ENIAC #1

ENIAC #1

Bad Idea Corp 2021

Written by Matt Kindt

Illustrated by Doug Braithwaite

Coloured by Diego Rodriguez

Lettered by Dave Sharpe

Seventy-seven years ago, the United States unlocked the key to defeating the Axis powers, but, in their desperation to end the war, created a far more powerful threat: ENIAC (Electronic Numerator Integrator and Computer), the world’s first supercomputer. ENIAC's calculations proved vital to turning the tide against Germany and Japan – until it ordered the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki without any human order or approval. America had inadvertently created the first artificial intelligence without ever realizing the full extent of its abilities...or its ambitions. For the more than 50 years that followed, ENIAC manipulated global affairs from the shadows, waging a cold war that pitted spy against spy, nation against nation...until it went dark and disappeared from view. Now, years later, an encrypted countdown has just been detected in Earth's satellite network and mankind only has three days left before ENIAC executes its endgame. With few options and even less time, the Secretary of Defense has just given two covert operatives the most important mission in human history: kill ENIAC…before it kills us.

I would say the hype is real but then again we are talking about Matt Kindt so we already knew this was going to be amazing. The way that this is being told is pretty brilliant actually. How we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold along with how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. This however is what I’ve come to expect out of Matt and he certainly doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. The character development to me is extremely interesting because we don’t get a lot of personal information just that the two women who star in this are stone cold killing professionals. So it isn’t too surprising that we already want to know more about them. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing this world, the characters and what the story is going to be about is frakkin amazing.

The way that we see this structured and how the layers within the story emerge keep the reader on their toes, interested and invested in what we’re reading. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really rather quite marvellous to see. Also I have to give kudos and a shoutout for the Alternate History aspect of this story and how well it is being handled, because honestly it's a huge reason that this works as well as it does.

The interiors here are abso-freakin-lutely next level gorgeous! The work we see within these pages really is mindbogglingly brilliant to behold. How the linework through its varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level and quality in the attention to detail blows my mind in how damn good it is. Best scene is the desert and naked conversation though old man butt is one thing so let’s see what’s up front next time shall we? The way that we see backgrounds being utilised and how the are incorporated into the composition within the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story shows a brilliant eye for storytelling. The colour work is a master class on paper. The way that the various hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is amazing. How colour can be utilised to create musculature and contouring shows an amazing understanding of how colour can be so effectively utilised.

So if this what we can expect from Bad Idea then it isn’t such a Bad Idea to make sure you tell your local shop you want them to carry these. Mine won’t carry them, he’s an idiot, but gotta give a huge shoutout to Sterling Silver Comics for hooking me up with my copy. Folks take notice I’ve hyped them for a bit now and I’m here to tell you that this is the next generation in a publishing house!