Published by DC Comics under their Wildstorm imprint, Brian K. Vaughn's Ex Machina recounted the story of superhero-turned-politican Mitchell Hundred, whose heroic actions during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center vaulted him to the office of Mayor of New York City. The series was both a deconstruction of, and a love letter to, superhero comic books – with the final issue delivering its most poignant assessment of the medium.

From 2004 to 2010, Ex Machina – written by Brian K. Vaughn, with art primarily by Tony Harris – produced fifty issues, and four specials. Issue #50 closed the series with Mitchell Hundred having ascended to the Vice Presidency of the United States, at the cost of everyone close to him.

Reflecting on his own lamentable sacrifices, Hundred envied superhero stories because "they never get to become tragedies."

Ex Machina Recounts Mitchell Hundred's Post-Superhero Career

The series' title, Ex Machina, is a bit of word-play with several different meanings relevant to the series. The title comes from the Latin theater term "deus ex machina," which translates to "god from the machine." In Ex Machina, an encounter with a fragment from a mysterious piece of technology granted – or as he often saw it, cursed – Mitchell Hundred with the ability to communicate with machinery. Hundred is also an ex-superhero: before becoming New York City, he briefly operated as the Great Machine, his heroic career peaking with his interruption of the 9/11 attack, resulting in an alternate fictional reality where the south tower of the World Trade Center remained standing.

Brian K. Vaughn Identified One Core Reason Superhero Stories Persist

Mitchell Hundred's shift from superheroics to politics is at first presented in Ex Machina as idealistic, though as with most political narratives, as the series progressed the true nature of his ambitions was revealed – until ultimately, those ambitions consumed him. The opening page of Ex Machina #1 began the series with a dejected-looking Hundred, promising to tell "the story of [his] four years in office, from the beginning of 2002 through godforsaken 2005," suggesting to readers at the time that his tenure as Mayor would end in disaster. "It may look like a comic," Hundred said, "but it's really a tragedy."

Brian K. Vaughn subsequently opened Ex Machina #50, the series' concluding issue, with a reprise of this moment – returning to the frame narration offered by the start of the series. Reflecting on everything he has lost in the past four years, Mitchell Hundred compares his "real life" to superhero comics, making a significant point about the medium in the process. Hundred muses that real stories always end in despair, saying, "that's why I always liked comic books." He describes the endless, iterative nature of comic book storytelling as its greatest virtue. "It's like without a last act," he says, "those stories never get to become tragedies."

"I guess that's why they call 'em comics," Hundred surmises, as Ex Machina teases the long awaited circumstances of Hundred's life after being Mayor. While the opening of the series set many readers up to anticipate that Hundred's time in office would end in failure, Ex Machina #50 reveals the opposite is true. Though he may have lost everyone close to him, it was in service to becoming the Vice President of the United States. Still, while the ending of the series leaves much unfinished about Mitchell Hundred's story, Ex Machina stands as one of DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint's best releases, because it told the story it promised, and ended on a valuable insight into the medium.