Dark Horse makes it 3-for-3 so far on its “Terminator” miniseries with “The Enemy Within” (1991-92). New writer Ian Edginton competently continues the character arcs of Mary Randall, Dudley and Ed Astin. While the art by Vince Giarrano (pencils and inks) and Steve Buccellato (colors) isn’t quite as gorgeous as the previous two series, it’s solid.
With a bevy of interconnecting storylines, “The Enemy Within” is a good ride, but it ends oddly. The fates of Dudley and Astin are unclear, and the grand finale – while humorously entertaining – is redolent of the movies as the Terminator sinks into a vat of “hot acid.” Mary even gives him a send-off of “You’re terminated, sucker!”
CHARACTERS
John Connor: In his mother’s womb during this time.
Sarah Connor: Off the grid south of the border during this time.
Kyle Reese: Dead during this time, as per the events of the movie.
Mary Randall: Mary’s mission has a happy ending as she kills the Devil Terminator and meets a potential love interest in Sloane. Perhaps she’ll get to experience somewhat of a normal life in 1984.
Dr. Ed Astin: At times seeming like a potential love interest for Mary, he nabs the T-800 schematics from Dudley’s brain and heads to Dr. Hollister, looking to make a monetary deal. He is seemingly killed at the story’s end, but maybe not.
Dr. Hollister: It seems like he’s the crucial link in the chain from the T-800 wreckage to Skynet, what with his access to the T-800 wreckage, an intact endoskeleton skull and a gun from the future. In the end, though, he’s killed and it’s the T-800 schematic from Dudley’s brain that becomes the pivotal element.
Detective Sloane: Similar to Agent Ellison from “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” this LAPD detective digs into events that are inexplicable — until you account for robots from the future.
Four more resistance fighters: Yep, a whole ‘nother group comes through a time bubble. Unaware of whether Mary’s group even made a successful jump to 1984, this bunch has the same mission: Bumping off Hollister.
TERMINATORS
Dudley: As the title suggests, “The Enemy Within” explores the inner turmoil of this half-human, half-Terminator. His fate is left up in the air at the story’s end. But at least he’s rid of the Terminator portion of his brain.
Devil Terminator: Looking like a Terminator version of Darth Maul, it features parts from C890.L and Z000.M, the Terminators who beat each other to the edge of death in “Secondary Objectives.” He bites the dust in a vat of “hot acid” at the Cyberdyne plant. Obviously, the writer and artist had seen “T2.”
CONTINUITY
Still in 1984 in the wake of the first movie, “The Enemy Within” picks up after “Secondary Objectives.” Mary, Dudley and Astin return to Los Angeles from Mexico, where they had seemingly dispatched the two Terminators in “Secondary Objectives.” However, those two units combined themselves together to form a Devil-esque Terminator.
Astin operates on the brain of the hybrid, Dudley. A deleted scene from “T2” showed John digging the chip out of the T-800’s brain to engage its learning function. Cameron also gets operated on in “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” Astin purges Dudley’s Terminator side – including a complete T-800 schematic — onto a disc, leaving Dudley as purely human (at least in terms of his brain). This disc seemingly will become the key to the creation of Skynet, as it ends up in the hands of an FBI agent at the story’s end.
TIME TRAVEL
In Issue 2, four more resistance fighters use the TDE first seen in “Tempest.” Using a bomb with a timer, it blows up after their departure. They emerge in the Los Angeles Zoo, apparently due to more of the “time-spatial slippage” that placed Z000.M in the ocean in “Secondary Objectives.”
As for their emergence a few months after Mary’s group, the best assumption is that they set the TDE controls for a few months later. Another possibility is that the “time-spatial slippage” affected the time in addition to the space.
Evidence for “fate”:
- “The Enemy Within” is the most fate-oriented “Terminator” series so far. In Issue 3, Dudley says Cyberdyne is destined to pave the path to Skynet due to “immutable temporal law.” An FBI agent gains possession of a complete T-800 schematic, perhaps meaning the artificial sentience of Skynet is closer than ever to becoming reality.
- Heck, the structure that will become Skynet’s TDE facility (which sends all the various groups back through time in these series) is already being built by Cyberdyne in 1984.
Evidence that “the future is not set”:
- However, the details of the road to Skynet are different from earlier in the series (and from “T2,” for that matter): Instead of Dr. Hollister and the first movie’s T-800 wreckage paving the path, it is now the T-800 schematics from Dudley’s brain, which end up in the possession of an FBI agent. We don’t know for sure if this is a good or bad thing. I vote for the latter, considering that Cyberdyne was a favored corporation of the U.S. government in the events that led up to the 1997 Judgment Day as chronicled in “T2.” It seems this new chain of events simply cuts out the middle man. At any rate, this FBI agent has become the fulcrum.