Review by Ian Keogh

Mankind developed robots, but figuring out they were doing all the work, the robots decided humanity was surplus to requirement and wiped them out. However, because they were programmed by humans in the first place there’s a gravitation toward human behaviour, and the sample page details what happened next. D4VE used to be a military bot, a bona fide hero, but time has moved on and more advanced models have taken over, so he’s settled for a dull office job. Then everything goes wrong.

A world where robots imitate humans is a suitably bizarre starting point from Ryan Ferrier, and Valentin Ramon adopting a relatively realistic style for the art ensures the joke isn’t oversold. The idea of D4VE’s son, obviously also a robot, sitting around inhaling from a bong almost seems natural, and the art means D4VE’s wife leaving him has an emotional tug. Aliens feature, shown from the start to be wolves in sheep’s clothing, and Ramon designs them as suitably fearsome.

D4VE’s problem is that he’s fixated on what he used to be, bored with his job and daydreaming his day away by running fantasy scenarios of himself once again kicking arse. Ferrier makes it clear that the aliens are stringing the robots along, but D4VE is the only one prepared for that. If only they’d listen to him…

Readers knowing in advance the aliens are evil raises anticipation of D4VE delivering righteous justice despite his troubles, and Ferrier comes through with that. It’s a fantastic concept generating a simple story extremely well told, and thankfully there’s a sequel, naturally enough D4VE2.

D4VE is a rare series that starts well and actually improves over two sequels. If you missed out on D4VE the first time round, used copies are still available, but IDW are repackaging this as an IDW Classic in 2026.