Ex Machina #11-21

All right. I'm back from vacation and have a truly daunting stack of comics to read. Perhaps most daunting was the stack of Ex Machina's, for which I sort of lost enthusiasm about a year ago (right at the end of the "Tag" storyline). Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying the series quite a bit - I just couldn't really get into it on a monthly basis. So, I let it build up for a while, and, after a while, the size of the built-up stack got overwhelming and I continued to ignore it, leaving me with no other option but to read a year's worth at one shot.

It's certainly a more enjoyable series to read this way. The double plotlines that each arc contains (generally a political storyline and a superhero-y storyline) are easier to follow in immediate succession. Vaughan seems willing to make some big jumps in narrative (i.e., the off-issue funeral of Journal and introduction of her sister) which, when reading serially, make the reader (or at least a simple-minded reader like me) pause and try to remember if he missed an issue.

Like I said, I'm enjoying the series, but there's something not quite there. It's the same sensation I've been getting from Y the Last Man, namely that Vaughan has an idea of how the series is going to begin and end, but is a little fuzzy about the middle. Both series focus around one key set of mysteries ("What killed all the men?" and "What is this thing that fused with Mitchell?"), and I'm not sure Vaughan knows how to dole out the answers in little bits. Instead of the normal mystery progression of "clue one leads to clue two leads to clue three leads to solution," he tends to just have his characters wander around for a while until, presumably, the mystery will be revealed at the end.

During the first couple arcs, it looked like we were going to get some faster explanation. Mitchell's explanation of what exactly the project he and Georges were working on consisted of in the middle of "Tag" boded well, but then we've sort of dropped that altogether (except for a brief allusion during a dream sequence).

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm certainly OK with series taking breaks to build character, explore random stories that occur to the writer, etc. Milligan's Shade really only got going once he gave up on a central storyline and mostly just had the characters hanging out. But, if your entire series is built around a central mystery, completely ignoring that for a year at a time is going to leave some very frustrated readers. Maybe this new treachery/mole angle they've got going is going to lead somewhere, but my faith is a little shaken.