THE TERMINATOR
In the future human beings wage a desperate war against the machines in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world. The sentient computer program SkyNet launched a massive global nuclear strike against mankind. Billions have died and anyone left alive is being hunted relentlessly by its mechanized army of Terminators. From out of this bleak and hopeless situation came John Connor to organize and lead a human resistance against the machines to take back the world and make a better future for mankind.
SkyNet concocted a plan to send one of its T-800 model terminators covered with human flesh back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to John and doom mankind. Future soldier Kyle Reese was sent back to stop the killer cyborg and save Sarah and the future and the plan was thwarted because of the determination of the human spirit, the thing the machines can’t seem to crush.
In 1988 the (now defunct) NOW Comics began a run of Terminator comics to continue the story of the blasted future where the war against SkyNet goes on in 2031.
![]()
And after reading a few of those issues I realized that $50 was way too much to pay for these things. A good rule of thumb to remember is that if some comic are not collected into any TPBs there’s usually a reason. The reason here is that they’re pretty lame. Maybe I’ll read them in the future. So I’ll just skip ahead to a relevant TPB. So…
![]()
The Terminator: The Burning Earth
By Ron Fortier and Alex Ross
The war with SkyNet has waged far too long. A haggard and desperate John Connor continues to lead his dwindling human resistance against the machines. Briefly he flirts with suicide, but decides that he must continue the fight. Meanwhile, SkyNet has only exterminated 96.3% of humanity and believes not destroying the last 3.7% is the result of “faulty programming” so it decides to commence a final nuclear bombardment of what’s left of the major cities. But when one of the nukes hit’s a fault line it causes a catastrophic earthquake that may be the opening the human resistance needs for a final assault on NORAD, SkyNet’s headquarters.
One thing that Fortier brings up in his forward is how bad the art got in the NOW Terminator comics as he tried to tell a good story. NOW thought its license was up with the Terminator brand, but it turned out that they could make five more issues.
Then a young artist named Alex Ross came on the scene and this TPB was born. Alex Ross is well known for his photorealistic watercolor painting artwork on comics like Kingdom Come and Marvels. These comics he did in oil paint, so this looks a lot better than the previous comics with a desperate battle against new Terminators, like a female model cyborg and the cylons-with-headlights-looking robots.
![]()
This is basically a sequel before T2 even came out. The dramatic change in art style is like apples and oranges - or more like candy and steak as this comic is a feast for the eyes. Ross tried to make John Connor look a bit like Linda Hamilton as that was the only reference so he looks a bit androgynous.
![]()
This whole comic was awesome, and I can’t say enough good things about it. Recommended.
THE TERMINATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME 1
By various authors and artists
![]()
In 2029 Los Angeles human beings fight a desperate battle to survive against the machine armies of SkyNet in a post-Judgment Day future. But the outcome of the future war will be determined in the present. The present of over 20 years ago to be exact.
![]()
![]()
In the first TPB here The Terminator: Tempest a unit of human soldiers are sent back to present Los Angeles to stop the development of SkyNet at its source: the failing tech company Cyberdyne Systems. Unfortunately, three Terminators are sent back to stop them and ensure their own existence, with a future weapon smuggled in a human prisoner for good measure. It’s hard for humans to kill other people even if it could save billions of lives, but they can’t stop for anything. The T-800s have brought a half-cyborg guy named I825.M with them as a medic for their flesh, but he has other ideas as he’s away from SkyNet and is more human than anyone thinks.
![]()
You wanna see some new Terminator stories? Well, you’ve come to the right place as Dark Horse Comics expand on this universe away from the film’s characters for more super action explosionation! And since it’s comics and not $200 million films they don’t have to cater to any demographics but the fans and don’t have to be all that PG-13 either. These stories are crazy cool and interesting to boot!
![]()
The second TPB is The Terminator: One Shot which is actually written by one of my favorite comic writers, James Robinson. It’s also told in oil painting, so it looks beautiful. Another woman named Sarah Connor is targeted by a female terminator and a future soldier named Ruggles that’s been there since 1955 and works as a cop. Since Sarah was planning on having her husband killed for his money and Ruggles is an old man it would seem that the terminator could…or should…finish its mission.
![]()
This story moves at a fast clip with a lot of gorgeous artwork punctuating a conflicted story. She’s not the real Sarah Connor, is greedy enough to try having her wealthy artists husband killed - despite him loving her - but Ruggles still has to stop the machine with some tech he smuggled back in time. He’s only got one shot at a time with the weapon and you begin to wonder why he should bother. There’s even a very ironic ending as well so it’s a very different kind of story.
![]()
Next we’re back with the characters from the first TPB, Col. Mary, I825.M, and Dr. Astin, an engineer who realized what he was working towards and had to fight the robots. In this story, The Terminator: Secondary Objectives, Astin is living in seclusion and I825.M are on the run to Mexico City. One T-800, C890.L goes on a killing spree in L.A., slaughtering cops with no attempt at disguising its fleshless frame, then begins its secondary objective: killing Sarah Connor.
![]()
Another female terminator is sent back in time to join the deadly mission, but they have to kill Mary and I825.M in Mexico City with the half-human trying desperately to construct some kind of weapon to stop the robots.
![]()
The final story is The Terminator: The Enemy Within where C.890.L somehow repaired itself with motorcycle parts and now looks like some Big Daddy Roth-type terminator. Now it’s out to kill Mary, I825.M, who is trying to shut down the cyborg part of his brain that wants him to kill everyone, and one character, who suddenly does a character 180 and tries to make a fortune out of some data he gets out of the half-human’s head. Can a newly arrived human resistance unit from the future finally put an end to the machines and a traitorous human who would put personal wealth before a devastating nuclear war?
![]()
If you’ve been under whelmed with Hollywood’s handling of the Terminator franchise post-T2 then you’ll enjoy these comics immensely. When you get away from main characters in a franchise the sky’s the limit. There’s lots of action and the stories move quickly. Also, there’s a point to the story as the humans are constantly trying to prevent Judgment Day (not mentioned by that name here since some of these comics are from before the second movie came out. There is urgency in the story and investment in the characters. I also liked the silent subtitled way that the Terminators communicate and think. A very cool collection.
THE TERMINATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME 2
By various authors and artists
![]()
Even more TPBs from Dark Horse are collected here with even more stuff blowing up and bodies flying around!
![]()
The Terminator: Hunters and Killers
In Eastern Siberia in 2029 the Russian counterpart to SkyNet, Mir (?!), is also waging a war against humanity. An elite squad of ex-Spetsnaz soldiers is the only resistance against the machines. With SkyNet dissatisfied with Mir’s inability to wipe out the humans efficiently it makes identical Terminators to living soldiers, with a duplicate of Spetsnaz leader Sergey ready to foul up a plan to keep a nuclear submarine from the machines hanging in the balance, and more of SkyNet’s Terminators are tagging along for insurance.
Yup, the war on humans isn’t isolated to America. Russians are a bit tougher than us so it can become confusing as to who could be a cyborg under the skin!
![]()
It also means that they have more determination to win against the machines, so the action is ferocious. There’s also one of those two-identical-guys-fighting scenarios at the end that got a bit confusing because of the artwork.
![]()
![]()
The Terminator: Endgame
Suddenly we’re back with future soldier Mary working a mundane job (because she has no Social Security Number) and trying to get in contact with ex-cyborg Dudley. After a very Arnold-looking Terminator is sent back and slaughters his way through a Royal Canadian Mounted Police training facility in Canada…
![]()
…and flying a stolen plane back to L.A. to kill Sarah Connor again, Mary does find Dudley, but he’s no good to anyone as another robot from the future being around makes him dangerous to her.
