BKV's knack for bad endings

MillerCross

Ok, for those not in the know, Brian K Vaughan is the writer behind Ex Machina, Lost (Although he only wrote seasons 4 and 5 and supposedly plotted 6 alongside Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) and Y: The Last Man.

Now, the guy's writing is pretty much amazing pulp stuff. Witty and rapid fire like dialogue, quick pacing, heart stopping cliffhangers, etc. And he's also great at research. Y the Last Man, which could have been, in the hands of many other writers (*cough* Miller *cough*) a misogynistic tirade about how only men can hold society up ends up being a...well, thoughtful if sometimes sloppy what if which cares for his characters and tries to show a believable scenario in which women are the only human beings left. Ex Machina's...well, I don't know much about the US or NYC's political system, but it feels more real and believable (If anyone can comfirm how accurate the comic is, it'd be lovely)

anyway, moving on to the reason of the title...after finishing Ex Machina and Y The Last Man, I can't help that Vaughan is always trying for so called realistic endings. And in Y, it kinda works. Yorick's journey ends up with him realizing that maybe what he wanted all along was not in front of him but besides him and he grows to accept it. Even though the writing uses cheap emotional punches to pull it off (Come on, [Hero and Beth] barely talked during the whole story, and you mean to tell me that they suddenly were totally into each other?) and the future he depicts seems far too unbeliveable for me, considering the world he had built before the epilogue. And the real problem is how much goes BKV to screw with Yorick's life at the end. The above example is probably the most glaring, but it really comes off as Vaughan saying "Happy endings? fuck those". Of course, Yorick manages to pull off one last trick and it supposedly comes off as uplifting. Until you realize that he probably [killed himself]

As for Ex Machina, well, it feels too damn samey in comparison to the above ending. And I'll leave it at that cuz INUH is reading Ex Machina.

Also, this topic will only get Malk and Protega posting. I bet my IJBM membership on that one. >

Forzare

You lose.

I've been meaning to get around to reading those.

MillerCross

oh yay, somebody took the bait~

And well, you can always download the scans. It's what I do when I wanna see if a comic is good enough to buy, anyway.