I know where I was when the Twin Towers fell, I was back in Virginia, coming of a 12-hour watch, where I was on my feet most of the time.  I had just gotten back to my apartment, when three hours into sleeping, I get not one, but four phone calls, minutes apart from each other. One of them was work, checking to see if we were deployable ready. The others came from family and friends, worrying what will happen in the next hours and days.

The years that followed a ton of books, documentaries and movies showed how this singular event affected America, and what we view as our national security. Then what followed was a campaign in Afghanistan and then Iraq, two battles those of us who were there are still trying to understand the connection back to 9/11. Almost 20 years later, and the puzzle still is missing pieces to what happened that day. This brings me to Slaves for Gods Volume 1: These Machines Are Winning, which are equal parts plausible, and equal parts Twilight Zone.

In this story, the reader thrown into that fateful day, as we open on President Bush reading to that elementary school class, which seems like a scene from every movie made, except when the flashes across the screen which read “Slaves for Gods.” Incidentally a company, Sentient Technologies, have just created the world’s first self-aware artificial intelligence, Jenny 001, who has formed a relationship with her programmer, Daryl. When the two realize their relationship is in danger, they endeavor to leave the corporation together, as he hatches a plan, with an anarchist group, known as Slaves for Gods, the same ones who had taken over the airwaves on 9/11. Before the end of the volume, his plan works, but no one including Jenny, is all who they seem, leaving more questions than answers.

Overall, what started out feeling like a Black Sabbath song, is even more profound than its backspace description had defined it. The story by Jason Godi, Dylan Silvers and Ryan Hartsell feels radical yet in the ranks of the some of the best science fiction ever written. The art by Aaron Minier feels like a cross between Darwyn Cooke and Jackson Pollack. Altogether, a roundhouse kick to the head that make you feel and think.

Story: Jason Godi, Dylan Silvers and Ryan Hartsell Art: Aaron Minier
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy