TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH (March 1990)
Part one HERE. 1990 was the last year of NOW comic's license from Hemdale, and in their last year they managed to come out with something that could never be matched ever since and was reprinted few times over, most recently in 2013 and is still in print all over the world!
Anyway. NOW Comics' The Terminator series seemed to have had some kind of an end chapter with issue #17. Not only a mini series The Burning Earth was announced, but also story-wise, most characters had died and it seemed like things will not be the way they were. The unsuspecting comic book world got introduced to Alex Ross, then credited as Alexander Ross, as it was his very first published work. That must've been quite a shock and impression he must have left after they looked at and opened the cover for the first issue of Terminator: The Burning Earth.
The Burning Earth was a mini series which targeted the adult fandom of The Terminator, and actual fans of the film. It's a very grim, dark and brooding tale with equally dark visuals. Alex Ross did as much visual research as possible and it shows. Everything is exactly as in The Terminator movie, from HK tanks and flying HKs (down to even same kind of metallic shimmer on the edges!) to resistance uniforms and accessories even. Hell, even the cinematography is matched as the world is shown as this shadowy, backlit expressionistic nightmare, and even faces are lit with high contrast as in the film with the Noir approach. Of course there are also some original additions from Mr Ross. The Terminator font from the film makes its debut appearance in the comic books, further symbolizing a new approach and drawing from the actual source material.
The mini series is neither a reboot nor a completely separate tale from the original 17 issue NOW run (of which you can read in Part I HERE). It acknowledges certain events and features many characters returning, like Connor's team (Miguel, Marissa, Gerry) and an already adult Tim Reese, who doesn't speak (for obvious reasons to the readers of the original run).
It is also made clear that the events of the mini series happen 10 years after what has happened in the original run, so it all takes place in 2041. John Connor is still called Bear and uses a Gold Bear emblem, although now he's an old and tired man.
Issue#1 Chapter I: Welcome To Hell Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
First page alone sets the mood and tone of the series. As I said before, it's a very dark and grim tale, and visually extraordinarily faithful to the 1984 film. John Connor narrates it, and it doesn't sound uplifting, but instead, sounds as if written by a tormented person who has been living in poverty, war and hell for years. Connor even thinks about ending his life at that point. He isn't a bear of a guy as he was shown to be in the original run, but a haggard old man, physically and mentally drained
The issue doesn't set up the plot yet, instead reintroduces us to the nightmarish, backlit world of film and the surviving characters from the regular series. Also, new types of Terminators are introduced, all armored and looking very much like Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. I guess the thinking was that out on the battlefield the terminators had to have battle armor
Issue #2 Chapter 2: A Better Mouse Trap Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
The Burning Earth is a very atmospheric piece. It swallows you slowly like a shadow. It's slow, gloomy and very moody. Some moments are even still eerie today, and the book can really create a mood. The narration's is great, but Alex Ross does the trick by not showing too much at first, showing things just in shadows or partially as in horror movies. Great touch
While the last issue started with Connor's downbeat narration, this one starts with Skynet's. Although this time, Skynet is what it used to be in the original films - it's a massive defense computer, located in NORAD base (also mentioned to be created by Technodyne, like in the original comic series, keeping up continuity). Skynet is what is seen everywhere in the background here in this beautiful two page spread by Alex Ross:
It doesn't talk, and it's devoid of any human personality and emotions. We get to see his calculating process, like seeing startup commands in old computers. Skynet calculates that dropping additional massive Nuke arsenal should total the remnants of humanity in few months. The issue ends when Connor and the Resistance notice a swarm of Flying HKs flying past them with Nukes attached to them. Incidentally, Connor decides to attack NORAD base. An all out final battle is brewing.
While Alex Ross was new to the Terminator comics, the writer isn't - Ron Fortier wrote most of the original run, the PG run. Credit has to be given where the credit is due, and the writing and narration is very good, but occasional silliness of the original run sips in. First one comes up in this issue, in a scene where a Terminator in female skin is being tested and murders three prisoners. For some reason it has a name, Aurora, and kisses the last victim when he bleeds out to death. Dramatic horror moment? Perhaps. But out of character for terminators.
Issue #3 Chapter 3: King of the Mountain Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alex Ross
The resistance reaches the Thunder Mountain, a giant rock mountain in which Skynet is located and the final battle ensues. Skynet's low on flying HKs so aside from one, the battle is being fought on the ground. While Connor and the entire resistance force fight their way into the NORAD base, a small second team, which also includes Tim and Marissa, are secretly trying to reach the spot where the power generator for the NORAD facility should be
Issue #4 Chapter 4: The Last Day Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
The Resistance encounters an army of Terminators, while HKs around the globe are beginning to drop their nukes.