![]()
With the help of a detective named Sloane, who has been helping her tie up loose ends with Terminator remains they both wind up at the hospital where Sarah is giving birth to the savior of humanity, with a Terminator and a serial killer converging there at the same time.
One thing that’s revealed here is that even though the nuclear war is going to happen the things that these people have done in the present have improved humanity’s odds in the future. Thusly, SkyNet sends another robot back again. A deadly shootout in a hospital ends in an offbeat conclusion because of clever writer James Robinson. I was still confused in the end though…
![]()
After a one-shot story called The Terminator: Suicide Run where even a terminally ill person can make a difference in the future war we have The Terminator: Death Valley where a private investigator tracks down a senator’s daughter in a Manson Family-type cult in Death Valley. When that goes wrong after two more Terminators show up for information as to where Sarah and John Connor are, the cult leader, Killerman, and the detective are the only survivors of the resultant massacre with the cyborgs wanting the cult leader because he stupidly shot off his mouth. The chase leads back to a family who just moved there who are not the Connors, but have the unfortunate names of Sara and Jon, an extended hostage situation, the private investigator getting help from an old prospector and his mule (!), and the two cyborgs out to kill the not-Connors.
In this the artwork changes from kind of rough (by Guy Davis) to much better and smoother from issue 1...
![]()
…to 2.
![]()
The cleaner line style does make a difference. Another aspect of this story is how the female T-800 stays on mission while the male one is malfunctioning, which doesn’t interrupt his killing, but he does have some existential questions about the world around him.
![]()
That leads to the final story The Terminator: The Dark Years as he little boy Jon is an adult in the future and has a major beef with John Connor because of his father being killed by robots. But that will have to wait as the discovery of a rat robot has future soldiers questioning if there’s a traitor amongst them with a trail leading to a new way that Terminators can infiltrate human groups and get past the dog test (dogs still don’t like Terminators). Meanwhile in the present young John Connor and his mother are again on the run from yet another robot in 1999 New York City on New Year’s Eve.
And no Y2K virus will stop it! This story does try to insert some paranoia into all the action, but I could tell what was going to happen in the future. The action is explosive and non-stop throughout all the stories. My one qualm is how wonky and cartoonish the artwork gets in the final TPB here.
![]()
Was it because the license was running out with Dark Horse Comics or something? Hmm.
![]()
RoboCop Versus The Terminator
By Frank Miller and Walt Simonson
Detroit police officer Alex Murphy was shot to death in the line of duty. At least that’s what the public at large think, but actually his face and a chink of his brain were grafted into a cyborg body. With his superior armor and firepower, he protects the innocent, serves the public trust, and upholds the law. Even as the world seems to be going to hell around him, he never gives up fighting crime in the near future, himself the future of law enforcement.
But the future doesn’t need a good cop. It needs a savior as SkyNet is very close to beginning Judgement Day. In the post-nuke future, the last human warrior, Flo, knows what target she needs to take out in the past to save billions of lives…
![]()
At first this seems to succeed with the future convulsing and the dead returning to life along with the world (even though I don’t think time alteration works like that, it’s still a mind-blowing visual). Then a last-ditch effort from the machines changes things again, this time forcing Murphy to become a part of SkyNet.
![]()
The merging of man and machine mind begins the apocalypse. But that part of Murphy is still around, hiding within the machine’s programs until finally finding a way to combat the machines in the future war.
![]()
But it still may be too late. Someone has to change things to save billions of human lives, but time travel is a very tricky business…
Now this is what I’m talking about! Frank Miller's hard boiled writing style! Walt Simonson drawing this whole metal-on-metal conflict across time! There’s plenty of humor and action slamming together to create a movie that should have been made by now (and a video game that was) and it’s a hell of a blast! Think what you will about the previous anthology, but this is excellent. Recommended.
Superman Versus The Terminator: Death to the Future
By Alan Grant, Steve Pugh, and Mike Perkins
![]()
In a mall in Metropolis Sarah and John Connor are living on the run from the Terminators. After John enters a bike giveaway SkyNet pinpoints his location and sends a Terminator with a death ray upgrade back to kill him. Superman shows up to destroy the robot…
![]()
![]()
…only to have more show up since the humanity-hating Cyborg Superman gives SkyNet the info it needs to kill him in a severed T-800 head for the supercomputer to find in the future. Then Superman is teleported to the ruined future where John Henry Irons a.k.a. Steel is helping John Connor’s human resistance fight SkyNet.
![]()
(His costume disappeared because nothing dead/non-living can go back in time…or forward - at least in this comic.)
Since Supes is no longer in the present the Connors are helpless against the robots, even as Supergirl, Superboy, and even Lex Luthor try to fight back. Can Supes save the human race in the future and get back to the present to save it again?
If the whole “Superman Family” existed in the DC Universe and so did SkyNet then John Connor would be small potatoes. Since Superman is sent to the future it seems like SkyNet could win…until you factor in all of the other superheroes and super villains that could probably stop Judgment Day from happening. So, you really have to suspend your disbelief as future Steel (why wasn’t Steel also in the present? Hmm…) explains how most of the heroes were wiped out in the nuclear strikes.
This is also a bit crowded story at times with the heroes trying to stop the Cyborg Supes and the female Terminator helping him. If Skynet had made every subsequent Terminator sent back in time powered by kryptonite a la Metallo I could believe it more, but nothing doing.
It’s better that there are no superheroes to fight SkyNet as it makes the future war more desperate as fragile humans must fight nearly unbeatable machines. I still like this a bit, but it’s pretty unbelievable that this would happen in the DC Universe.
Terminator: Infinity, Volume 1
By Simon Furman, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
![]()
In the aftermath of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) John Connor now dwells alone in the Crystal Peak, Nevada mountain bunker alone. Having been drilled by his mother to be this great military leader since he was a kid he feels like a failure as Judgment Day has come to pass. Without Kate Brewster around he’s left to his own misery and after he can’t keep the generator there running, he decides that he has to embrace his destiny and venture out into the wasteland to save humanity.
He tries desperately to gather a group of survivors, but he’s just one man versus the prowling T-800s exterminating all life in their path. Help suddenly comes when a reprogrammed Terminator “Uncle Bob,” who gives him the info and motivation to keep fighting.
![]()
But things are even more desperate as SkyNet has created a new Terminator, the T-Infinity, which is half machine and half energy, is sent back in time to post-nuke America to kill John Connor, and can just teleport itself back in time to the same place and time instead of getting destroyed to become a relentless enemy for John and Uncle Bob to face.
![]()
I do like the more dynamic art style on display, despite the weird energy robot who keeps showing up to slash and destroy stuff with his energy construct blades. The beginning of the human resistance begins here as John and some military folks manage to take over a religious radio station to reach people, then they need Uncle Bob’s help to get some proper pulse weapons to fight back against SkyNet. It is very powerful as John gains confidence in his new leadership abilities even when the odds are stacked more and more against humanity.
I also appreciated that SkyNet sent the T-Infinity back to 2004 to stabilize the time stream by taking out the T-X in T3. Only the first two films seem to matter to these creators, but I don’t know how the beginning of this comic could be possible now. It’s still awesome to read as this conflict turns from extermination to a war against the machines. Recommended.
