“Alien versus Predator versus The Terminator” (2000) – the final installment of Dark Horse’s second stint with the Terminator” license – is a fun romp that intelligently brings together the three franchises.
Writer Mark Schultz leans toward an “Aliens” focus in the four-issue series. I have no problem with this because I am a fan of that franchise, too, and he nicely continues the “Alien Resurrection” arcs of Call – the android who feels like she’s human – and Ripley – the human with alien blood who feels disconnected from everything. John Connor plays a brief but crucial role as a messenger from the past.
Often, Skynet has looked to change the past when it’s on the brink of defeat, but in “AvPvT,” it displays a prime trait of machines – patience – and aims to defeat humans in the future, no matter how long it takes.
Mel Rubi’s pencils are nicely accented by Christopher Ivy’s inks and David Stewart’s colors, making “AvPvT” a slick, glossy package. Future John doesn’t look like most incarnations, but I was used to this version from “The Dark Years.” The artists’ Call and Ripley likenesses are very good.
CHARACTERS
John Connor: Call (the android from “Alien Resurrection” played by Winona Ryder) taps into the deceased Infiltrator Terminator named Dr. Trollenberg and finds a message secretly implanted by John back in the 21st century. He warns of Skynet’s plan to re-create itself.
Sarah Connor: Not in this story.
Kyle Reese: Not in this story.
Ellen Ripley: In a nice bit of synergy with “Alien,” her arc (and life) concludes when she sneaks aboard the vessel of the last surviving Alien-Terminator Hybrid and kills it using her acidic xenomorph blood.
Call: The “Alien Resurrection” android continues to fight for humanity’s survival. She discovers John Connor’s warning about Skynet.
Predators: Already a strange bedfellow with xenomorphs, Ripley teams up with Predators here. Like humans, Predators don’t want Skynet to take over the universe.
TERMINATORS
Dr. Trollenberg: He’s an Infiltrator model (perhaps a T-800 or T-850) who passes for human for three centuries while seeking a way to resurrect Skynet. He perfects an Alien-Terminator Hybrid.
Alien-Terminator Hybrids: ATHs are seen by Skynet as the perfect being. They are “killing machines that absorb strength from their surroundings.” Trollenberg creates two initial ATHs which proceed to the next aspect of the mission: assembling an army of ATHs using a cache of flash-frozen aliens stored on an asteroid military base as raw material. But a big battle involving Ripley, Predators and xenomorphs results in the deaths of the two ATHs, thus killing Skynet once and for all.
CONTINUITY
“AvPvT” is by far the most future-set story on any “Terminator” timeline, taking place soon after “Alien Resurrection,” which is set in 2379. Technically, this series picks up from “Death Valley,” “The Dark Years” and “Superman versus The Terminator,” but due to taking place so far in the future, it can be read as a standalone story.
The resistance won the war during John Connor’s lifetime in the 21st century, but Skynet is patient. Its most advanced Infiltrator model can pass for human, so one of them, Dr. Trollenberg, bides his time for three centuries until he has the proper strategy to resurrect Skynet.
Dark Horse likes to put a definitive capper on its “Terminator” timelines. The first time it had the license, the story ends with Sarah giving birth to Jane rather than John (“End Game”). And in “AvPvT,” Skynet gets wiped out for good. (Well, unless there’s another Infiltrator hiding somewhere, I suppose.)
Could “Terminator” and “Aliens/Predator” exist in the same reality? Yes, if we’re talking about the timeline of Dark Horse’s second stint with “Terminator.” On this timeline, we never learn the exact date that Judgment Day happens, so as long as it happens after 2007 — the date that “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” takes place — it allows for that film and “Alien vs. Predator,” which takes place in 2004, to exist.
TIME TRAVEL
There is no time travel in this story, but Skynet essentially travels forward in time via good old-fashioned patience. Dr. Trollenberg spends 300 years working toward a weapon and strategy to return Skynet to supremacy. Luckily, John also does a bit of “time-traveling” as the information packet he secretly implanted in Skynet (and therefore all Terminators) is read by Call. While he can’t know Skynet’s precise strategy, he effectively spells out the seriousness of the threat.
By emphasizing the patient aspect of machines and computer minds, “AvPvT” provides insight into how Skynet acquires knowledge. The only way a being can acquire knowledge of a previous timeline is from a time traveler, and the only way he can acquire knowledge from two timelines ago is from a time traveler who knew a time traveler … and so forth.
The idea of humans winning a war with such an intelligence strategy is exhausting to our human minds. But Skynet has no such hang-ups. Its natural patience explains how it knows to send back Terminators to certain points in the past with specific objectives. A successful mission will change the NEXT timeline, not the current one, but – because of its infinite patience — Skynet isn’t bothered by that.
Comments
I always thought the idea of terminators in the future, past the time of humans winning the war against skynet, interesting. It also acts as a dark epilogue to the entirety of the terminator franchise, the idea that despite winning the war across several timelines the machines could at any moment reemerge.# Posted By Steve Thomas | 2/27/15 9:27 PM