Jonathan Luna

Instead of writing a review for each of the three volumes of Alex Ada I am just going to review the series as a whole, mostly because I read all three in a row pretty much and see the story as a whole. First, I think it should say something that I read all three volumes in a row. I mean, I do like to read a lot but when it comes to series, I typically read a bit here and there and not all at once. But these were so good I just really wanted to know what happened next. Plus they were written in away that didn’t make me feel like I needed more time in between like I do sometimes with comics that have “heavier” dialogue or more long winded dialogue.

This comic tells the story of a guy named Alex that has recently gone through a rough breakup and is having a hard time dealing with it. For his birthday, his grandma surprises him with the newest, leading edge Android from the top robotics company, Prime. This surprise isn’t really a welcome one to Alex at first, with there being a general unease in society over androids at the moment due to stories of an Android that started a massacre. Now more and more stories are popping up about robots that may be able to become sentient somehow. But Alex’s robot is clearly not sentient. Something makes him decide to keep her but as he spends more time with his very realistic Android, her nearness but not quite achievement of sentience seems to bother him more and more. Alex begins to look more into this problem and the ethics and ideals behind artificial intelligence and sentience.

My favorite thing about the series was the story. I thought it was written really well and did well with focusing a few key points of A.I. Sentience without trying to go too far into too many areas of the topic. Doing this allowed them to put out a 3 volume comic that has a really solid beginning and end, I thought. I loved the main focus on the characters of Alex and Ada, while still bringing in some of the larger picture here and there to serve as the background of what these characters are having to deal with. I even liked a lot of the side characters, though with this being a shorter series we didn’t get too terribly much of them. Of course I would have liked to seen more of Alex and Ada by the end, but I thought their development was done really well in the span given. I particularly really liked Ada’s character and thought the romance was very touching and sweet.

The art was very, what I like to call “crisp.” It had a lot of clean cut lines and really followed the traditional paneling style. The colors leaned more towards grays, whites, and light blues which I think lends it a more futuristic feel. Overall I would say that the art style complimented the story well.

Alex Ada: Volumes 1-3: ★ ★ ★ ★☆

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