![]()
Terminator, Volume 2: Revolution
By Simon Furman, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
In 2015 John Connor continues to fight back against SkyNet with his now-wife Tara Connor, who’s also taking care of their adopted son, young Kyle Reese. John and Tara know that they have to keep Kyle safe and at the same time they have to make a major push against the machines. Kyle’s very eager to get into the war and when the T-Infinity returns to kill John again both he and the cyborg are transported back to post-T2 1996 New Orleans, LA. A bunch of identical Terminators have also been sent back to finish off child John and adult John has to pretend to be a Terminator himself so as not to arouse suspicion with his young self and mother. Then the now malfunctioning T-Infinity shows up unable to figure out who its targets are. Meanwhile, in the future of 2015 SkyNet looses it’s newest weapon to kill Tara and Kyle, The Dire Wolf.
![]()
Yes, the Dire Wolf, a mechanical wolf with a serpentine tongue. That’s SkyNet’s newest brainstorm, a really big wolf. So the war in the future isn’t really as compelling as the fight in 1996. I should also point out another problem with this period with Dynamite Entertainment publishing these comics: Tara and Sarah are both really top-heavy. It’s ridiculous fan service that would make it pretty difficult to live on the run from relentless killing machines. These women’s breasts would be pummeling them in the face the whole time! I’m really not looking for sexiness from these comics so it just seems ridiculous.
Anyway, back to the Dire Wolf. It’s a pretty big letdown as it’s just a really big dog. It may be tough, but I would think that SkyNet would have built and sent out a Terminator the size of a building to kill the Connors and everyone else. A scary dog is stupid and absurd. Why not an army of T-1000s? That would be a real challenge for humanity to come up with a counterattack against a liquid metal army.
So this wasn’t all that impressive and is the last volume from Dynamite Entertainment. What a way to go out, on a lame cliffhanger that will never be resolved. Next up…
![]()
The Terminator: 2029 - 1984
By Zack Whedon and Andy MacDonald
In 2029 A.D. Pasadena, CA young resistance fighters and lovers Ben and Paige join up with Kyle Reese and his resistance fighters to meet up with John Connor while dodging attacks from the new T-800 model Terminators.
![]()
After they meet up with some hunters looking for robots to destroy, Kyle rescues an old man from a facility where he has to get some critical hard drives for the resistance. After Kyle is sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from the T-800 also sent there the old man suddenly reveals that he’s actually Kyle Reese! Tragedy strikes and Ben decides to go back to T1 times after Reese to prevent him from being tortured for years and giving SkyNet the info to keep the war going. Ben’s mission: find Sarah and save Kyle, somehow…
Ah, a much better story to wash the stupid out of my brain. The story is much more urgent here as the events of T1 actually go in a different direction and it would seem that these human characters may be able to stop Judgment Day from happening, with a huge twist happening that actually begins a different story than T2 and it’s still well done.
All of these people are relatable and you do feel for them, especially since both the government and another T-800 gunning for them.
![]()
In the end this series is about the human spirit and its resiliency in the face of relentless death. Recommended.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Official Graphic Novel Adaptation
Adapted by Gregory Wright
Art By Klaus Jansen
Based on the screenplay by James Cameron and William Wisher
![]()
The first 2/5 of this book is retelling the film T2 in graphic novel form. It's also an abbreviated version with some scenes cut short for length of the story while still being based on the extended cut of the film. It's just the film cut down for comic form.
![]()
The other 3/5 is Terminator 2: Cybernetic Dawn by Dan Abnett, Mark Paniccia, Gerry Kline, Rod Wigham, and Jack Snider. "Based on the world created in the motion picture written by James Cameron and William Wisher."
![]()
After the events of T2 Sarah and John Connor are still on the run from the authorities toward an uncertain future. When a detective finds a severed robot arm in some gears at the steel mill from the climax, he knows there's more to this than an escaped mental patient.
![]()
The Dyson family are also on the run after what happened to Miles. Things get even more hairy when two T-800s and a female T-1000 show up from the future to ensure SkyNet's creation.
One thing about this book is an emphasis on trying to change the future, but wisecracking John pretty much explains that they haven't changed anything since the reprogrammed T-800 and T-1000 were sent back instead of, you know, not. This is further solidified when Sarah goes to a computer company commandeered by the female T-1000 and it's revealed that there really isn't any hope.
![]()
Kind of a letdown after putting your faith in the actions of Sarah, John, and "Uncle Bob." And it is still basically humanity's fault as there's always some researcher trying to recreate these machines. It's an okay expansion to T2, but despite what these people do to survive against Terminators in the present mankind is still condemned to the nuclear hell of Judgment Day. At this point the only question that needs answering is where the tanker truck of liquid nitrogen came from conveniently or the film.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Nuclear Twilight
By Mark Paniccia, Gary Erskine, and Annie Parkhouse
![]()
(This is not the cover of the TPB as that's the same as the previous volume, but this individual issue cover better sums up the story.)
In 2029 Los Angeles General John Connor leads the human resistance against the Terminator armies of SkyNet, coordinating attacks against its Terminator factories and trying to figure out a way to destroy the supercomputer once and for all.
![]()
He and Danny Dyson may have developed the ultimate weapon against it, but they need a T-800 for the mission. Power dips that knock out the T-800s reveal that SkyNet has begun to use time displacement, severely shrinking Connor’s time frame for the mission. While trying to simultaneously keep Sgt. Kyle Reese out of danger for his fateful journey Reese just decides to go AWOL with his soldier friends on the mission, endangering the entire resistance and John Connor’s existence.
![]()
He doesn't look like Michael Biehn in the comic, probably for legal reasons.
Things get worse when one soldier gets captured and replaced with a T-1000. Now in the final days of the war with the machines everything could fall apart at once and humanity’s fate could be sealed.
Supposedly this is the conclusion that leads backwards in time to the events of T2 and this story does become more grim and realistic with the killing machines at first seemingly broken, then snapping back to life to kill more humans. John thinks a lot about the past and this hellish present as his plan takes him into the belly of SkyNet to fulfill his destiny and save the human race. The events here seem surreal after decades of war begun by his mother’s side after Judgment Day trying to save survivors, and losing so many friends over that time. Things get nuts on the battlefield when their hijacked T-800 must get to it’s target at all costs, even if resistance soldiers must be sacrificed to guarantee success.
This is a straight up war comic that pulls few punches and keeps hammering home the toll this war takes on people. My only gripe is that a lot of people look alike so it gets confusing sometimes, but also at one point they finally reveal that there’s a bunch of T-800s that look like Arnold so things make sense finally. This should have been the end, but T3 came along anyway to mess everything up. Still, this is recommended by me.
![]()
This is not from the comic, but I found it online and it amused me with it's silly-looking interpretations of the characters.
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, Vol. 1
By J. Michael Straczynski, Pete Woods, and Matthew Wilson
![]()
After the irrelevant events of Terminator Salvation (2009) John Connor readies his troops as a human resistance soldier named Simon is sent back to the present to kill serial killer Thomas Parnell, but unfortunately the evil killer survives to be reborn with his brain put into a Terminator endoskeleton body.
![]()
Dr. Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter's character from the film) is in charge for this operation by SkyNet as her terminal illness was cured the same way. Both of these people have betrayed humanity and things get worse when Connor's forces are being brutally taken out by a Terminator army controlled by Parnell, with more and more being controlled by him as time clicks away...
