Ex Machina, Book 2: Tag

I sort of forgot what I liked about the first book in this series when I decided to finally pick up the second, but it became pretty clear again as I was reading. It's well written, and the story does a lot of different, interesting things. It conveys politics in a unique way, not really focused on an ideology but just getting to the heart of the less cut-and-dry issues. It likes to flash back to Mitchell's super hero days and tie it into whatever messed up shit is going on currently, with the more action-focused stuff being a lot darker and more intriguing than I'd expect based on the general focus. Mitchell's a really good character, and definitely helps carry the book. His power is unique and makes for some really clever, fun situations, and he's just a likable, enigmatic person. I still don't like the overly posed nature of some of the art, but it's mostly a nice looking comic. I'm probably going to try to catch up on The Walking Dead before I read any more, but I am enjoying it.

Ex Machina, Book 1: The First Hundred Days

Ex Machina is a current project of the writer of Y: The Last Man and writer/producer of Lost, Brian K. Vaughan. It's an interesting political drama with a superhero twist, although the first volume didn't grab me like some other things have. My main problem with it is the art style. Tony Harris can draw, but at first glance the art looked strange for some reason, and a feature at the back of the book explained why - every panel is drawn from reference of people posing in photographs. It's an interesting idea, but it doesn't really work. Things are detailed in unnatural ways, and it just looks wrong - more like people posing than a drawing of something happening, because that's what it is. It's just a little awkward and off-putting, though it didn't hurt the experience too much.

Briefly, it's about a man who gained a super power through strange circumstances, but after realizing his attempts at heroics weren't really helping he decided to run for mayor instead. He only got elected thanks to one final act of bravery, though now he's forced to keep his powers in check and act as a normal politician. In the first few issues a couple problems arise he has to deal with, and it feels more like a political story with a comic book twist instead of the other way around. Some obstacles are pretty mundane civil stuff, others are more sinister and tie in to his past, which is revealed in flashbacks. I got enough out of reading to want to continue, but it's not as immediately impressive as Vaughan's other work.