DARK HORSE COMICS
TERMINATOR: ONE SHOT (July 1991)
Part II HERE. July 1991. T2 is in theaters breaking box office records and setting the world on fire. A new, 4 times Oscar winner and a 6 times nominee, an instant classic is born. It's blowing people away all over the world and cementing James Cameron's reputation as a gripping, heart stopping (and moving) storyteller and master entertainer. And it has been in people's consciousness for months prior, being on the covers of every magazine from US Weekly to Starlog, everywhere on TV and in stores with shelves full of T2 merchandise of all kinds.
In the comic book world however, T2 will be almost nonexistent, for all of their existence to this day. Surprisingly by July 1991, the date of its unveiling to the world, the comic books had yet to acknowledge its existence in any way. Taking advantage of the Terminatormania sweeping the world, Dark Horse Comics released Terminator: One Shot - a single issue story in time for July '91, fully illustrated by the famous Matt Wagner. It tells another story in another place of yet another terminator sent back with yet another two protectors also sent. That makes it 8 resistance fighters and 5 terminators sent in Dark Horse's continuity by the time just a second story comes around. Lets keep count. Reading reviews online from different sites and bloggers to get a feel of the modern response to those then -praised comics, I see almost everyone is or was bothered by the revolving time travel door in Dark Horse's continuity. Lets keep count after each mini series finishes.
Issue #1 One Shot Written by James Robinson Art by Matt Wagner
One Shot does not continue the story set up on Tempest, and is taking place in 1984 as oppose to 1990 like the Tempest mini series that proceeded it. It's also worth mentioning it has a pop up illustration in the middle of the book, a female terminator 800 on a bike driving over a police barricade.
The introductory pages explain and briefly show the backstory of the first film, overtaking the TDC as its called in the first Dark Horse continuity, and sending the first terminator back through time.
What the introduction also explains, is that this terminator was actually a second one sent and the first one was a female terminator also sent to the same year. However, this female terminator, referred to as an 800 model (almost spot on, except that the 800 is a series, but that's nitpicking in my opinion, considering it's a comic book from '91), wants to obtain the latest edition of the phone book in which she finds a fourth Sarah Connor - a newly wed gallery owner, who just married a guy named Michael Connor. She's on a honeymoon in San Francisco and that's where the action takes place. To spice things up, she wants to kill her husband for money so she's not really a very sympathetic character. Two resistance fighters have been sent back to 1950's to kind of watch over the right Sarah Connor and then let it go after some point, knowing someone else will take the mantle. One dies in an accident upon his arrival, one becomes a San Francisco cop and is retired by the time One Shot takes place. All that backstory is a premise which is told in dialogue. Most of the book is all about the very muscular female terminator dressed like Sarah in T2, shooting everything and everyone from place to place, chasing the wrong Sarah Connor.
Hotels, streets, cruise ship. She mows down dozens of cops in seconds and can never hit her target amidst so many shootouts.
The book ends on a small cruise ship. The dying resistance fighter falls overboard but manages miraculously somehow to shoot from that angle a sort of EMP gun that disables the terminator who is in its skeletal form after crash landing her helicopter into the top of the ship for no reason.
Matt Wagner does Batman beautifully and Batman is the area that he impressed me, but in this book for my tastes it's too stylized. The writing...well, it's all mostly just over the top shootouts and road chases and very improbable coincidences and character choices, so not really a fan of One Shot at all. Re-reading it for this review I couldn't wait to get it over with and go back to the story that Tempest started to be honest. I do enjoy the way Wagner draws the scenery though. Very Noir.
Secondary Objectives is another mini series from Dark Horse which is a continuation of the Tempest story (see Terminator in Comics Part II) and was released simultenously with One Shot in July 1991.