![]()
Because Terminator Salvation was so irrelevant in the end this expansion actually winds up being better than the film. This time augmented T-800s (one has cool blade built into its arm while another spews nerve gas from its mouth and has a lethal prehensile hairdo!) are sent back to protect the serial killer while human Simon tries to kill him. The "Terminator War" gets more brutal as Parnell has T-800s impaling people, tearing out their hearts, and tearing off their heads. He seems pretty mellow throughout with SkyNet questioning this course of action with Kogan. There's also an incredible sequence where SkyNet develops its sentience and makes its fateful decision against humankind. It's at least better than the movie and worth reading.
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, Vol. 2
By J. Michael Straczynski, Pete Woods, and Matthew Wilson
![]()
As SkyNet begins running out of options and Parnell takes over more and more of the Terminator army John Connor realizes that his sending Simon back in time has failed as Parnell is still alive. With the help of a newly resurrected Marcus Wright, who now is just a human brain in a Terminator body with no need for organs and becomes a go to between the resistance leader and SkyNet. Now SkyNet needs John Connor’s help to stop Parnell…by becoming a Terminator!
![]()
If you thought that Terminator Salvation was lacking in the story department this direct sequel is actually much better. In the end if John wants to work with SkyNet to stop Parnell some things have to change, and the fate of both the human race and machines will have to figure out a way to end the war as neither side will really win anything.
![]()
This is the rare case of a comic being better than the movie it's based off of and it comes to an interesting conclusion that would actually make a good ending to the saga. But no…
Terminator/RoboCop: Kill Human
By Rob Williams, P.J. Holden, Rainer Petter, and Inlight Studios
![]()
In the future a female survivor comes across a museum exhibit where cyborg cop Murphy is on display.
![]()
His gun seems to be useful, but when a Terminator shows up Murphy reactivates to save her, but in the process of trying to get caught up on future events he gets corrupted and kills her. Driven by guilt he goes back in time to 1996/Terminator 2: Judgment Day times. This means he interferes with the ending of the film, hijacking the Connors, having to fight the good T-800...
![]()
![]()
...and trying to get Sarah and John onto an OCP aircraft carrier. Unfortunately, they didn’t destroy the T-1000 and Murphy has to try and save John in a sinking ship against the liquid enemy.
![]()
Yeah, he messes up. I don’t know whether to be offended by Murphy becoming a walking disaster area that can’t get saving lives right or by the rearranging of the ending of arguably the best Terminator film. I’ll stick with the latter as this is most definitely not nearly as good as Frank Miller’s RoboCop Vs. The Terminator. Murphy can’t even take up protecting the Connors as his mission. This just seems to go downhill fast near the end. This was not a good idea, and they managed to make Murphy into a crappy cop. Really, who cares this book?
The Terminator: Enemy of my Enemy
By Dan Jolley, Jamal Ingle, Ray Snider, and Nate Piekps of Blambot
![]()
In 1985 another Terminator is sent back in time with the target of Elise Fong to be terminated. Ex-CIA agent Farrow Greene is paid to kidnap her for a rival pharmaceutical company, but butts heads with the deadly cyborg...
![]()
...then has to join forces with him to find her. It seems that Fong has some ideas about synthetic skin that haven’t been developed yet and the T-800 vows to kill both Greene and Fong in the end. Greene is in wayyy over her head here, but has to try and figure out a way to save Fong and escape the killer cyborg before he completes his mission.
This is the last TPB of Terminator comics from Dark Horse Books and what a doozy it is! Government scientists have already begun developing Terminators based on the remains of the original T-800 from the first film.
![]()
They’re pretty primitive at this point, but still post a problem to the T-800 and Greene. The most intriguing part of this story though is the mission of the T-800, which seems to be to prevent the development of synthetic flesh which could later be used on T-800s to make them more effective infiltrator units - which means it’s on an assassination mission from John Connor! It would appear that5 even Connor has come to realize he can’t just trust someone to go back in time and convince someone of the error of their research! Holy crap! Also, Greene is a competent loser who has messed up in the past and is driven to do the right thing and succeed to add another layer to the story. Recommended.
Painkiller Jane Vs. The Terminator, Vol. 1: Time to Kill
By Jimmy Palmiotti, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
![]()
Jane Vasko used to be an undercover cop who was found out by a bunch of drug dealers and injected with a drug cocktail against her will. She was in a coma for years tagged as a Jane Doe until one day she awoke years later with new strange powers. Chief among them is a Wolverine-level healing factor, leading to much bloody violence that Jane can survive.
Meanwhile in 2029 Los Angeles John Connors human resistance continues the war against SkyNet and the Terminators. When a woman who looks very much like Jane who has the same regenerative powers and her fellow soldiers infiltrate a SkyNet stronghold they manage to mess with the destination of a female T-800 in the time displacement machine and it winds up in 2008 New York City, where Jane and her lesbian girlfriend Maureen are enjoying a drink at a bar. That’s when the nude T-800 needs Jane’s clothes, and much mayhem ensues with many cops getting killed as the cyborg can’t seem to be stopped with our modern non-plasma-based weapons.
![]()
Even an invincible woman may not be able to stop the robot, and the Jane-looking woman Vanessa comes back from the future to help, but it may already be too late…
So, Kristanna Loken was the T-X in T3 AND played Jane in the short-lived Painkiller Jane Syfy series. How ironic. Anyway, this is just an action comic with no discussion of what Jane could do if she went after SkyNet in the present before it comes online. There’s no time anyway what with the constant battles with the robot. There’s not much really deeper than that here and this comic TPB is optimistically called “Vol. 1” despite no further confrontations with Jane and the Terminators. I’m not really a fan of Jane so moving on…
Transformers Vs. The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy
By David Mariotte, John Barber, Tom Waltz, Alex Milne, David Garcia Cruz, and Jake M. Wood
![]()
In a future ruined by the Decepticons the forces of SkyNet have failed to protect humanity and come up with a final last ditch plan to save mankind: to send a T-800 Terminator back to the year 1984 to destroy the Cybertronians at their arrival on Earth. Taking waitress Sarah Connor as a guide to a newly erupting volcano in Oregon the real cause of the disturbance is revealed.
![]()
The Ark spacecraft has reactivated the Transformers aboard. Unfortunately, Megatron, Starscream, and the other Decepticons have gotten the drop on Optimus Prime and the Autobots and seem to be on the path to destroying the world. Can the T-800 and whatever Autobots left alive defeat the Decepticons and save the future - and will the Terminator allow any of the robots to survive?
Of all the crossovers this one was up there with some sort of meeting with the Smurfs predictability-wise. This story takes place during the pilot episode of the Generation 1 Transformers animated TV series, so those beats come up plot-wise. "One shall stand, one shall fall!" Sarah and the quickly stripped of flesh T-800 are so small compared to these unraveled-vehicle-sized robots.
![]()
The whole story seems silly seeing as how they could just step on the T-800, but it still poses a threat to them as he knows all of their weaknesses. The Decepticons could conceivably destroy the world in their quest for Energon, their power source. They do kill many humans, taking over Cyberdyne Systems by coincidence to get the stuff.
There's lots of fights between the robots and the idea seems to make some sense the way it's presented, but it's very hard to take Transformers seriously these days. Me being in my 40's and the aggressively annoying Michael Bay films pretty much squashed my interest in this absurd toy-selling concept from my childhood. To be fair there were some Terminator toys made, but this series has stayed grounded in the dark nightmare future of post-nuclear hell war. The Transformers were just selling toys back in 1984, despite our nostalgia - and comics today (along with more toys for kids), but the Cybertronians live in a bright normal world versus the Terminators exterminating humans in the potentially terrible future. It's weird to see these two franchises collide, but there's plenty of jokes for the Transformers fandom. It's like fruit candy in my chocolate. I personally don't really dig the mix much.
