September 11th in Pop Culture

Ex Machina

Apart from being a brilliantly written story about the unlikeliest of superheroes, Brian K. Vaughn’s “Ex Machina” also presents a bittersweet “what if” scenario. Mitchell Hundred is the world’s first and only superhero, a man who can commune with machines. His attempts to “save” the citizens of New York are met with anger and retaliation until he prevents one of the hijacked plans from colliding into the World Trade Center. This catapults him on the road to becoming Mayor of New York, although the siren call of being a superhero is always beckoning him.

“Ex Machina” is unique in that it centers its story around 9/11 without making the attacks the point of the story. By making September 11 tangential to the main narrative, Vaughn allows readers to process their thoughts and emotions about the attacks in a way that couldn’t have otherwise.

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