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Pascal Lefèvre
EX MACHINA. Launched in 2004, Ex Machina is a comic book series written by
Brian K. Vaughan and published under DC’s Wildstorm imprint. Th e fi rst issue of
Ex Machina —published three years after the 9/11 attacks —concludes with a striking
image. Mitchell Hundred, ill-fated former superhero and newly-elected Mayor of
New York City, stands amid the rubble of Ground Zero, lamenting that “If I were
a real hero, I would have been here in time to stop the fi r s t plane.” Looming majesti-
cally in the night, there stands one of the Twin Towers. With this, Vaughan and artist
Tony Harris set the tone for their ongoing, creator-owned series; the image of the
lone surviving tower initiates an alternative history, one step removed from reality,
while Hundred’s regret is indicative of the title’s explorations of memory, power, and
the boundless inspirational and imaginative potential of the superhero genre. Fuelled
by Vaughan’s dialogue and wit, as well as Harris’s photorealistic linework, the series
interrogates the place of comic books in a post-9/11 landscape, in which the meaning
and validity of the term “hero” is under great scrutiny.
Hundred gains his powers under circumstances that remain clouded in mystery
for much of the series. In his duties as a civil engineer, he comes into contact with
a strange device connected to the Brooklyn Bridge; in the aftermath of a fl ash of
energy that traumatizes the left side of his head, Hundred becomes aware of a bur-
geoning ability to communicate with machines. Not only do machines “speak” to him,
but Hundred’s voice can make any mechanized item—ranging from simple ones, like
light switches and combination locks, to the more complex, such as guns, vehicles, and
computers —do his bidding. Given the way his fondness for comic book adventures
infl uenced his upbringing and shaped his outlook on the world, Hundred decides to
use his abilities to benefi t the city that he so loves. He adopts the identity of “Th e
Great Machine”—the name gestures to the hero’s origins as well as the series title (Ex
Machina, from “deus ex machina”: “god from the machine”), though Hundred claims
he was inspired by Jeff erson’s use of the phrase to describe society. What follows is
one disaster and error-fi lled adventure after another: malfunctioning jet-packs, dam-
age to public property, the placing of innocent bystanders in danger, horrible beat-
ings and numerous self-infl icted injuries—Th e Great Machine’s career as a super-hero
is an absolute failure. A disillusioned Hundred gives up on costumed adventuring,
though he is compelled to become Th e Great Machine once more during the 9/11 at-
tacks on New York, where he manages to ground the second plane aimed at the World
Trade Center. Hundred then translates his immense popularity into political capital
