Ex Machina, Volume 4: March to War

[sawyl]

Time for another episode in the life of Mitch Hundred, retired superhero turned Mayor of New York — yes, the Great Machine is back again.

Confronted with yet another difficult political choice, the Mayor has decided to allow anti-war protesters to march on the UN building, reasoning that peace activists are unlikely to be terrorist targets. How wrong he is. After the crowd is attacked with poison gas and the Mayor's former youth affairs adviser, Journal Moore, ends up in a coma, the race is on to track down the perpetrators. The question is, was the atrocity committed by an old enemy from the Great Machine's past or was it carried out by a terrorist organisation?

After agreeing to a radio interview, the Mayor is caught off guard by a question about capital punishment. While mulling over his answer, his thoughts turn to his former arch-nemesis Jack Pherson, a man able to talk to and control animals in the same way that the Hundred can talk to machines. After a number of close encounters, the Great Machine and Pherson finally have their showdown, during which Mitch has to decide what to do about the clearly crazy Pherson. Needless to say, all of this has an important bearing on the Mayor's stance against capital punishment.

Ex Machina: March to War is another great comic that doesn't pull its punches and doesn't duck the difficult issues. It's interesting to see Hundred wrestle with his conscience — something he gets to do because he's an independent rather than a party politician — over tough issues like freedom of speech and behaviour, and to see the way he deals with the tough consequences of his actions: friends getting hurt and innocent bystanders being killed. It's also nice to see a character come out firmly and eloquently against capital punishment, despite his former history as a vigilante. Good stuff.