In the future human beings wage a desperate war against the machines in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world. The sentient computer program SkyNet launched a massive global nuclear strike against mankind. Billions have died and anyone left alive is being hunted relentlessly by its mechanized army of Terminators. From out of this bleak and hopeless situation came John Connor to organize and lead a human resistance against the machines to take back the world and make a better future for mankind.
SkyNet concocted a plan to send one of its T-800 model terminators covered with human flesh back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to John and doom mankind. Future soldier Kyle Reese was sent back to stop the killer cyborg and save Sarah and the future and the plan was thwarted because of the determination of the human spirit, the thing the machines can’t seem to crush.
In 1988 the (now defunct) NOW Comics began a run of Terminator comics to continue the story of the blasted future where the war against SkyNet goes on in 2031.
And after reading a few of those issues I realized that $50 was way too much to pay for these things. A good rule of thumb to remember is that if some comic are not collected into any TPBs there’s usually a reason. The reason here is that they’re pretty lame. Maybe I’ll read them in the future. So I’ll just skip ahead to a relevant TPB. So…
The Terminator: The Burning Earth
By Ron Fortier and Alex Ross
The war with SkyNet has waged far too long. A haggard and desperate John Connor continues to lead his dwindling human resistance against the machines. Briefly he flirts with suicide, but decides that he must continue the fight. Meanwhile, SkyNet has only exterminated 96.3% of humanity and believes not destroying the last 3.7% is the result of “faulty programming” so it decides to commence a final nuclear bombardment of what’s left of the major cities. But when one of the nukes hit’s a fault line it causes a catastrophic earthquake that may be the opening the human resistance needs for a final assault on NORAD, SkyNet’s headquarters.
One thing that Fortier brings up in his forward is how bad the art got in the NOW Terminator comics as he tried to tell a good story. NOW thought its license was up with the Terminator brand, but it turned out that they could make five more issues.
Then a young artist named Alex Ross came on the scene and this TPB was born. Alex Ross is well known for his photorealistic watercolor painting artwork on comics like Kingdom Come and Marvels. These comics he did in oil paint, so this looks a lot better than the previous comics with a desperate battle against new Terminators, like a female model cyborg and the cylons-with-headlights-looking robots.
This is basically a sequel before T2 even came out. The dramatic change in art style is like apples and oranges - or more like candy and steak as this comic is a feast for the eyes. Ross tried to make John Connor look a bit like Linda Hamilton as that was the only reference so he looks a bit androgynous.
This whole comic was awesome, and I can’t say enough good things about it. Recommended.
THE TERMINATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME 1
By various authors and artists
In 2029 Los Angeles human beings fight a desperate battle to survive against the machine armies of SkyNet in a post-Judgment Day future. But the outcome of the future war will be determined in the present. The present of over 20 years ago to be exact.
In the first TPB here The Terminator: Tempest a unit of human soldiers are sent back to present Los Angeles to stop the development of SkyNet at its source: the failing tech company Cyberdyne Systems. Unfortunately, three Terminators are sent back to stop them and ensure their own existence, with a future weapon smuggled in a human prisoner for good measure. It’s hard for humans to kill other people even if it could save billions of lives, but they can’t stop for anything. The T-800s have brought a half-cyborg guy named I825.M with them as a medic for their flesh, but he has other ideas as he’s away from SkyNet and is more human than anyone thinks.
You wanna see some new Terminator stories? Well, you’ve come to the right place as Dark Horse Comics expand on this universe away from the film’s characters for more super action explosionation! And since it’s comics and not $200 million films they don’t have to cater to any demographics but the fans and don’t have to be all that PG-13 either. These stories are crazy cool and interesting to boot!
The second TPB is The Terminator: One Shot which is actually written by one of my favorite comic writers, James Robinson. It’s also told in oil painting, so it looks beautiful. Another woman named Sarah Connor is targeted by a female terminator and a future soldier named Ruggles that’s been there since 1955 and works as a cop. Since Sarah was planning on having her husband killed for his money and Ruggles is an old man it would seem that the terminator could…or should…finish its mission.
This story moves at a fast clip with a lot of gorgeous artwork punctuating a conflicted story. She’s not the real Sarah Connor, is greedy enough to try having her wealthy artists husband killed - despite him loving her - but Ruggles still has to stop the machine with some tech he smuggled back in time. He’s only got one shot at a time with the weapon and you begin to wonder why he should bother. There’s even a very ironic ending as well so it’s a very different kind of story.
Next we’re back with the characters from the first TPB, Col. Mary, I825.M, and Dr. Astin, an engineer who realized what he was working towards and had to fight the robots. In this story, The Terminator: Secondary Objectives, Astin is living in seclusion and I825.M are on the run to Mexico City. One T-800, C890.L goes on a killing spree in L.A., slaughtering cops with no attempt at disguising its fleshless frame, then begins its secondary objective: killing Sarah Connor.
Another female terminator is sent back in time to join the deadly mission, but they have to kill Mary and I825.M in Mexico City with the half-human trying desperately to construct some kind of weapon to stop the robots.
The final story is The Terminator: The Enemy Within where C.890.L somehow repaired itself with motorcycle parts and now looks like some Big Daddy Roth-type terminator. Now it’s out to kill Mary, I825.M, who is trying to shut down the cyborg part of his brain that wants him to kill everyone, and one character, who suddenly does a character 180 and tries to make a fortune out of some data he gets out of the half-human’s head. Can a newly arrived human resistance unit from the future finally put an end to the machines and a traitorous human who would put personal wealth before a devastating nuclear war?
If you’ve been under whelmed with Hollywood’s handling of the Terminator franchise post-T2 then you’ll enjoy these comics immensely. When you get away from main characters in a franchise the sky’s the limit. There’s lots of action and the stories move quickly. Also, there’s a point to the story as the humans are constantly trying to prevent Judgment Day (not mentioned by that name here since some of these comics are from before the second movie came out. There is urgency in the story and investment in the characters. I also liked the silent subtitled way that the Terminators communicate and think. A very cool collection.
THE TERMINATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME 2
By various authors and artists
Even more TPBs from Dark Horse are collected here with even more stuff blowing up and bodies flying around!
The Terminator: Hunters and Killers
In Eastern Siberia in 2029 the Russian counterpart to SkyNet, Mir (?!), is also waging a war against humanity. An elite squad of ex-Spetsnaz soldiers is the only resistance against the machines. With SkyNet dissatisfied with Mir’s inability to wipe out the humans efficiently it makes identical Terminators to living soldiers, with a duplicate of Spetsnaz leader Sergey ready to foul up a plan to keep a nuclear submarine from the machines hanging in the balance, and more of SkyNet’s Terminators are tagging along for insurance.
Yup, the war on humans isn’t isolated to America. Russians are a bit tougher than us so it can become confusing as to who could be a cyborg under the skin!
It also means that they have more determination to win against the machines, so the action is ferocious. There’s also one of those two-identical-guys-fighting scenarios at the end that got a bit confusing because of the artwork.
