Alex + Ada #5 Review

This is literally the issue where everything changes and much like the entirety of the run Alex + Ada continues to entertain and be thought provoking. Read on to get my take on why Alex + Ada is a great book!

Official description from IMAGE:
Ada will never be the same again.

Issue #4 ended with the shocking reaction of Ada after she has been awakened as a sentient being. Still an android but now so much more. Alex took a big risk and the results of his actions play out with heart, feeling and compassion for what is essentially a robot. But since the beginning of the series Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn have done a masterly job of making readers care about Ada as well as Alex’s struggle on whether to return her or give her free will. It’s not been an easy choice and once Ada reacts to her new state of being, we all second guess Alex’s decision.

Ada literally and figuratively shuts down with the flood of emotions and feeling she’s now able to process and Alex is still questioning if he’s done the right thing. Luna and Vaughn put the reader in both Ada and Alex’s shoes and struggles and you can’t help getting emotionally involved in their plight and new direction in both their lives. Alex risks losing Ada but still tries to comfort and sooth the shock to her system. Like most issues, #5 takes place entirely in one room and with the majority of it focusing on dialogue and exposition. Not always the best combo for a comic book but Luna and Vaughn’s story is so captivating you’ll barely notice the mostly static panels.

Luna’s art is clean, simple and at time are just repeats of earlier panels but the story is so engrossing that it works. The story is full of highly evolved and future technology but Luna makes it seem more of a storytelling device than just the story itself. Most of the scenes feel much like our present day with just touches of advanced technology. All this brings the reader closer to buying into the otherworldly nature of artificial intelligence. Luna makes Alex the average Joe and Ada the girl next door and that in turn makes you emotionally invested in both.

Alex + Ada continues brilliantly with the story, and I as a reader, have grown to love and by the end of this issue you will also be completely on this couple’s side and rooting for them with all your might. This is a sci-fi book that’s doesn’t feel like one and makes you root for honest and caring relationships. Luna and Vaughn have created a story it’s hard to not love and at the core that’s what this book’s all about. You’ll question what it means to be human and for once a sentient A.I. won’t be viewed as an enemy but as someone who deserves the right to choose and to trust. If you haven’t picked Alex + Ada up yet then I can’t suggest it highly enough, as not only a great comic, but simply and great and honest story.