Issue #1 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
The story picks up hours after the last events in Tempest in both 2029 and 1990. In the future, yet another Terminator awakes from the tissue womb and goes back to aid his partners. It's a female looking model numbered Z000.M (What's with that model designation???) and lands in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from the California shore. We then see a shootout between C890.L. and an army of police (see Terminator in Comics Part II). C890.L apparently tried to collect weaponry from gang members and the fight with police followed. Mary, Astin and Dudley see everything on TV and Dudley explains that C890.L will now go into Secondary Objective mode, which is to find and terminate Sarah Connor. Also worth noting is that the time machine is now correctly referred to as TDE
The mini series is written by the same writer who did One Shot, so aside from what I wrote above, it's all shootouts, explosions, machinegun shots and machinegun shots and machinegun shots and more explosions. Also, the entire premise creates a major logical plothole which will be fixed much later in the future, and we're talking about the fact that the story takes place in 1990 which is specifically stated multiple times in the comics, and yet the C890.L goes on to kill Sarah to prevent John's birth, as specifically stated in the comic - which would mean Sarah is pregnant for 6 years already. This major goof will be fixed 3 miniseries' later by retconning the year of events
As far as artwork, I really like Gulacy's art and was very familiar with it from Batman, but as was the case with his predecessor in Tempest, his endoskeleton is too stylized.
Issue #2 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
The second issue takes time on the characters and the dominoes start to line up. Mary and Dudley leave for Mexico City to set up the trap for the incoming C890.L and Z000.M, who emerges from the ocean and acquires clothes. Astin decides to stay behind and sets up a meeting with Hollister.
Dudley is fighting internal demons, a battle with his mechanical part which demands response about his whereabouts. C890.L arms himself and leaves for Mexico
Issue #3 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
Atkins is spying on Hollister and almost gets shot by Z000M who was checking on Hollister before leaving for Mexico. He gets saved by Detective Sloane, who was introduced in the first issue and who is trying to piece all of this together.
C890.L arrives in Mexico City and Mary is playing hide and seek with him to buy Dudley some time to finish his device. Both manage to temporarily deplete C890.L from his power. Meanwhile, Z000M leaves for Mexico in a small plane
Issue #4 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
Another temporary conclusion to this ongoing story. Astin joins Mary and Dudley in Mexico. C890.L's programming has been temporarily changed to destroy Z000M upon her arrival, so in what seems to be a pattern with James Robinson, the entire issue is just a fight between the two which ends with a giant explosion after which heavily damaged but operational C890.L emerges.Z000M is destroyed and C890.L's programming is restored.
Tempest set up an intriguing story with strong characters, and while Secondary Objectives started to brush with extra development for the remaining characters, such as Astin's growing affection for Mary, it does very little more than that, and it's mostly just plain action and explosions. Sorry, but not much of a fan of this one.
The Big Guns. T2's late arrival to the comic book world was done by no other than the mighty Marvel Comics. You would think a comic book adaptation for such massive, hugely anticipated hit, which was at the time the most expensive movie ever made, would be really something special. Sure, it was published by Marvel, and sure, artwork was done by a very big name in comic book world, Klaus Janson, but it feels and looks like a cheap throwaway. Perhaps the project was rushed to meet the deadline. The paper quality of it is so bad you think you're holding a daily newspaper
This is the first T2 comic book ever published. Marvel acquired the license for T2 however they never did anything with it, despite it being such a huge record breaking phenomenon. According to Marvel Writer Evan Skolnick, a Marvel series was actually in the works and the storylines were being shaped, however Carolco's agents did not agree with the direction Marvel wanted to take and the series went nowhere.
The adaptation includes the deleted scenes and a very filtered dialog ("you gotta be yankin me!"). Art was done by the famous Klaus Janson, most known for his Batman work perhaps (Janson inked Frank Miller famous The Dark Knight Returns)
The artwork may seem very loose to some, sometimes it looks like there's doodling in place of details. For example, the flying HKs and the endoskeletons shooting resistance soldiers in the first panel, , and T-800's exposed skull in the second panel presented below. However, by his own admission and philosophy, Janson does not stride for photorealism and thinks the comic book art should lean more toward art, exaggeration, impression and the way it flows. Janson is a highly regarded artist in the comic book world
The entire story is insanely condensed with censored gore, violence but much additional (cartoon) dialogue - for example, when the T-1000 throws the driver out of the tow truck, the driver exclaims "Hey! That ain't right!"
Despite it all, Marvel's T2 adaptation is good for what it is - a representation of early 90's Marvel comic books and a relic of its time, and for that I really like it and have a very soft spot for it. Coupled with the fact that the first issue's cover is the, at the time, omnipresent teaser image of half Arnold and half Endoskull, it makes for a cool 1991 T2 collectible and a time machine. I mean, I don't like it just for nostalgic value - I never had it as a kid, just simply like it for the reasons given.
