Each month the staff at 8th Dimension Comics picks out the best book to review. Look for Part 2 tomorrow.
Alex and Ada #7 Look, we all know that sexbots are just a matter of time. It's like space colonization or reliable electric cars; it's going to happen. The question is, what happens when people treat their boinkotrons the way they treat their iPhones?
The jailbreak them, of course, which would be massively illegal. That's the premise behind Alex and Ada. Alex is a typical man that just wanted some artificial companionship, but when he gave Ada sentience he both created a true love, and a dangerous random number according to the government.
Now he's desperate to both show her the world and keep her safe in the face of government crackdowns. Jonathan Luna tells the story wonderfully and Sarah Vaughn's minimalist art really lays the stark, mechanical nature of the future out beautifully. It's a slow book -- I won't lie -- but a good one.
Rating: 7 of 10
Low #1 Rick Remender's new science fiction series is serious stuff. Don't dive into this one unless you're prepared for the long haul. It's the story of a humanity desperately seeking to survive and recolonize as the sun starts to expand and consume the solar system. Pretty standard plot, right?
Remender takes it deeper, though, as two parents helm a giant ship full of millions of people and hunt to survive with a powerful suit that only responds to their bloodline. The father, Johl is a pessimistic but good-hearted captain eager to lead his two daughters to follow in his footsteps. The mother. Stel, is more dedicated to finding a way to escape the inevitable fiery fate no matter how hopeless that may be.
Both are woefully unprepared for the piratical threat that captures them as they hunt for food outside the dome for their people. A brutal attack later and Remender's whole world is now under the command of a bandit lord. The science and myth-building is rich and deep, with great dialogue and much that is slightly incomprehensible. It's not for sci fi lightweights.
Rating: 6 of 10
Uncanny X-Men #24 You know, I used to love watching Wolverine run around like a superpowered Mr. Vernon as the head of the Xavier School. Then the whole Phoenix force and Avengers vs. X-Men thing happened and we lost a whole lot of focus.
It's weird to watch, honestly. Brian Michael Bendis writes these characters so well. You love every interaction, every bit of snark, and every bit of lonely despair. It's just all so bloody epic and far-reaching that it feels like tiny bits of personality in a twister of OMG YOU GUYS THE END OF THE WORLD!
Here we read the last will and testament of Professor X, and to do that every one of the errant X-Men must be gathered for the reading by She-Hulk (Watching Nightcrawler flirt with Jennifer Walters is now in my top ten comic moments of all time). So much of what is said is magic, but so much of what it means is tired. Marvel needs to back off the cataclysms for a while and just let things simmer.
Rating: 6 of 10
This story continues on the next page.
