It's probably a good thing that I just missed reviewing this one last week, because my interest in Terminator comics in general has changed in the last couple of days. I've been pretty much apathetic if not downright derisive about the new T3 flick, but a generally positive buzz has sort of increased my interest, and this comic both benefits from that interest and helps to increase it further. Rather than telling a story that is either overly familiar (another Terminator is after John Connor) or completely disconnected from movie continuity, Brandon chooses to tackle a side story that is very relevant to both T2 and T3, and in so doing gives us a new cast of characters in a setting that we've seen mostly in glimpses. With Parlov, Sam and Mounts providing pretty stirring visuals of the post-apocalyptic future of the Terminators, it's easy to get drawn into this book and wonder what's going to happen next.
One of the questions that I imagine has buzzed around the science-fiction fan community is: "But how did they get an unstoppable killing machine to stop killing long enough to reprogram it anyway?" Good guy Terminator protectors are a key element of the second and third movie, and it's easy to accept in T2 (I can't judge T3 yet) because the action and story are so compelling, and you don't really question why Arnold is suddenly a good guy so much as enjoy how cool he looks with a chain gun. But the question does nag. And choosing to answer it in the comics, where it can be told as the side story it really is, says a lot about Beckett's overall vision for the Terminator license, and gives me hope that they might do it justice as Dark Horse did before.
Brandon's story takes place not in our time, as the movies do, but in the future of the Terminators. There's plenty of unexplored territory here (even Dark Horse only spent a couple of mini-series focused on it) and I really liked the brief glimpses of a more organized resistance than the one I'm used to seeing. Though the rebels may be a bit scattered and undisciplined in comparison to a regular military unit, it's clear that they have unit commands, bases of operation, a central authority and even a military police unit of sorts that guards the precious cargo that the lead characters bring home.
Parlov, Sam and Mounts really bring the setting to life, managing to convey the horror of it all without making it bleak or dull. The double-page splash of Alexa looking out over the killing fields is stunning, and brings home the nature of the world she lives in. Fire, rain, hunter-killers in the air and on the ground, as she stands immobile, scanning the horizon. This is routine in her life, just as the threat of death is. Even though the adrenaline charge is clear in the action sequences where she rescues her husband or tries to trap a Terminator with a car, there's a certain calm and methodical approach that we can see in the character, as if she's already accepted her death as inevitable.
The creative team also succeeds in portraying the Terminators as the deadly killing machines that they're meant to be. The view from the robotic heads-up display was put to good use in the films, and it's used equally well here. The cold assessment of threats and the deadly logic available to them in combat, from catching a grenade to spotting a foe hiding behind an icemaker, makes it clear that these things are dangerous not just because of their formidable physical abilities, but because they are made for killing and they do it with machine-like efficiency and precision.
If I have a complaint, it's that the format doesn't seem particularly suited to the story. The high cost prestige format has always seemed a weird half-measure between serial and graphic novel, and I find myself wishing that the story was being told in a trade paperback rather than in 48-page increments. The pricing might work out the same, but the perception here is that I spent six bucks and didn't get a whole story, which is unfortunate. But not unfortunate enough that I don't want to come back and see what happens next.