Issue #1 Arrival Adapted by Gregory Wright, Art by Klaus Janson
The first issue ends when Sarah takes Silberman hostage. There is a lot cut out. Again, the story is very, very condensed. For example, the arrival of Officer Austin, his discovery under the bridge and him being attacked by the T-1000 is all done in 3 panels.
The T-800 doesn't encounter anyone after walking out of the bar, we don't get to see John's foster parents until questioned by the T-1000 etc. For some reason the T-800 wears a mesh shirt and no sunglasses whatsoever, surprisingly. Despite an insane oversimplification, and the rush of the story, I do like certain visual sequences a lot, like the truck going off the bridge or Lewis getting "spiked"
While massive chunks are cut, some deleted scenes from what is now a Special Edition appeared in this adaptation
Also, as mentioned before, there is really plenty of additional cartoon dialogue - lines or blabbings that were neither in the movie, nor in the script
For those who are familiar with T2 storyboards though, it is clear the artist used those as reference. Some examples
Matt Wagner does Batman beautifully and Batman is the area that he impressed me, but in this book for my tastes it's too stylized. The writing...well, it's all mostly just over the top shootouts and road chases and very improbable coincidences and character choices, so not really a fan of One Shot at all. Re-reading it for this review I couldn't wait to get it over with and go back to the story that Tempest started to be honest. I do enjoy the way Wagner draws the scenery though. Very Noir.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES (July 1991)
Secondary Objectives is another mini series from Dark Horse which is a continuation of the Tempest story (see Terminator in Comics Part II) and was released simultenously with One Shot in July 1991.
Issue #1 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
The story picks up hours after the last events in Tempest in both 2029 and 1990. In the future, yet another Terminator awakes from the tissue womb and goes back to aid his partners. It's a female looking model numbered Z000.M (What's with that model designation???) and lands in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from the California shore. We then see a shootout between C890.L. and an army of police (see Terminator in Comics Part II). C890.L apparently tried to collect weaponry from gang members and the fight with police followed. Mary, Astin and Dudley see everything on TV and Dudley explains that C890.L will now go into Secondary Objective mode, which is to find and terminate Sarah Connor. Also worth noting is that the time machine is now correctly referred to as TDE
The mini series is written by the same writer who did One Shot, so aside from what I wrote above, it's all shootouts, explosions, machinegun shots and machinegun shots and machinegun shots and more explosions. Also, the entire premise creates a major logical plothole which will be fixed much later in the future, and we're talking about the fact that the story takes place in 1990 which is specifically stated multiple times in the comics, and yet the C890.L goes on to kill Sarah to prevent John's birth, as specifically stated in the comic - which would mean Sarah is pregnant for 6 years already. This major goof will be fixed 3 miniseries' later by retconning the year of events
As far as artwork, I really like Gulacy's art and was very familiar with it from Batman, but as was the case with his predecessor in Tempest, his endoskeleton is too stylized.
Issue #2 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
The second issue takes time on the characters and the dominoes start to line up. Mary and Dudley leave for Mexico City to set up the trap for the incoming C890.L and Z000.M, who emerges from the ocean and acquires clothes. Astin decides to stay behind and sets up a meeting with Hollister.
Dudley is fighting internal demons, a battle with his mechanical part which demands response about his whereabouts. C890.L arms himself and leaves for Mexico
Issue #3 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
Atkins is spying on Hollister and almost gets shot by Z000M who was checking on Hollister before leaving for Mexico. He gets saved by Detective Sloane, who was introduced in the first issue and who is trying to piece all of this together.
C890.L arrives in Mexico City and Mary is playing hide and seek with him to buy Dudley some time to finish his device. Both manage to temporarily deplete C890.L from his power. Meanwhile, Z000M leaves for Mexico in a small plane
Issue #4 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Paul Gulacy
Another temporary conclusion to this ongoing story. Astin joins Mary and Dudley in Mexico. C890.L's programming has been temporarily changed to destroy Z000M upon her arrival, so in what seems to be a pattern with James Robinson, the entire issue is just a fight between the two which ends with a giant explosion after which heavily damaged but operational C890.L emerges.Z000M is destroyed and C890.L's programming is restored.
