The Astonishing Adventures of Alicia Carter & Robot #3 is a comic with story by Tristan Vick, art by Mannix Francisco, and colors by Helen Berti. While being detained by the United Space Force Alicia comes across a former friend. This is a science fiction comic with messy drama, hard-hitting violence, and a sizable, varied cast. The leading lady for this tale is Alicia Carter, she is a well-known thief who is on the run from both the law and dangerous people. She is also a bit promiscuous and unfaithful which gets her into additional trouble. Alicia is accompanied by a robot named GOU-3 who is very blunt and is slow to read the room and pick up on nuance. There are other notable characters here like Captain Conrad Belmonte and the Skullvek brothers. The story begins with Alicia talking to Conrad as he has just captured her and GOU-3. Conrad is being both complimentary and condescending while Alicia is annoyed the entire time. Eventually this pair of fugitives are handcuffed and sent off to their cell. The violence here is physical with some brutal attacks but no gore, and very light blood. The pacing is steady with a Star Wars-like tone if you only consider Han Solo bits. The intensity gets high due to violence. The dialogue is conversational with heavy back-and-forth and a slight bit of comedy. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an intriguing issue that fleshes out a couple of characters while providing violent excitement along with some unresolved drama.
The art here is drawn in a somewhat smoothly detailed, modern style with strong lighting and shading. The color palette is very sci-fi with a lot of metallic grays and blues; the color variety is primarily delivered via the characters’ skin and outfits. Besides a quick shot of the stars there isn’t any scenery here due to this taking place inside of a spaceship. There are really only two locations here: the hangar and the holding cells. Fortunately the hanger is very large so more than a few different areas are seen. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings, with it primarily being metallic walls and floors. The expression level here is around average as some of these characters show their feelings while others are hard and tough. The emotional range consists of annoyance, happiness, anger, rage, and a stoic look. The faces here have strong features and show the different expressions well, occasionally using the rest of their body. The violence here is very physically brutal with a little blood and no gore. The action scenes come in bursts and flow relatively smoothly. Most of the characters here wear some kind of revealing or tight outfit and Alicia is subject to a few lewd/sexy poses and angles.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like science fiction stories starring a unique cast with women at the helm and featuring drama and hard-hitting violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
PG-13. Violence.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“You and this jail cell were made for each other.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/regolith-comics/alicia-carter-and-robot-3/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28
Violent Pages: 8, for 29% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 2
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 1
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