The Terminator: Endgame
Suddenly we’re back with future soldier Mary working a mundane job (because she has no Social Security Number) and trying to get in contact with ex-cyborg Dudley. After a very Arnold-looking Terminator is sent back and slaughters his way through a Royal Canadian Mounted Police training facility in Canada…
…and flying a stolen plane back to L.A. to kill Sarah Connor again, Mary does find Dudley, but he’s no good to anyone as another robot from the future being around makes him dangerous to her.
With the help of a detective named Sloane, who has been helping her tie up loose ends with Terminator remains they both wind up at the hospital where Sarah is giving birth to the savior of humanity, with a Terminator and a serial killer converging there at the same time.
One thing that’s revealed here is that even though the nuclear war is going to happen the things that these people have done in the present have improved humanity’s odds in the future. Thusly, SkyNet sends another robot back again. A deadly shootout in a hospital ends in an offbeat conclusion because of clever writer James Robinson. I was still confused in the end though…
After a one-shot story called The Terminator: Suicide Run where even a terminally ill person can make a difference in the future war we have The Terminator: Death Valley where a private investigator tracks down a senator’s daughter in a Manson Family-type cult in Death Valley. When that goes wrong after two more Terminators show up for information as to where Sarah and John Connor are, the cult leader, Killerman, and the detective are the only survivors of the resultant massacre with the cyborgs wanting the cult leader because he stupidly shot off his mouth. The chase leads back to a family who just moved there who are not the Connors, but have the unfortunate names of Sara and Jon, an extended hostage situation, the private investigator getting help from an old prospector and his mule (!), and the two cyborgs out to kill the not-Connors.
In this the artwork changes from kind of rough (by Guy Davis) to much better and smoother from issue 1...
…to 2.
The cleaner line style does make a difference. Another aspect of this story is how the female T-800 stays on mission while the male one is malfunctioning, which doesn’t interrupt his killing, but he does have some existential questions about the world around him.
That leads to the final story The Terminator: The Dark Years as he little boy Jon is an adult in the future and has a major beef with John Connor because of his father being killed by robots. But that will have to wait as the discovery of a rat robot has future soldiers questioning if there’s a traitor amongst them with a trail leading to a new way that Terminators can infiltrate human groups and get past the dog test (dogs still don’t like Terminators). Meanwhile in the present young John Connor and his mother are again on the run from yet another robot in 1999 New York City on New Year’s Eve.
And no Y2K virus will stop it! This story does try to insert some paranoia into all the action, but I could tell what was going to happen in the future. The action is explosive and non-stop throughout all the stories. My one qualm is how wonky and cartoonish the artwork gets in the final TPB here.
Was it because the license was running out with Dark Horse Comics or something? Hmm.
RoboCop Versus The Terminator
By Frank Miller and Walt Simonson
Detroit police officer Alex Murphy was shot to death in the line of duty. At least that’s what the public at large think, but actually his face and a chink of his brain were grafted into a cyborg body. With his superior armor and firepower, he protects the innocent, serves the public trust, and upholds the law. Even as the world seems to be going to hell around him, he never gives up fighting crime in the near future, himself the future of law enforcement.
But the future doesn’t need a good cop. It needs a savior as SkyNet is very close to beginning Judgement Day. In the post-nuke future, the last human warrior, Flo, knows what target she needs to take out in the past to save billions of lives…
At first this seems to succeed with the future convulsing and the dead returning to life along with the world (even though I don’t think time alteration works like that, it’s still a mind-blowing visual). Then a last-ditch effort from the machines changes things again, this time forcing Murphy to become a part of SkyNet.
The merging of man and machine mind begins the apocalypse. But that part of Murphy is still around, hiding within the machine’s programs until finally finding a way to combat the machines in the future war.
But it still may be too late. Someone has to change things to save billions of human lives, but time travel is a very tricky business…
Now this is what I’m talking about! Frank Miller's hard boiled writing style! Walt Simonson drawing this whole metal-on-metal conflict across time! There’s plenty of humor and action slamming together to create a movie that should have been made by now (and a video game that was) and it’s a hell of a blast! Think what you will about the previous anthology, but this is excellent. Recommended.
Superman Versus The Terminator: Death to the Future
By Alan Grant, Steve Pugh, and Mike Perkins
In a mall in Metropolis Sarah and John Connor are living on the run from the Terminators. After John enters a bike giveaway SkyNet pinpoints his location and sends a Terminator with a death ray upgrade back to kill him. Superman shows up to destroy the robot…
…only to have more show up since the humanity-hating Cyborg Superman gives SkyNet the info it needs to kill him in a severed T-800 head for the supercomputer to find in the future. Then Superman is teleported to the ruined future where John Henry Irons a.k.a. Steel is helping John Connor’s human resistance fight SkyNet.
(His costume disappeared because nothing dead/non-living can go back in time…or forward - at least in this comic.)
Since Supes is no longer in the present the Connors are helpless against the robots, even as Supergirl, Superboy, and even Lex Luthor try to fight back. Can Supes save the human race in the future and get back to the present to save it again?
If the whole “Superman Family” existed in the DC Universe and so did SkyNet then John Connor would be small potatoes. Since Superman is sent to the future it seems like SkyNet could win…until you factor in all of the other superheroes and super villains that could probably stop Judgment Day from happening. So, you really have to suspend your disbelief as future Steel (why wasn’t Steel also in the present? Hmm…) explains how most of the heroes were wiped out in the nuclear strikes.
This is also a bit crowded story at times with the heroes trying to stop the Cyborg Supes and the female Terminator helping him. If Skynet had made every subsequent Terminator sent back in time powered by kryptonite a la Metallo I could believe it more, but nothing doing.
It’s better that there are no superheroes to fight SkyNet as it makes the future war more desperate as fragile humans must fight nearly unbeatable machines. I still like this a bit, but it’s pretty unbelievable that this would happen in the DC Universe.
Terminator: Infinity, Volume 1
By Simon Furman, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
In the aftermath of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) John Connor now dwells alone in the Crystal Peak, Nevada mountain bunker alone. Having been drilled by his mother to be this great military leader since he was a kid he feels like a failure as Judgment Day has come to pass. Without Kate Brewster around he’s left to his own misery and after he can’t keep the generator there running, he decides that he has to embrace his destiny and venture out into the wasteland to save humanity.
He tries desperately to gather a group of survivors, but he’s just one man versus the prowling T-800s exterminating all life in their path. Help suddenly comes when a reprogrammed Terminator “Uncle Bob,” who gives him the info and motivation to keep fighting.
But things are even more desperate as SkyNet has created a new Terminator, the T-Infinity, which is half machine and half energy, is sent back in time to post-nuke America to kill John Connor, and can just teleport itself back in time to the same place and time instead of getting destroyed to become a relentless enemy for John and Uncle Bob to face.
I do like the more dynamic art style on display, despite the weird energy robot who keeps showing up to slash and destroy stuff with his energy construct blades. The beginning of the human resistance begins here as John and some military folks manage to take over a religious radio station to reach people, then they need Uncle Bob’s help to get some proper pulse weapons to fight back against SkyNet. It is very powerful as John gains confidence in his new leadership abilities even when the odds are stacked more and more against humanity.
I also appreciated that SkyNet sent the T-Infinity back to 2004 to stabilize the time stream by taking out the T-X in T3. Only the first two films seem to matter to these creators, but I don’t know how the beginning of this comic could be possible now. It’s still awesome to read as this conflict turns from extermination to a war against the machines. Recommended.
