Retro Review: Alex and Ada from Image Comics

Have you ever come across a comic you never heard of but gave it a shot because of the company that produced it? That was me with Alex and Ada, a story from Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn.

In the near future, robots are part of society; AI isn’t after a sentient robot went on a rampage and killed some people. People are still in fear that sentient robots are still roaming the country.

Right off the bat we meet our protagonist, Alex, a normal guy trying to get over a breakup. Alex ends up with a android, Ada, as a gift from his grandmother, who felt he needed companionship. Alex didn’t want it and was about to send her back, but decided not to; eventually, Alex wants more than just to give Ada commands, so he looks into making her sentient.

The writing in the book is fantastic. Luna and Vaughn do well to build this futuristic culture and make it believable. He also writes some great characters. As Ada learns in her sentience, the character of Alex expands with her.

The story is told over 15 issues, or 3 trades, and it’s pretty much the perfect 3 act play – setup, confrontation, resolution – spread over each trade.

There are also some social commentary here; the exclusion of sentient androids based off what they could do can be applied to numerous situations – race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

The art is right there with the story. Luna takes a basic approach and relies on little things like facial expressions and settings.

I really enjoyed the series; I read all 3 trades in about 2 hours (with a trip to the library in there to get volumes 2 and 3). It’s something that I’m interested in purchasing, because it’s a re-readable story and something I’d use to get non-comic book people into comics.