduate to. It is stunningly beautiful and the writing is topical and smart. It's such a cliche, but it feels like an HBO show done in comic book form. Mayor Mitchell Hundred deals with tricky political situations with integrity, but never finds an easy time of it. He has a wisdom about him, but isn't above revisiting his ethics and decisions as he does in this volume with his arrest of a small-time pot dealer.Trade paperback is the ideal format for Ex Machina, as the collected issues focus on themes and a collection of storylines. It's far more satisfying than reading it in monthly comics form. I highly recommend this volume and this series!

As any lover of Brian K Vaughan could tell you, this guy is a genius. Whether it's a group of misfit, teen-age, evil-villian-parent-murdering crimestoppers; a family of bomb-dodging lions that escape a half-demolished zoo in Baghdad; a man named Yoric who survives a "plague" that wipes out every male on earth (except him and his pet capuchin Ampersand); or, in the case of Ex Machina, a hero-turned-polictician who just happens to be able to communicate with machinery, Vaughan delivers, every time. NOBODY who calls themselves comic book geek can live without reading this series. END OF REVIEW :):)

I thought volume 5 of Ex Machina was actually a step back in the series. Volume 4 was by far the best, and I had high hopes for this one, but it was a little disappointing. It wasn't bad by all means, but after volume 4, Vaughn had set the bar pretty high for the series, and this one kind of failed to reach that bar. Also, it wasn't as exciting as all the other volumes of the series have been.

Love this Arthur!! Would recommend to anyone who likes Vaughan!! Not as good as Y but still very good read!