Terminator, Volume 2: Revolution
By Simon Furman, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
In 2015 John Connor continues to fight back against SkyNet with his now-wife Tara Connor, who’s also taking care of their adopted son, young Kyle Reese. John and Tara know that they have to keep Kyle safe and at the same time they have to make a major push against the machines. Kyle’s very eager to get into the war and when the T-Infinity returns to kill John again both he and the cyborg are transported back to post-T2 1996 New Orleans, LA. A bunch of identical Terminators have also been sent back to finish off child John and adult John has to pretend to be a Terminator himself so as not to arouse suspicion with his young self and mother. Then the now malfunctioning T-Infinity shows up unable to figure out who its targets are. Meanwhile, in the future of 2015 SkyNet looses it’s newest weapon to kill Tara and Kyle, The Dire Wolf.
Yes, the Dire Wolf, a mechanical wolf with a serpentine tongue. That’s SkyNet’s newest brainstorm, a really big wolf. So the war in the future isn’t really as compelling as the fight in 1996. I should also point out another problem with this period with Dynamite Entertainment publishing these comics: Tara and Sarah are both really top-heavy. It’s ridiculous fan service that would make it pretty difficult to live on the run from relentless killing machines. These women’s breasts would be pummeling them in the face the whole time! I’m really not looking for sexiness from these comics so it just seems ridiculous.
Anyway, back to the Dire Wolf. It’s a pretty big letdown as it’s just a really big dog. It may be tough, but I would think that SkyNet would have built and sent out a Terminator the size of a building to kill the Connors and everyone else. A scary dog is stupid and absurd. Why not an army of T-1000s? That would be a real challenge for humanity to come up with a counterattack against a liquid metal army.
So this wasn’t all that impressive and is the last volume from Dynamite Entertainment. What a way to go out, on a lame cliffhanger that will never be resolved. Next up…
The Terminator: 2029 - 1984
By Zack Whedon and Andy MacDonald
In 2029 A.D. Pasadena, CA young resistance fighters and lovers Ben and Paige join up with Kyle Reese and his resistance fighters to meet up with John Connor while dodging attacks from the new T-800 model Terminators.
After they meet up with some hunters looking for robots to destroy, Kyle rescues an old man from a facility where he has to get some critical hard drives for the resistance. After Kyle is sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from the T-800 also sent there the old man suddenly reveals that he’s actually Kyle Reese! Tragedy strikes and Ben decides to go back to T1 times after Reese to prevent him from being tortured for years and giving SkyNet the info to keep the war going. Ben’s mission: find Sarah and save Kyle, somehow…
Ah, a much better story to wash the stupid out of my brain. The story is much more urgent here as the events of T1 actually go in a different direction and it would seem that these human characters may be able to stop Judgment Day from happening, with a huge twist happening that actually begins a different story than T2 and it’s still well done.
All of these people are relatable and you do feel for them, especially since both the government and another T-800 gunning for them.
In the end this series is about the human spirit and its resiliency in the face of relentless death. Recommended.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Official Graphic Novel Adaptation
Adapted by Gregory Wright
Art By Klaus Jansen
Based on the screenplay by James Cameron and William Wisher
The first 2/5 of this book is retelling the film T2 in graphic novel form. It's also an abbreviated version with some scenes cut short for length of the story while still being based on the extended cut of the film. It's just the film cut down for comic form.
The other 3/5 is Terminator 2: Cybernetic Dawn by Dan Abnett, Mark Paniccia, Gerry Kline, Rod Wigham, and Jack Snider. "Based on the world created in the motion picture written by James Cameron and William Wisher."
After the events of T2 Sarah and John Connor are still on the run from the authorities toward an uncertain future. When a detective finds a severed robot arm in some gears at the steel mill from the climax, he knows there's more to this than an escaped mental patient.
The Dyson family are also on the run after what happened to Miles. Things get even more hairy when two T-800s and a female T-1000 show up from the future to ensure SkyNet's creation.
One thing about this book is an emphasis on trying to change the future, but wisecracking John pretty much explains that they haven't changed anything since the reprogrammed T-800 and T-1000 were sent back instead of, you know, not. This is further solidified when Sarah goes to a computer company commandeered by the female T-1000 and it's revealed that there really isn't any hope.
Kind of a letdown after putting your faith in the actions of Sarah, John, and "Uncle Bob." And it is still basically humanity's fault as there's always some researcher trying to recreate these machines. It's an okay expansion to T2, but despite what these people do to survive against Terminators in the present mankind is still condemned to the nuclear hell of Judgment Day. At this point the only question that needs answering is where the tanker truck of liquid nitrogen came from conveniently or the film.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Nuclear Twilight
By Mark Paniccia, Gary Erskine, and Annie Parkhouse
(This is not the cover of the TPB as that's the same as the previous volume, but this individual issue cover better sums up the story.)
In 2029 Los Angeles General John Connor leads the human resistance against the Terminator armies of SkyNet, coordinating attacks against its Terminator factories and trying to figure out a way to destroy the supercomputer once and for all.
He and Danny Dyson may have developed the ultimate weapon against it, but they need a T-800 for the mission. Power dips that knock out the T-800s reveal that SkyNet has begun to use time displacement, severely shrinking Connor’s time frame for the mission. While trying to simultaneously keep Sgt. Kyle Reese out of danger for his fateful journey Reese just decides to go AWOL with his soldier friends on the mission, endangering the entire resistance and John Connor’s existence.
He doesn't look like Michael Biehn in the comic, probably for legal reasons.
Things get worse when one soldier gets captured and replaced with a T-1000. Now in the final days of the war with the machines everything could fall apart at once and humanity’s fate could be sealed.
Supposedly this is the conclusion that leads backwards in time to the events of T2 and this story does become more grim and realistic with the killing machines at first seemingly broken, then snapping back to life to kill more humans. John thinks a lot about the past and this hellish present as his plan takes him into the belly of SkyNet to fulfill his destiny and save the human race. The events here seem surreal after decades of war begun by his mother’s side after Judgment Day trying to save survivors, and losing so many friends over that time. Things get nuts on the battlefield when their hijacked T-800 must get to it’s target at all costs, even if resistance soldiers must be sacrificed to guarantee success.
This is a straight up war comic that pulls few punches and keeps hammering home the toll this war takes on people. My only gripe is that a lot of people look alike so it gets confusing sometimes, but also at one point they finally reveal that there’s a bunch of T-800s that look like Arnold so things make sense finally. This should have been the end, but T3 came along anyway to mess everything up. Still, this is recommended by me.
This is not from the comic, but I found it online and it amused me with it's silly-looking interpretations of the characters.
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, Vol. 1
By J. Michael Straczynski, Pete Woods, and Matthew Wilson
After the irrelevant events of Terminator Salvation (2009) John Connor readies his troops as a human resistance soldier named Simon is sent back to the present to kill serial killer Thomas Parnell, but unfortunately the evil killer survives to be reborn with his brain put into a Terminator endoskeleton body.
Dr. Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter's character from the film) is in charge for this operation by SkyNet as her terminal illness was cured the same way. Both of these people have betrayed humanity and things get worse when Connor's forces are being brutally taken out by a Terminator army controlled by Parnell, with more and more being controlled by him as time clicks away...
Because Terminator Salvation was so irrelevant in the end this expansion actually winds up being better than the film. This time augmented T-800s (one has cool blade built into its arm while another spews nerve gas from its mouth and has a lethal prehensile hairdo!) are sent back to protect the serial killer while human Simon tries to kill him. The "Terminator War" gets more brutal as Parnell has T-800s impaling people, tearing out their hearts, and tearing off their heads. He seems pretty mellow throughout with SkyNet questioning this course of action with Kogan. There's also an incredible sequence where SkyNet develops its sentience and makes its fateful decision against humankind. It's at least better than the movie and worth reading.
