Throughout all of the Terminator films, I had one nagging question: “What is the future war like?” Only glimpsed in bits and pieces during The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the conflict between mankind and Skynet looked bleak. Soon, other Terminator media would begin to expand upon it: Terminator Salvation is fully set in this period, though some might argue that it didn’t seize on the potential. Declan Shalvey and Luke Sparrow aim to change that with The Terminator #10, which is fully set during the war between Skynet and humanity.
The Terminator #10 follows a small group of soldiers as they attempt to disrupt one of Skynet’s supply routes. The leader of the group says that he has the routes pegged down to a T, and the necessary weaponry to take out Skynet’s hover tanks. Anyone who’s ever seen one of the Terminator movies knows that the machines always evolve, and with a bigger, badder tank in play, the soldiers have to think outside the box.
Memory plays a big role throughout the story of The Terminator #10. From the title, “Memory Box”, to the way that past memories play a role in the story, Declan Shalvey is showing how our pasts can shape us, for better or worse. One paragraph in the script really stuck out to me: “When you can weaponize your memory, it’s a time machine of its own.” Another moment comes when one of the soldiers reveals that he carries pictures of his wife and other family members, as a “memory box” to remind himself what he’s fighting for. Shalvey understands that time plays into every part of the Terminator mythos, no matter how small.
Dynamite
The horrors of the machine/human world are brought to life thanks to Luke Sparrow, who fills every page with twisted, warped metal, shattered buildings, and the smog-filled sky of a radioactive wasteland. All of it takes on a grave tone thanks to Colin Craker’s somber color palette; you actually feel like you’ve stepped into a hell-torn future. The duo extend that to Skynet’s new tank, which is a massive mountain of metal and weaponry that literally dwarfs the page it appears on. It takes talent to make a threat feel massive with one page, but Sparrow and Cracker definitely succeed.
I think what will get most people talking about The Terminator #10 is the final page, especially with a surprise reveal that no one saw coming. But rather than making this reveal the focus of the issue, it’s slowly built up and ties into the themes that the creative team is working with. More licensed comics could stand to learn a lesson from what Shalvey and his artists are doing.
The Terminator #10 dives deep into the future war between man and machine, and the way time plays into every aspect of this franchise. With Shalvey set to explore this time period further with The Terminator: Metal, Dynamite has done the impossible: it’s made me a Terminator fan again.
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