Tempest set up an intriguing story with strong characters, and while Secondary Objectives started to brush with extra development for the remaining characters, such as Astin's growing affection for Mary, it does very little more than that, and it's mostly just plain action and explosions. Sorry, but not much of a fan of this one.
MARVEL COMICS
T2 TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY THE OFFICIAL COMIC BOOK ADAPTATION (September 1991)
This is the first T2 comic book ever published. Marvel acquired the license for T2 however they never did anything with it, despite it being such a huge record breaking phenomenon. According to Marvel Writer Evan Skolnick, a Marvel series was actually in the works and the storylines were being shaped, however Carolco's agents did not agree with the direction Marvel wanted to take and the series went nowhere.
The adaptation includes the deleted scenes and a very filtered dialog ("you gotta be yankin me!"). Art was done by the famous Klaus Janson, most known for his Batman work perhaps (Janson inked Frank Miller famous The Dark Knight Returns)
The artwork may seem very loose to some, sometimes it looks like there's doodling in place of details. For example, the flying HKs and the endoskeletons shooting resistance soldiers in the first panel, , and T-800's exposed skull in the second panel presented below. However, by his own admission and philosophy, Janson does not stride for photorealism and thinks the comic book art should lean more toward art, exaggeration, impression and the way it flows. Janson is a highly regarded artist in the comic book world
The entire story is insanely condensed with censored gore, violence but much additional (cartoon) dialogue - for example, when the T-1000 throws the driver out of the tow truck, the driver exclaims "Hey! That ain't right!"
Despite it all, Marvel's T2 adaptation is good for what it is - a representation of early 90's Marvel comic books and a relic of its time, and for that I really like it and have a very soft spot for it. Coupled with the fact that the first issue's cover is the, at the time, omnipresent teaser image of half Arnold and half Endoskull, it makes for a cool 1991 T2 collectible and a time machine. I mean, I don't like it just for nostalgic value - I never had it as a kid, just simply like it for the reasons given.
Issue #1 Arrival Adapted by Gregory Wright, Art by Klaus Janson
The first issue ends when Sarah takes Silberman hostage. There is a lot cut out. Again, the story is very, very condensed. For example, the arrival of Officer Austin, his discovery under the bridge and him being attacked by the T-1000 is all done in 3 panels.
The T-800 doesn't encounter anyone after walking out of the bar, we don't get to see John's foster parents until questioned by the T-1000 etc. For some reason the T-800 wears a mesh shirt and no sunglasses whatsoever, surprisingly. Despite an insane oversimplification, and the rush of the story, I do like certain visual sequences a lot, like the truck going off the bridge or Lewis getting "spiked"
While massive chunks are cut, some deleted scenes from what is now a Special Edition appeared in this adaptation
Also, as mentioned before, there is really plenty of additional cartoon dialogue - lines or blabbings that were neither in the movie, nor in the script
Issue #2 Escape Adapted by Gregory Wright, Art by Klaus Janson
The second issue starts with the T-800 and John on their way to Pescadero and ends with Sarah aiming at Dyson.
The T-800 suddenly has sunglasses at the beginning of the issue, but only has them until a page later when he loses them during the fight with the ordinaries. Again, plenty of additional needless dialogue, such as John noting that something is off about the cop right before the T-1000 goes through the bars. Some scenes are done well, such as Sarah facing this T-800 for the first time, or wounds healing on the T-1000
There are again some additional scenes, like for example the T-1000 listening to Sarah's tapes for John which he found hidden in his room, explaining how he found Enrique Salceda's outpost - a beat also scripted but not shot, and not even shown in this adaptation. All the other deleted scenes like the Dyson family, chip removal and extra bits with Enrique are shown as well
Issue #3 Departure Adapted by Gregory Wright, Art by Klaus Janson
As in the other issues, mass of scenes have been omitted, some deleted scenes are shown and there is again a lot of additional cartoon dialogue, such as the T-800 commenting on the freezing T-1000 ("Look! The liquid nitrogen is freezing it!"). The T-800 steps of the edge as oppose to being lowered as in the script, but no coda ending has been shown
DARK HORSE COMICS
THE ENEMY WITHIN (November 1991)
The Enemy Within was a sequel to Secondary Objectives, aka continuation of the storyline began with Tempest. This one was very enjoyable, it's good writing focusing on the characters and their relationship with underlying danger that is the C890.L who is still on the loose. The artwork by Vince Giarrano, who I also know from Batman, is also really good and it's the first artist for Dark Horse that draws the endoskeleton correctly. He also plays a lot with shadows and knows how to make moody visuals.
