After “The Terminator’s” box office success in 1984, it took a while for merchandisers to pounce on the possibilities. Four years later, Now Comics finally told the first further adventures of the saga in the simply named “The Terminator.” Issues 1-8 (1988-89) of this 17-issue series were penned by three writers who took a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks mentality.
Set in 2031, the series chronicles the ongoing rebels vs. Skynet war despite the fact that Kyle tells the cops in “The Terminator” that “Skynet was smashed. We’d won.” This discrepancy is never explained in these issues. In fact, when a letter writer asks about the plot hole in Issue 7, the editor responds with a snarky “Well, I must say we take things seriously, don’t we? My only response is, this is a comic book, not an historical text, and it is meant to be entertaining.” And then the editor basically encourages fans to continue to make fun of this letter writer for criticizing a comic book. (Luckily, times have changed: Today, comic books are more widely treated as art worthy of criticism.)
Writers Fred Schiller (Issue 1), Tony Caputo (2-3) and Jack Herman (4-8) throw a ton of ideas onto the page that predict many elements of future “Terminator” yarns. Not surprisingly for a comic that doesn’t explain its very premise, most of these elements aren’t developed the way they should be.
Still, this batch of Now comics does give us a fuller picture of the post-apocalyptic world as the saga moves beyond Los Angeles and the core heroes. Most of these issues take place in Florida, but a T-800 also travels to South America (Issues 5-6) with equipment that he intends to use to destroy the ozone layer. He’s stopped by jungle people who have heretofore been undisturbed by Skynet.
These issues also delve into daily life in the wasteland, similar to “The Walking Dead”; Issue 7 chronicles survivors searching for food. And they give a cursory glance at Skynet’s operations, including a mention of “flesh farms,” which calls to mind the Terminators who grow flesh over their endoskeletons in “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
CHARACTERS
John Connor: He doesn’t appear in this batch of comics. The rebels, including the Miami-area Sarah’s Slammers, know that John was on a big mission in L.A. a couple years back, but they haven’t heard from him since.
Sarah Connor: She is presumably dead, and Sarah’s Slammers is presumably named in her honor.
Kyle Reese: The rebels haven’t heard any news on him since the 2029 L.A. mission with John.
Sarah’s Slammers: A group of Miami-area rebels.
Tim Reese: Kyle’s kid brother, who pops up with Sarah’s Slammers.
Moon people: In 1998, the United Nations started a moon base, but it was largely forgotten after the nukes dropped, and Skynet inexplicably didn’t know about it. When a supply ship is shot down above Earth, these moon people join forces with Sarah’s Slammers.
Konrad: This robot, similar to the synthetics in the “Alien” films, is part of the moon people’s group.
TERMINATORS
Baby Terminator: Skynet brainwashes some humans to use as slave labor and infiltrators. A brainwashed human woman paired with a “baby” (actually a Terminator that can communicate with Skynet and perform some attack functions) makes for a good infiltration team in Issue 1.
Terminator with a human brain: This character, briefly seen in Issue 3, is a precursor to Marcus Wright of “Terminator Salvation” – presumably a brainwashed or brain-dead human operating via machine parts.
T-800s: Several of these classic cyborgs, in various models, harass the good guys. None of them is the 101 model (Arnold Schwarzenegger), although one says “I’ll be back” in Issue 5. In a departure from the film saga, they tend to talk more like normal humans rather than the terse, robotic style. In that way, they are better infiltrators.
Wolf Terminator: Issue 7 chronicles Skynet’s latest creation, a rather clever idea seeing as how the rebels rely on dogs to sniff out Terminators.
T-1000(?): The Terminator chasing Sarah’s Slammers in Issues 6 and 8 is called a “1000 series” by one of the rebels. But we don’t see any liquid-metal abilities like Robert Patrick’s T-1000 in “T2.” One notable ability is that this model can swim; this is a weakness of the cyborgs in “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
CONTINUITY
The action jumps from the 2029 wasteland of “The Terminator” to 2031, when the war inexplicably continues despite Kyle’s line in the movie that the humans had won.
TIME TRAVEL
Sarah’s Slammers had last heard that John and Kyle were engaging a Skynet facility in L.A. (the lab with the time-displacement bubble) in 2029, but they don’t know it is for the purpose of sending Kyle back in time. As such, there is no time travel chronicled in these issues, but we can make a general observation:
Evidence that “the future is not set”:
- Kyle tells the police in “The Terminator” that “Skynet was smashed. We’d won.” These comics show a different future, where the war continues. But it could merely be that Kyle is engaging in wishful thinking.