Ex Machina #40

Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris need their own series.  Not like, come together and create a series, but actually star as themselves in their own comic book (written by Vaughan and Harris of course).

Ex Machina is sadly soon coming to an end, but that doesn't stop this issue from being very enjoyable.  Mayor Mitchell Hundred agrees to have a biography comic done about his life starting as The Great Machine, and his rise to Mayoral stardom (kind of like those Presidential Material that Image put out on McCain and Obama (minus the super heroics)).  Shopping around for the perfect creative team to do a biography on your life can be a difficult process, so it's best to sit-down and talk with the duo and see if you can really connect with them.

And that's what happens in this issue.

Mayor Hundred and Vaughan get to know everything about each other, from political views to relationship advice.  All while Tony Harris flirts with January.  It's the inside jokes that what really made this issue very enjoyable for me, everything from Vaughan getting mistaken for Bendis (it happens a lot, apparently), to "So, you do the book about the guy getting chased around by lesbians on motorcycles?".

The story was something nice and different, because at the end of the issue you're expecting both Vaughan and Harris to get the gig, and go on and write the series Ex Machina that you're currently enjoying.

Turns out Garth Ennis and Jim Lee both get the gig, and that's the best part of the issue in my opinion.  Vaughan and Harris might always feel like the bridesmaid, never the bride in the comic book industry nowadays, but with a series like Ex Machina still going strong, they're both selling themselves short.