Issue #1 Untitled Written by Ian Edginton, Art by Vince Giarrano
First issue always sets up the story and this one does it with minimal fat. It shows the internal struggle for Dudley, his nightmares and fears of losing control. Also, there is something that connects Mary and Dudley and very gradually they begin to care for each other, much to Atkins' dismay who is furious about what he's starting to notice.
Atkins had hopes of getting with Mary himself. Dudley explains to him and Mary that Atkins needs to perform an operation on him asap to make sure the Skynet chip attached to his brain won't overcome him.
Meanwhile, C890.L, our persistent villain who is already appearing in his third series, repairs and arms himself, and kills some bikers who ambush his place. The C890L gets a devilish look because he added spikes and horns to his appearance for extra close range protection. The protection part is just an excuse pretty much because his demonic look is needed as a symbolism for this story - the story begins with Dudley's nightmare which ends in a chapel, in which an endoskeleton stands on the opposite side of Mary, symbolizing the devil part of Dudley, and Mary, who makes him feel warm and brings out humanity in him, is symbolically an angel. C890L in this story visually and metaphorically is the devil, although the letter pages deny it, saying he's not suppose to be one and that there's no symbolism involved. Anyway, it resumes its mission to kill Mary, Dudley and Astin. Terrific artwork
The letter pages continued the criticism started in previous miniseries complaining about the same thing I did - pretty much saying Secondary Objectives' story could take 8 pages and so much shootout and explosions was not necessary.
Issue #2 Untitled Written by Ian Edginton, Art by Vince Giarrano
Not as good as the first issue but it brings some surprises. Atkins begins operation on Dudley and when Mary comes in to check on them she finds out that in an unexpected turn Atkins stole blueprints data from Dudley's brain, initiated purge and escaped through the window.
In the future, yet another team of resistance fighters enters the TDE (!) to see why Mary's team failed. Another 4 fighters go back and a timer bomb finally blows up the place. So in total between 1990-1991, in Dark Horse's continuity there has been 12 resistance fighters and 6 terminators sent back in time.
Issue #3 Untitled Written by Ian Edginton, Art by Vince Giarrano
Atkins is trying to make a deal with Hollister and appears to be a sleazeball after all, and Mary and Dudley rush to LA to stop him from making the future happen. C890L ditches the horns and disguises himself as a cop.
The issue ends with everyone heading to the Cyberdyne plant. Mary, Dudley, the resistance team and Detective Sloane.
The letter columns criticize C890L's horned look so it's possible that this is why he gets stripped of them
Issue #4 Untitled Written by Ian Edginton, Art by Vince Giarrano
Everybody meets up at the Cyberdyne plant and the results are the following: every one of the four resistance fighters is dead, Hollister and Astin are shot dead, Dudley is hurt and Det. Sloane and Mary finally destroy the C890L by dropping it into a vat of acid and then blowing it up with a grenade launcher. C890L, the villain since the beginning of Dark Horse's run, is no more. In this issue yet again they really overdo an 800 model's strength and resistance.
It's not the end of Mary's story yet, as Dark Horse will return to her, Sloane and Dudley in the future, just not yet.
The letter pages further criticize the horned look and praise Simon Bisley's covers which I personally dislike completely. I love Bisley's work on Lobo and Judge Dredd, but his terminator renderings is terrible.
HUNTERS AND KILLERS (March 1992)
Issue #1 Untitled Written by Toren Smith, Adam Warren and Chris Warner, Art by Bill Jaaska
The story takes place in 2029 and we start off in Syberia. A group of survivors get ambushed by a bunch of terminators and infiltrators but get rescued by Russian special team. Everyone is puzzled as to how the infiltrators got past the dogs and as we soon discover, Russian counterpart for Skynet and its ally, Mir, developed new kind of infiltrators on Skynet's orders, TS-300 series. Their skeleton is ceramic, matching the weight of human bones and they get personality implants - based on studying real people, they imitate their personalities making them impossible to spot. It is hinted that Mir has some secret plans on his own.