An aftershock of one shakes the mountain itself and damages parts of the base, which helps the Resistance get past the army of Infiltrators.
Unfortunately, the smaller team isn't as lucky and Marissa dies in a landslide. Only three are left in the backup team
Issue #5 The Heart of Skynet Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
The conclusion of the war. The entire issue is simply an action climax to the mini series and the entire war. Minor silliness again slips through, and that's terminators talking to each other.
While Alex Ross was new to the Terminator comics, the writer isn't - Ron Fortier wrote most of the original run, the PG run. Credit has to be given where the credit is due, and the writing and narration is very good, but occasional silliness of the original run sips in. First one comes up in this issue, in a scene where a Terminator in female skin is being tested and murders three prisoners. For some reason it has a name, Aurora, and kisses the last victim when he bleeds out to death. Dramatic horror moment? Perhaps. But out of character for terminators.
Issue #3 Chapter 3: King of the Mountain Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alex Ross
The resistance reaches the Thunder Mountain, a giant rock mountain in which Skynet is located and the final battle ensues. Skynet's low on flying HKs so aside from one, the battle is being fought on the ground. While Connor and the entire resistance force fight their way into the NORAD base, a small second team, which also includes Tim and Marissa, are secretly trying to reach the spot where the power generator for the NORAD facility should be
Issue #4 Chapter 4: The Last Day Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
The Resistance encounters an army of Terminators, while HKs around the globe are beginning to drop their nukes.
An aftershock of one shakes the mountain itself and damages parts of the base, which helps the Resistance get past the army of Infiltrators.
Unfortunately, the smaller team isn't as lucky and Marissa dies in a landslide. Only three are left in the backup team
Issue #5 The Heart of Skynet Written by Ron Fortier, Art by Alexander Ross
The conclusion of the war. The entire issue is simply an action climax to the mini series and the entire war. Minor silliness again slips through, and that's terminators talking to each other.
Connor and the remnants of the Resistance manage to enter the Skynet hall and the B team destroys the power supply. The war is won. or is it? The very last panel ends with a spine chilling image
Such a terrific, terrific story and visuals. It really does create a mood and you can almost hear the rain while reading some issues. This is THE Terminator book based on the first film. It has been reprinted three times, one time by NOW Comics, one by eBooks, and one by Dark Horse Comics (even more around the globe by different companies)
Such a terrific, terrific story and visuals. It really does create a mood and you can almost hear the rain while reading some issues. This is THE Terminator book based on the first film. It has been reprinted three times, one time by NOW Comics, one by eBooks, and one by Dark Horse Comics (even more around the globe by different companies)
ALL MY FUTURES PAST (August 1990)
All My Future's Past was a follow up two-issue mini series which told the story of how Reese went back in time to 1984 after The Terminator. In the aftermath of The Burning Earth, they couldn't just have someone draw a regular comic, so an artist named Ricardo Villagran fully painted the two issues. The imagery of the first movie is gone, and the look and designs look more like 50's Scifi, but it still looks good even thought the tale is a little whacky so to speak.
I remember being so incredibly eager and curious about this mini-series. I knew it's about sending the first Terminator back to '84, and I knew it was the only pre-T2 comic book that showed it. Knowing it's fully painted, I couldn't wait to see it. Unfortunately it's extremely brief and done from far away or very low angles and extreme lighting so not much is visible of Arnold, but perhaps that's good as it adds the mood to the character
Issue #1 Untitled Written by Chuck Dixon, Art by Ricardo Villagran
The story starts with a futuristic jet fighter being chased and eventually shut down by an HK over some clean green valley. We find out this valley and a small town that's nearby has been undiscovered and untouched by war. Two youngsters, Lanny an Breed, witness the jet going down and investigate. The dying pilot gives them a "data disc" and begs to give it to Connor, saying it contains Skynet's plan to win the war and it involves time. The two boys decide to take that challenge and leave the village to travel to LA with nothing but food, small dog and an old rifle. One of the boys dies at the hands of a rotting Terminator they encounter in the ruins of Fresno. The introductory panel is good.
Lanny escapes by blinding the Terminator with his old rifle.
