Alex + Ada

Alex + Ada 1-15

A lovely, satisfying science fiction romance.  Alex is a lonely twenty-seven year old single guy with a very meh life.  His fiancee dumped him seven months ago, and he’s not over it yet. His grandmother gives him a Tanaka X5 for his birthday.  An X5 is the state of the art in android companionship. Fully lifelike with no pesky free will to worry about. Think Scarlett Johansson’s Her with a human-looking wrapper.

After getting past his initial reservations, Alex names the X5 Ada and tries her out as a companion around the house.  (Very respectfully, with no sex. I don’t know why I felt it necessary to make that distinction.) It doesn’t take long for him to find her robotic, rote responses insufficient, and searches the less-than legal recesses of the internet for mods that will make her more human.  He discovers that Ada and other androids are fully capable of sentience, but have blocks installed by people who have seen Terminator and know better.  (To be fair to this society, their first experience with self-aware AI did result in thirty-seven deaths.)

As the plot would demand, Alex awakens Ada, and they eventually fall in love.  But their happiness is quickly threatened as knowledge of this growing population of activated, sentient androids spreads through a terrified, paranoid general public.  Sub in communists, gays, or witches and you’ll get an idea of their response.

This is a beautiful story, both in the art and the writing.  I was fully invested in Alex and Ada’s relationship. Alex is a sweet, kind fellow, and Ada’s innocence as she discovers the world around her is reminiscent of Data in Star Trek: TNG as he explored the various aspects of humanity with fresh eyes.  Sarah Vaughn and Jonathan Luna create a believable future of self-driving cars and iPhone brain implants, and surround their main couple with a group of friends that provide a realistic variety of POVs to opine on their unconventional relationship.  

Everything builds up to a tension-filled climax, a bittersweet coda, and ultimately a perfect finale.  I couldn’t ask for more from a comic.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good