Skynet sends a team to oversee the progress on TS-300s, and the human characters that we're introduced to are Larisa, a member of the special forces, Captain of the team Pavlichenko, and an old scientist they found at the hideout that the command wants, who, for some reason, was not fired upon by the terminators. A mysterious occurrence witnessed by Larisa, but ignored by Sergey.
The first issue shows more of T2 elements sipping through. The 800 series designation has already been mentioned numerous times starting with Tempest, the time machine has been rechristened TDE, and starting with this issue we witness in the future endoskeletons without coverings fighting on the field. It's an idea not really shown aside from a single unit here or there prior to T2 and of course, the imagery of chrome skeleton army is a quintessential T2 imagery.
Issue #2 Untitled Written by Toren Smith, Adam Warren and Chris Warner, Art by Bill Jaaska
A duplicate of Captain Pavlichenko is trying to take his place. It appears that there are submarines with nukes somewhere in the area, and Mir wants to have access to them to destroy Skynet, knowing a heavy multiple nuke attack would destroy the Cheyenne Mountain in which Skynet is located. Skynet on the other hand, wants to get the nukes so they won't be a threat to him. The Russian and American team want to launch an EMP strike to destroy Mir which is software based. The old scientist is the only one with access codes to nukes
More slips from T2. The gun the endos are carrying are the T2 plasma rifles. Soon much more elements will continue to sip in
Issue #3 Untitled Written by Toren Smith, Adam Warren and Chris Warner, Art by Bill Jaaska
Conclusion of the story. Everyone meets up at the sub. Duplicate of Pavlichenko enters the sub with two endos which he destroys on Mir's orders to continue his secret mission of hijacking the nukes against Skynet. Larissa is faced with a common dilemma of not knowing which Pavlichenko is real, and horrifically she blows the head off the real one. The old scientist turns up not to be malevolent in any way after all and saves the day, destroying the duplicate and setting an attack on Mir
TERMINATOR: ENDGAME (September 1992)
Endgame is the final conclusion of the storyline that began with 1990's Tempest, and continues the whereabouts of Mary, Dudley and now Detective Sloane. James Robinson, the writer of both One Shot and Secondary Objectives, returns to write this finale. The story is penciled by Jackson Guice, and visually the mini series will be loaded with T2 imagery. This miniseries also has some of the worst covers ever in Terminator comics
Issue #1 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Jackson Guice
Believing the future was prevented, Mary lives a normal everyday life, Sloane got back on duty and is involved in a subplot about a serial killer on the loose, and Dudley had disappeared. Unbeknown to any of them yet, another Terminator comes from the future (our tally now is 12 resistance fighters, 7 terminators), this time to try and kill Sarah Connor giving birth to John, which is scheduled to happen in 3 days. The date has been officially retconned in this issue to 1984 as oppose to 1990, and in the letterpages they apologize for not catching the goof earlier. The issue ends with Mary finding Dudley who seems to be taken over by his Skynet side.
As mentioned, the series is full of T2 imagery, and the artists has fun with it. First of all, Mary now looks exactly like T2's Sarah. Many panels are recreations of shots from the film. Secondly, the termovision of the terminator has all the overlays of T-800 from T2, along with grids and same messages. Third, there's plenty of small stuff sprinkled throughout, the angle on the terminator in one panel being recreation of a shot from inside the Corral's kitchen in T2, a spherical indentation melting upon terminator's arrival and more
Issue #2 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Jackson Guice
Dudley regains control and informs Mary that another Terminator has arrived and is on the way to Odessa, Texas, where Sarah Connor will be giving birth. Dudley chooses to stay, fearing over his selfcontrol, and Mary leaves with Sloane, who uncovered who the serial killer is but couldn't catch him. The serial killer, Catfish, is now obsessed with Sloane, murders his psychologist and from his notes finds out where Sloane is going. In a sad ending for the character, Dudley decides to commit suicide to make sure he will never get overtaken by his implants.