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, Vol. 2
By J. Michael Straczynski, Pete Woods, and Matthew Wilson
As SkyNet begins running out of options and Parnell takes over more and more of the Terminator army John Connor realizes that his sending Simon back in time has failed as Parnell is still alive. With the help of a newly resurrected Marcus Wright, who now is just a human brain in a Terminator body with no need for organs and becomes a go to between the resistance leader and SkyNet. Now SkyNet needs John Connor’s help to stop Parnell…by becoming a Terminator!
If you thought that Terminator Salvation was lacking in the story department this direct sequel is actually much better. In the end if John wants to work with SkyNet to stop Parnell some things have to change, and the fate of both the human race and machines will have to figure out a way to end the war as neither side will really win anything.
This is the rare case of a comic being better than the movie it's based off of and it comes to an interesting conclusion that would actually make a good ending to the saga. But no…
Terminator/RoboCop: Kill Human
By Rob Williams, P.J. Holden, Rainer Petter, and Inlight Studios
In the future a female survivor comes across a museum exhibit where cyborg cop Murphy is on display.
His gun seems to be useful, but when a Terminator shows up Murphy reactivates to save her, but in the process of trying to get caught up on future events he gets corrupted and kills her. Driven by guilt he goes back in time to 1996/Terminator 2: Judgment Day times. This means he interferes with the ending of the film, hijacking the Connors, having to fight the good T-800...
...and trying to get Sarah and John onto an OCP aircraft carrier. Unfortunately, they didn’t destroy the T-1000 and Murphy has to try and save John in a sinking ship against the liquid enemy.
Yeah, he messes up. I don’t know whether to be offended by Murphy becoming a walking disaster area that can’t get saving lives right or by the rearranging of the ending of arguably the best Terminator film. I’ll stick with the latter as this is most definitely not nearly as good as Frank Miller’s RoboCop Vs. The Terminator. Murphy can’t even take up protecting the Connors as his mission. This just seems to go downhill fast near the end. This was not a good idea, and they managed to make Murphy into a crappy cop. Really, who cares this book?
The Terminator: Enemy of my Enemy
By Dan Jolley, Jamal Ingle, Ray Snider, and Nate Piekps of Blambot
In 1985 another Terminator is sent back in time with the target of Elise Fong to be terminated. Ex-CIA agent Farrow Greene is paid to kidnap her for a rival pharmaceutical company, but butts heads with the deadly cyborg...
...then has to join forces with him to find her. It seems that Fong has some ideas about synthetic skin that haven’t been developed yet and the T-800 vows to kill both Greene and Fong in the end. Greene is in wayyy over her head here, but has to try and figure out a way to save Fong and escape the killer cyborg before he completes his mission.
This is the last TPB of Terminator comics from Dark Horse Books and what a doozy it is! Government scientists have already begun developing Terminators based on the remains of the original T-800 from the first film.
They’re pretty primitive at this point, but still post a problem to the T-800 and Greene. The most intriguing part of this story though is the mission of the T-800, which seems to be to prevent the development of synthetic flesh which could later be used on T-800s to make them more effective infiltrator units - which means it’s on an assassination mission from John Connor! It would appear that5 even Connor has come to realize he can’t just trust someone to go back in time and convince someone of the error of their research! Holy crap! Also, Greene is a competent loser who has messed up in the past and is driven to do the right thing and succeed to add another layer to the story. Recommended.
Painkiller Jane Vs. The Terminator, Vol. 1: Time to Kill
By Jimmy Palmiotti, Nigel Raynor, and Inlight Studio
Jane Vasko used to be an undercover cop who was found out by a bunch of drug dealers and injected with a drug cocktail against her will. She was in a coma for years tagged as a Jane Doe until one day she awoke years later with new strange powers. Chief among them is a Wolverine-level healing factor, leading to much bloody violence that Jane can survive.
Meanwhile in 2029 Los Angeles John Connors human resistance continues the war against SkyNet and the Terminators. When a woman who looks very much like Jane who has the same regenerative powers and her fellow soldiers infiltrate a SkyNet stronghold they manage to mess with the destination of a female T-800 in the time displacement machine and it winds up in 2008 New York City, where Jane and her lesbian girlfriend Maureen are enjoying a drink at a bar. That’s when the nude T-800 needs Jane’s clothes, and much mayhem ensues with many cops getting killed as the cyborg can’t seem to be stopped with our modern non-plasma-based weapons.
Even an invincible woman may not be able to stop the robot, and the Jane-looking woman Vanessa comes back from the future to help, but it may already be too late…
So, Kristanna Loken was the T-X in T3 AND played Jane in the short-lived Painkiller Jane Syfy series. How ironic. Anyway, this is just an action comic with no discussion of what Jane could do if she went after SkyNet in the present before it comes online. There’s no time anyway what with the constant battles with the robot. There’s not much really deeper than that here and this comic TPB is optimistically called “Vol. 1” despite no further confrontations with Jane and the Terminators. I’m not really a fan of Jane so moving on…
Transformers Vs. The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy
By David Mariotte, John Barber, Tom Waltz, Alex Milne, David Garcia Cruz, and Jake M. Wood
In a future ruined by the Decepticons the forces of SkyNet have failed to protect humanity and come up with a final last ditch plan to save mankind: to send a T-800 Terminator back to the year 1984 to destroy the Cybertronians at their arrival on Earth. Taking waitress Sarah Connor as a guide to a newly erupting volcano in Oregon the real cause of the disturbance is revealed.
The Ark spacecraft has reactivated the Transformers aboard. Unfortunately, Megatron, Starscream, and the other Decepticons have gotten the drop on Optimus Prime and the Autobots and seem to be on the path to destroying the world. Can the T-800 and whatever Autobots left alive defeat the Decepticons and save the future - and will the Terminator allow any of the robots to survive?
Of all the crossovers this one was up there with some sort of meeting with the Smurfs predictability-wise. This story takes place during the pilot episode of the Generation 1 Transformers animated TV series, so those beats come up plot-wise. "One shall stand, one shall fall!" Sarah and the quickly stripped of flesh T-800 are so small compared to these unraveled-vehicle-sized robots.
The whole story seems silly seeing as how they could just step on the T-800, but it still poses a threat to them as he knows all of their weaknesses. The Decepticons could conceivably destroy the world in their quest for Energon, their power source. They do kill many humans, taking over Cyberdyne Systems by coincidence to get the stuff.
There's lots of fights between the robots and the idea seems to make some sense the way it's presented, but it's very hard to take Transformers seriously these days. Me being in my 40's and the aggressively annoying Michael Bay films pretty much squashed my interest in this absurd toy-selling concept from my childhood. To be fair there were some Terminator toys made, but this series has stayed grounded in the dark nightmare future of post-nuclear hell war. The Transformers were just selling toys back in 1984, despite our nostalgia - and comics today (along with more toys for kids), but the Cybertronians live in a bright normal world versus the Terminators exterminating humans in the potentially terrible future. It's weird to see these two franchises collide, but there's plenty of jokes for the Transformers fandom. It's like fruit candy in my chocolate. I personally don't really dig the mix much.
statistics: Posted by Tomatto — 8:54 AM - Today — Replies 0 — Views 150