“All of history becomes a war zone” in new Terminator comic celebrating the original movie’s 40th anniversary

Terminator is returning to comics with a new story from Dynamite Entertainment, the same publisher which recently reprinted many classic Terminator comics from over the years. The new comic will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the October 1984 theatrical release of the original Terminator film.

Writer Declan Shalvey, known for Dynamite’s current ThunderCats comic and Marvel’s upcoming Mystique solo title, and his co-creator artist Luke Sparrow will open a “new front in the time war,” with the ancestors of numerous future freedom fighters under attack from time-traveling Terminator assassins.

Here’s a gallery of covers for Terminator #1 by Shalvey himself, Edwin Galmon, Joshua ‘Sway’ Swaby, and David Cousens, as well as a variant which reprints iconic artist Alex Ross’ original art for 1990’s Terminator: Burning Earth comic. And there’s even a couple pages of uncolored interior art for good measure:

“The plans to kill Sarah Connor and her son John have failed, but that isn’t going to stop the genocidal Skynet. If at first it doesn’t succeed, it’s going to expand the theater of operations,” reads Dynamite’s description of the new Terminator #1. “There are still a few more avenues into the past to try that will allow it to eliminate the human resistance before it even starts. Skynet and its Terminators are determined to stamp out these pivotal figures in history before they lead to their processors being smashed into silicon shrapnel.”

“This new front in the time war comes with Terminators dispatched all across the globe and throughout time to target not only current resistance fighters but also their ancestors, as well as any unlucky souls caught in the crossfire,” it continues. “Though at first it may not seem that this wide range of secondary objectives are as straightforward or critical as the original missions of the T-800 and T-1000, the sheer scope of this new warfare defies that. Time is literally on Skynet’s side — when all of history becomes a war zone, suddenly nowhere — and no-when is safe!”

As fans of the Terminator franchise know, Sara Conner is the mother of John Conner, who, in the future, will lead the human resistance against the SkyNet AI takeover of Earth. Sara herself was the target of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 unit in the original Terminator movie, though it was her son John who was the target in 1991’s Terminator 2.

“The approach of this series is new situations, new dilemmas in each issue. Mostly done-in-one stories, but as the series progresses there may be some recognizable faces…” explains writer Declan Shalvey in a statement. “We’re going for a more stripped-down, pulpy approach to the book. As innovative and groundbreaking as the first film was, it was also grounded in its environment, being noirish and moody as hell. An unstoppable force is coming to kill you — that’s the element of the franchise I want to lean into.”

Terminator #1 goes on sale in October.

Terminator and Terminator 2 rank very high on Total Film’s list of the 32 greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of all time.