He eventually makes it to LA, makes contact with the resistance and passes the data to John Connor, who is shown again as a blonde, mustached man. After this, Lanny volunteers to join Kyle Reese's team to attack Skynet's complex and destroy the time machine
Issue #2 Untitled Written by Chuck Dixon, Art by Ricardo Villagran
Conclusion of the story. Most of it is plain action and the fighting and shootouts to get inside the complex. When Reese, Lanny and the resistance enter the bowel of the complex and see the enormous Time Displacement Unit as it's called in this comic, they witness the Terminator from the film go back in time but are too late to blast him.
All My Futures Past is the last series for NOW Comics at the end of their license. Also, for some reason it's the last Terminator comic book to feature Terminator font in the title for almost a decade. Interestingly, it was published at the same time a new Terminator series from Dark Horse Comics hit the shelves as the license went to them. From now on, Terminator was in Dark Horse's hands.
DARK HORSE COMICS
TERMINATOR: TEMPEST (August 1990)
Dark Horse Comics acquired the license in 1990 and their first series was published about 3 months after Terminator 2 was announced (it was officially announced at the Cannes festival in May), and was the last mini series published before T2's release.
Now, it may not be a popular opinion but it's how I feel nevertheless. I love Dark Horse, loved these guys ever since I've read the original Aliens vs Predator comic. And they did terrific job with Aliens, Predator and The Thing among others. But I never liked much what they did with Terminator. There are some exceptions, but it just didn't work for me as a Terminator series. It doesn't have that tone or feeling of any of the two films.
They had good script and stories, but if they were unrelated to the Terminator I'd like them more. And for the most part the art just wasn't cutting it for me (not always of course!). They had many great artists that I enjoyed outside of the series, but just didn't seem to fit the Terminator.
Sure, one can say I praised the NOW comics kiddie run and at the same time I criticize Dark Horse's Terminator comics, but first of all, I like the original NOW run because they were successful in what they tried to do - a Saturday morning Terminator cartoon, it was a quintessential colorful, whacky 80's comic series. In that regard, with that style and adding the surrealism of the whole concept, it works. But Dark Horse tried to aim for the adult viewers and longtime Terminator fans. And again, I'm not saying I don't like them (well, I heavily dislike one series from them from recent years but that's in another part), I do think they had good and even very good stories and good writing and they did and still do catch a reader. I just don't like the concepts of what was done to the Terminator mythos and don't think the feel was matched. I don't want to sound apologetic, but I want to make it clear that most of their stories, Tempest being one of them, is a really solid, immersive story, and would have no criticism if they weren't Terminator stories. I simply dislike the story being part of the Terminator world if that makes sense
Dark Horse comics went a very different way than its predecessor. They didn't focus on the aftermath of the film or the future war or death camp stories. The comic series took place in modern times bringing lots of different terminators coming in from the future. There are so many terminators that come through time in Dark Horse's comics that they would comprise a pretty long list. As someone once called it, a revolving doors of time travel. Also, since T2 came out at the very beginning of their continuity, those stories felt non canon and outdated as they were being published, because of the sole fact that they were taking place in modern times, pretty openly contradicting the canon established by the movies. That can still make the stories good and fun, just the idea of so many terminators being sent back just doesn't work for me. At the very least we're left with good stories and fleshed out characters. On the other hand I understand the concept of time travelers arriving in our times is something hard to pass on. I mean, it's one of the main aspects of the film. It's the fish-out-of-water element, which also works so great for Predator. But it could have been done without going so blatantly against the actual films. They didn't have to involve creators of Skynet
At the time in late 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the height of his popularity, his latest movies were Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop, and T2 was officially announced as premiering July next year. Most likely that was the reason why Dark Horse was in such hurry to release this mini series. In a letter in the first issue, John Arcudi explains that Dark Horse was in such push for this that they called him when he was away and he started working on it during his vacation. Not only that, but there was no time for the dialogue so he was to write just description and then fill in dialogue later . The second issue he was already writing without even seeing the artwork for the first
Chris Warner also did the original Predator run among others, and it looked great. But doesn't work for the Terminator I think. The future tech looks very Ninja Turtles Dimension X,
and the endoskeletons, while accurate with parts and actually looking like one, which was a rarity in the NOW series, looks too stylized and disproportional.
It's also quite a visual shock going back to the regular colorful comic book look but to be fair, that idea was addressed in the letter columns in issue #4 in which one of the fans suggested that it should look like Burning Earth to which response was that "the flat color process used on Terminator doesn't allow for the same kind of dark feel that's possible in a movie or a painted book due to the limited number of hues available". I'm not saying all Terminator comics should be painted, just noting the cold turkey shift.
