The first publisher to produce a comic book based on the popular 1984 sci-fi picture, The Terminator was NOW Comics. NOW had quickly obtained licensing rights for several very popular franchises and began 1987 as a force to be reckoned with by the big two comic book publishers. However, things quickly fell apart. Fans hated the color process of books. NOW experienced tremendous delays in getting their books out on time. Eventually the creative staff and the franchise owners began to complain about not being paid; either on a timely basis or even at all.
In 1990, NOW Comics filed for bankruptcy and the license for the Terminator was quickly snatched up by Dark Horse Comics. NOW produced it's final miniseries series based on the James Cameron hit, Terminator: All My Futures Past right as Dark Horse made it's Terminator debut with a 4-issue minute that would eventually become known as Terminator: Tempest, when the story would be collected in trade paperback the following year.
The story takes place 6 months after the futuristic events of the 1984 Terminator movie. In 2029, Skynet's main CPU has been destroyed by John Connor. Kyle Reese was successful in preventing Sarah Connor from being assassination by the time- traveling T-100. However, based on these successes, the human resistance should have total victory over the machines by now. But it appears that the machines were less dependent on a central processing unit than originally thought.
As the resistance conducts cleanup sweeps on machine outposts, it's discovered that Skynet had a second TDE (Time Displacement Equipment) in working use. It's the mission of the team led Colonel to infiltrate the base where the TDE resides. Before destroying the machine in order to prevent another Terminator from making a play on Sarah Connor, Col. Randall's team will step through the time machine. Once back in Los Angeles, 1990, Randall's crew will attack Cyberdyne Systems, hopefully preventing the tech company from developing Skynet. But first, the soldiers must find food, shelter, money and weapons because there's no way back to 2029. Oh, and clothes because everyone that uses the TDE winds up in the past naked as the day they were born.
Unfortunately for Colonel Randall, the TDE in 2029 wasn't destroyed. A trio of T-800 Androids were activated with the mission to find Randall's squad. These terminators emerged in 1990 naked and vulnerable. But unlike the humans, these time travelers have several advantages as they don't need food, money or shelter. Oh, and they managed to sneak weapons through the time vortex in the body of the soldier Randall had trusted with the destruction of the TDE.
John Arcudi was the scribe responsible for this 4-issue miniseries. There's an article at the end of this issue, written by Arcudi, that states he was tasked with writing the script both super fast and under total confidentiality. During Christmas 1989, word had yet broke that Dark Horse Comics was to become the new home for the Terminator franchise. Arcudi was given this project with a very long leash about what ideas he had about the plot. His only real directive was that his script needed to be completed fast as Dark Horse wanted a new Terminator book on shelves as soon as NOW's licensing agreement expired.
To achieve this quick pace, Arcudi along with artist Chris Warner and inker Paul Guinan had to create the book using the Marvel Method in which Arcudi would plot the story, Warner would lay everything out, then Arcudi fills in the dialogue with Guinan finalizing the inks. Not every comic book creator can work this way. In fact, Arcudi didn't even get to see the finished product for this issue until he had already completed his plotting for issue #3! But, despite a lot of flesh and a Robert Kirkman amount of red ink uses for the blood, this was a great opener.
It really pains me that I was only able to purchase the first half of this miniseries. I've got a decision to make: do I read issue #2 and then wait to one day find the other 2 books for a decent price or do I go ahead and spend some dough to get the rest of this mini PDQ. I could also find a cheap, used trade of Terminator: Tempest and get some trade on my 2 floppies. I definitely want to find out what happens next. I just don't want to spend too much in able to find out.
Completing this review completes Task #32 (A Dark Horse Comic) of the 2026 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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