Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: The Pilot
Written by: Brian K. Vaughan
Penciled by: Tony Harris
Inked by: Tom Feister
Colored by: J.D. Mettler
Lettered by: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: Wildstorm: Signature Series
2004 has been, like every other year seems to be, something of an event year for comics. DC has offered us new creative teams on their Superman books and a murder mystery that will change comics forever in Identity Crisis. Marvel has offered us new, and old, creative teams on their X-Men books and seems to be bumping off everyone they can think of in Avengers Disassembled in order to, well, change comics forever. Outside of the big two, meanwhile, things are just as tricky as always. People continue to buy their Sandman collections and that replacement copy of Watchmen, but there seems to be very little opportunity for anything else to grow. The Coup d’Etat crossover did nothing to boost sales of the Wildstorm: Eye of the Storm titles in the long run, while recently poor old CrossGen were forced to file for bankruptcy. So what sort of future can there be for smaller, independent, creator-owned titles? Is there a market for books that do not depend on X-genes, green space rocks and regurgitating characters and stories first conjured up several decades ago? If we want to keep on reading titles as extraordinary as this one, we must hope so.
For you see, this is one of those moment to be savoured when it transpires that the hype machine was right all along. Wildstorm had been singing this book’s praises in the run up to its release last week and quite rightly so. Created by the talented team of writer Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Runaways) and penciller Harris (Starman, JSA), we were promised plenty of political intrigue combined with good old-fashioned superheroics, like The West Wing meets The Rocketeer. In a year that has been full of over-eager press releases from the Big Two trying to outdo one another in terms of exclusive contracts and controversial stories, Wildstorm had managed to create quite a quiet little buzz around this title that is very shortly going to grow into a hail of glowing reviews. Hopefully the sales shall match the quality, but that situation really depends on how well the inevitable TPB does. For now, let’s all just bask in the glory of yet another wonderful first issue from Vaughan.
He seems to have developed a real knack for constructing an intriguing little world that the reader wants to explore right from the word go, then completely turning that world on its head at the end of the book. He certainly managed it in the two titles mentioned above, and once again he reaches into his lovely bag of tricks to come out with a last page reveal that, one way or another, will get a reaction out of you. Personally, I was so wrapped up in reading the rest of the title that I didn’t actually see the end twist coming and so felt compelled to go back and immediately re-read the entire issue. It is that good. Savour the moment.
That aside, this is the tale of the unfortunately named Mitchell Hundred. Having grown up with his politically active mother and a helping hand from an illegal Russian immigrant named Ivan; Mitchell became a civil engineer working in New York City. One day while answering a call about a mysterious object seemingly growing out of the Brooklyn Bridge, said object exploded in his face and granted him complete control over machines of all kinds. Spurred on by some motivational words from Ivan, he became the one and only superhero in the world – The Great Machine. After a less-than-stellar career as a superhero came to a screeching call with one big mother of a wake-up call, he decided to run for office instead and was subsequently elected Mayor.
Now, neither the superhero-in-the-real-world nor the superhero-becomes-politician storylines are altogether original. The real crux of Vaughan’s work, however, has always been the sociological subtext behind his plots and Ex Machina is full of those. For chrissakes, just look at the title… Yes, there is no doubt going to be an element of man vs. machine cropping up before too long but that’s not all. The political ramifications of someone like Mitchell being around are already beginning to be felt, from the thinly-veiled blackmail attempt from those who want him out of office to the assassination attempt by a crazed lone gunman, and even the small matters of dealing with inquisitive journalists and fresh-faced interns shall all be addressed. The overall tone of misplaced anger and fear that has taken some degree of control in all of our lives lately shall be looked at, as shall the dangers of trying to pin all of your hopes onto one person, or one thing as the case may be. It is going to be one hell of a ride and I strongly recommend you jump in and join the ride right from the off…