Issue #1 Untitled Written by John Arcudi, Art by Chris Warner
Anyway, Tempest tells a story of a resistance team fighting their way into a second TDC as they call it in this continuity, or Time Displacement Chamber. The dialogue and narration explains that the TDC used to send the others (from the movie) was a prototype, and this one was a secret, full powered backup. So 5 resistance fighters led by Col. Mary Randall, a very tough but pretty and smart redhead, go back in time to the year 1990 to stop Cyberdyne from developing Skynet.
Unbeknown to them, 3 terminators, C890.L, HC875.S and C850.D, and a hybrid 1825.M, come after them. One of those, C890.L, will be a recurring and main villain for years to come. The hybrid will get his backstory and character arc in future issues, while for now he is a short, stocky balding guy who is essentially human but with augmentations and a chip connected to his brain. He's a field technician for Skynet.
And here comes the issue of Terminator model designation again. With NOW, they barely had any info at the time to go with, and didn't even re-viewed the film. It wasn't that kind of a series. It was a PG, GI Joe type of a thing. But here, I don't understand what's with those random letters. If they aren't random combinations, thought up to sound semi-technical, then why aren't they explained. Again, the CSM-101 designation on the poster for the first film wasn't random, it was a short for Cyberdyne Systems Model. What does C, HC, and M mean? What do L, S, D and M at the end of their model numbers mean? Then there's the series number. Now, it was months after T2 was announced and the series will mention the terminators as the 800 series, which shows that they were both aware that the movie terminators are 800s, and that they kind of did some homework. While the 800 series has been mentioned from the beginning, in the script for the first film and the US novelization, T2's designation "T-800" was widespread in the media and Terminator merch right before it's release, so they couldn't use the numbering with the "T" prefix because it hasn't been that widespread yet and it was specific to T2, so licensing did not allow it. But they did acknowledge the 800 series and all the terminators have 800+ in their model numbers. Yeah, it's actually a series number, but they interpreted it as model number but given the timing of the Tempest that's all more than excusable
Anyway, the first issue may look colorful, but it sure as hell is brutal. People are getting their chest and heads vaporized, and some die in a very gruesome way. The three terminators are shown as merciless killers.
A good idea is also to have them communicate without speaking to each other, which would be just plain silly. Dark Horse did a great job with it. The first issue ends with the arrival of the 3 killers in 1990. They also bring a futuristic pistol with them, hidden in a belly of the poor resistance guy who got caught. Immediately after arrival the poor guy gets ripped apart alive.
Issue #2 Untitled Written by John Arcudi, Art by Chris Warner
The series did not waste its time. Mary makes contact with young Dr Astin, lab assistant of the person responsible for the development of Skynet at Cyberdyne, an old greedy A-hole Dr. Hollister. Mary pretends she wants to meet up with Astin for a date then kidnaps him along with one of the fighters and finds out from him where Hollister lives. Unfortunately, the terminators appear at his house at the same time and the resistance fighter dies while Mary escapes with Astin who demands answers.
This comic also marks the first time the 800 series is mentioned in the comic books. One of the fighters talks about dogs and how without them they wouldn't be able to detect the 800 models
Issue #3 Untitled Written by John Arcudi, Art by Chris Warner
Astin is being followed and unfortunately two more resistance fighters die when the three terminators ambush their hideout. Now there's only two resistance fighters left, Mary and Bart, and Dr Astin.
Hollister explains to the terminators that all his work is based on an evidence from an old case. The female terminator acquires the evidence which are the remnants of the first terminator from the film. It is very apparent that the writer and the artist were familiar with the deleted scene from the movie, especially since both Astin and Hollister look very much like the two who found the chip in the deleted scene. In the last panels, the survivors, Mary, Astin and Bart appear with pipe bombs in their hands
Issue #4 Untitled Written by John Arcudi, Art by Chris Warner
Temporary conclusion of the mini series, while the ongoing story is far from over. In a surprising twist of events, 1825M, whose real human name is Dudley, turns against terminators, and manages to destroy the female terminator and the remnants vital to the research. He gives us his backstory how he was a doctor that got hurt in an explosion and Skynet rebuilt his damaged parts and part of his brain to make him his field medic for infiltrators with damaged flesh
The two terminators left manage to track the escaping group and both fall into the flood control channel in an exploding car. Dudley doesn't think its over and they escape from the scene. He was right since Hollister receives a package sent to him by C890.L with the skull of the obliterated HC875 for his research.
The letter columns in this issue highly praise the different approach the DH took from its predecessor, and there's even a letter from Ron Fortier, the writer of the NOW series congratulating and praising DH team on the good job on Tempest.
Next up, Terminator in the comic books in the rest of the 90s
