Terminator is one of those movies that if you tell someone you haven’t seen it, it’s like telling them they just got fired from their jobs. A series of complex emotions cross their face like a robot learning how to feel before an inevitable tidal wave of “what?” and “how?” begin pouring out their exasperated mouth. It’s a touchy subject for those who are forced to admit that they somehow skipped that particular cultural milestone (even if the second movie is better). With such strong affection and unbreakable ties to the cinematic cult, it’s no wonder that franchise didn’t just stop on the silver screen, but like many of its fellow must-see movies, continued to live through comic books. The Terminator: Sector War is the newest addition to the ever expanding T-800 saga, though this time, it steps away from the shadow of the Connor Savior chronicles and instead focuses on the side quest of a terminator who had been assigned to kill the mother of fellow resistance leader on the crime-ridden streets of 1984 Los Angeles. Fast kills and faster thrills, Sector Wars throws the reader square into the fray and doesn’t let go until the back cover, creating a work that would make James Cameron proud.
The comic starts off with our lead Lucy Castro, a down-on-her-luck cop whose life isn’t exactly amazing. Assigned to the worst area in LA and living with a narcissistic, abusive boyfriend to boot, Lucy can’t imagine her life could get any worse. But this is a Terminator comic, so it’s going to get a whole lot worse. Hot on her heels is a T-800, who, not known for its subtlety, begins hunting her down by tearing his way through her building and tossing her boyfriend down a stairwell. This starts a chase through the back alleys of LA as Lucy attempts to put some space between the T-800 and herself while trying to figure out what exactly is going on, which leads to some startling revelations of her own.
Sector War is a lot of fun. It really is a great addition to Terminator and heavily harkens back to street crime cinema of the mid-80’s, complete with the multi-ethnic, mohawked gangs and the heavily graffitied alleyways. It’s as if Robocop finally got to star in his own Terminator movie but instead of fighting criminals, he’s hunting down some cop and stealing people’s clothing. Much like the movies, Sector War is more action than anything else and the comic never slows down to catch its breath, making it a quicker read than most. You’ll find yourself finishing it within ten minutes of picking it up and most likely re-reading it thinking you must have missed something, which to be honest, isn’t really a complaint. It’s fun to read a no-brainer, action work that focuses more on the feel and atmosphere of the work than filling the page with text. It doesn’t feel hackneyed or poorly done, but a true nod to the original work.
One of the more interesting parts of the comic is the art which looks like a bizarre mix of anime aesthetics and Richard Corben’s early art. It’s certainly not a bad work and the dark palette along with the filled in backgrounds does help ground the illustration, it’s just, well, weird. The T-800 is a heavy jawed, muscle bound behemoth while Lisa has large, expressive eyes and a cute, upturned nose a la Americanized Sailor Moon. It’s subtle and might simply count as this reviewer being nit-picky, but it at least doesn’t take away from the work. If anything, it adds an odd visual appeal in what appears to be an attempt to bring vastly different readers to the comic and it looks like it just might work.
If you’re interested in checking out the art for yourself or you simply have a soft spot for all things Terminator, Terminator: Sector Wars is right up your alley!