More shot recreations from T2 in this issue as well. You may recognize this image from Sarah's interrogation tapes from T2
Issue #3 Untitled Written by James Robinson, Art by Jackson Guice
Since it's a culmination of the story, the issue is almost nothing but action, and as it seems like tradition with James Robinson. 95% of the issue is a shootout between the Terminator and all the cops in the hospital. The Terminator just walks in with guns and starts blowing everybody away asking where is Sarah Connor, the Catfish serial killer joins the carnage but gets shot by Sloane, Sarah gives birth and, like in Back To The Future, the Terminator disappears and so does his victims. Mary and Sloane lose memory of what they're doing over there.
As the narration explains, the resistance wins the war sooner now so this Terminator was never sent back. And...John Connor is actually born a girl, so it is said that Jane Connor led the humanity to victory. Plenty of T2 imagery in this issue as well I'll just post examples
Artist Jackson Guice, who I knew from Superman, does a really good job here. And in some panels he does the Terminator looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, even with the goatee it's pretty apparent he's channeling him and winks at the readers
As explained in the letterpages, Dark Horse's license has run its course, and this, along with the concurrent RoboCop vs Terminator, are the last of the first Dark Horse era
ROBOCOP VS TERMINATOR (September 1992)
RoboCop vs Terminator was very praised and successful at the time of its release. Even recently, Dark Horse released a pricey deluxe edition, and fairly recently Neca released figures from it. Well, I have to say I'm just not a fan of it. At all. I don't see it as anything above any of the other Dark Horse miniseries, and it certainly wouldn't be my favorite even among those. I like my stories grounded, building up, having character moments. For me, RoboCop vs Terminator is a series of whacky action sequences. Perhaps Frank Miller's name rose it to fame. I don't know. I even don't think the pairing fits. Sure, it's two robots but the mythologies are so fundamentally different and aiming for different things and feel
Issue #1 Written by Frank Miller, Art by Walter Simonson
A female resistance fighter manages to somehow hook up to Skynet and finds out that it was Alex Murphy that was responsible for making Skynet conscious. She then breaks into TDE (yeah, another one) and jumps back in time to destroy Robocop. She succeeds at first and when literally the history is visually altering, in the last moments 3 terminators are sent to stop the fighter. And they do, sending her to hospital. The story takes place in Tempest's continuity as evidenced by the same look of ray guns and mechanical wombs for infiltrators, and the look of the building where the TDE is located.
Issue #2 Written by Frank Miller, Art by Walter Simonson
Robo starts to investigate and fights the three terminators and wins. The battle, which is aided by ED-209s, is taking up most of the issue. The fighter heals enough to rebuild her plasma weapon with the help of Marie Lazarus and when she finds out that Robo actually fought the Terminators she's rethinking destroying him
Issue #3 Written by Frank Miller, Art by Walter Simonson
Robocop agrees that if he's responsible for what will happen in the future he must be destroyed and commits suicide. Yet again, reality ripples in the future and yet again in the last seconds two more (!!) terminators jump through time, a terminator boy and a terminator dog to try to talk Robo out of suicide and to join the machines. Robo wants none of that and fights both but they rip him to pieces saving his head and connect him to the net. The fighter dies trying to stop them. Robo becomes a virtual identity and in the future he makes himself into a sort of a virus, hijacks a terminator factory and rebuilds himself
Issue #4 Written by Frank Miller, Art by Walter Simonson
Robo flies and carries missiles on his back and helps fight the Skynet's army. He even redirects a nuclear warhead in space. Damn. He then creates his own terminator army of Endocops and destroys the machines. In the form of an Endocop and wrapped in flesh cocoon, he comes back and destroys Skynet before its born. In its last seconds of changing reality, a terminator dog is sent back (but I won't count this one) but goes millions of years back and gets squashed by a T Rex...
With additional 5 terminators and one resistance fighter, Dark Horse's tally by the end of their first era is 12 terminators and 13 resistance fighters. Not counting the time travelers from the first film they're licensed off, Dark Horse sent 11 terminators and 12 resistance fighters back in time between just 1990 and 1992
RoboCop vs Terminator was the last of the, what would appear to be, first era of Dark Horse for Terminator comics. Their license had run out and there were no plans to go back to it, and they didn't for about 5 years. It was also the last appearance of that lettering that Dark Horse's Terminator comics had for its title, and last time the continuity established by them in Tempest was visited. This was also a last Terminator comic book for three years in general
