Politrickery. The Meta-Politcs of Brian K. Vaughan

Brian K. Vaughan's series Y – The Last Man and Ex Machina are pronouncedly political in their content: the former tells of a world without men, the latter of a superhero who becomes mayor of New York city. Many specific allusions to real-life situations and developments as well as extensive discussions among the characters emphasize that socio-political questions are central to both texts. I show that politics are not only represented and discussed, but also dealt with in a subtle subtext. Even though the protagonists have completely different poles in society – one is a picaresque outsider, the other the center of established power-structures – they both act based on a principle which Jürgen Habermas has described as reflected, conscientious common sense. In a dialectic of faith and science, both characters are paragons of a middle ground philosophy of charity and altruism, which the texts depict as the only viable basis for future politics.