I’ve been hard at work on a project and I unfortunately can’t show much artwork for it. A lot of comics and TV have been inspiring me lately, though, so I wanted to comment on them.
Ex Machina
The finale to Brian K. Vaughan’s and Tony Harris’ Ex Machina just came out and it blew me away. This was a bit of a surprise because the series as a whole wasn’t working for me. My main problem with Ex Machina was that a lot of the action seemed shoehorned in simply because it’s a requirement of the medium. Whereas all the action seemed natural in Y The Last Man, it didn’t seem so natural a fit for Ex Machina most of the time. This issue was an afterward for the entire series and therefore didn’t have much in the way of unnecessary action thrown in, which is probably one of the many reasons why this issue worked so well for me.
I’m noticing a recurring theme in Vaughan’s work where the family and friendships created during times of crisis aren’t appreciated enough in the moment. Throughout Ex Machina, Hundred kept referring to his superhero days, the times when he was consistently teamed up with Kremlin and Bradbury, as terrible times. It’s not until he’s completely lost the family he created during that time that he truly appreciates them. Vaughan touched on this theme in Y the Last Man and The Escapists as well.
I noticed that Mitchell Hundred’s arc in the finale is very similar to Tommy Carcetti’s arc in The Wire. They both lost a bit of their soul in the pursuit of more political power, because they’d arrogantly convinced themselves that they’ll be able to do a lot of good the higher up the political ladder that they get.
Tony Harris also really impressed me here. It seemed like he was either burning out or under heavy deadline pressure for the latter part of the series, but he did a fantastic job in this issue. I like that he’s experimenting with dirtying up and adding finer details to his normally super clean style.
Louie
I’ve also been watching Louis C.K.’s FX show Louie lately. I really appreciate how fearless this show is. Each episodes shows off various vignettes based off of Louis C.K.’s comedy routines. While the show is very funny, what makes it stand out is its darker looks at humanity. There are several moments in the show that resonate, like the homophobia poker scene, the doughnut shop date that looks at a woman’s contradictory stance on grown men fighting and the comedy club heckler scene that features an argument between two characters that has the viewer continually switching sides. The show also goes from very comedic moments to scenes between characters that feel more real than most dramas out there, like a discussion about a problem child in episode 9 between Louie and the father, or a scene early on in the series between Louie and a close friend which shows that while they disagree on everything, they remain close because of their shared experiences over the last several decades. Overall, this series is very funny and has a lot of interesting things to say, which is exactly what I look for in a show.
Morning Glories #1
I also recently read Morning Glories, a mystery series about six gifted students who arrive at a sinister prep school, from Image Comics and Shadowline. It’s hard to pull off first issues, but Nick Spencer really impressed me. While the mystery element is intriguing, what really caught my interest was the varied characters. Most writers in this type of story would have had the standard Breakfast Club high school archetypes (jock, nerd, burnout, ect.) populate the story, but Spencer avoids this. He did a good job of making each of the six main characters feel real and unique in the short time he has to introduce them. This is only the beginning, though, so there’s no way to tell if this series will really stand out for me, but the first issue was a good introduction.