Angel: After the Fall vol. 3

The third collection of the comics continuing the story of the vampire with a soul after the Angel TV show ended.

Written by Joss Whedon and Brian Lynch
Art by Nick Runge and various artists
Page count: 104
Publication date: 2009
Publisher: Dark Horse
Collects issues 9-12 of Angel: After the Fall comic

The main story line continues right where it left off in the first volume. Los Angeles is in hell and various demon lords have divided it amongst themselves. Angel has challenged their champions to a fight. Not surprisingly, his gang is there to protect him: Illyria, Spike, the dragon, Lorne, Groosalugg, Connor, Wesley although as a ghost he’s mostly there for moral support. It turns out that Spike’s bikini girls are actually ninja girls in training, which I quite liked. The vampire Gunn and his gang just watch the fight and scheme. Illyria changes into and out of Fred in inopportune times.

In the next issue, Angel and the gang are still trying to find out who killed the downtown demon lord in the first issue and escalated the situation in the first place. The rest of the gang finds out Angel’s secret and don’t react well to it at all. They also find out that the killer was Gunn and his gang. In the meantime, Gunn is training his gang with the help of George, the telepathic fish, and a few Slayers who are trapped in LA. Gunn kills the Slayers in the end. George also tries to contact people outside LA for help and finds out that the rest of the US doesn’t know that LA is gone!

Next: the big confrontation between Angel and the vampire Gunn!

A lot of things happens in this volume. The big fight between Angel and the champions is cut short but I don’t mind that. The only thing that is a bit disappointing is the we didn’t get the huge dragon vs. dinosaur fight that was promised at the end of the first volume. Most of the fighting happens in the background anyway while Angel talks with Connor or Spike.

I’ve been wondering why Buffy and her gang aren’t researching the LA in Hell situation and here’s the explanation. Just who is capable of doing such a massive illusion and shouldn’t there be constant traffic to and from this fake LA? How on Earth can the illusion be kept up? I hope we get to know that.

I really liked the confrontations that we get this volume. A lot of secrets are aired and, not surprisingly, people don’t like it when they have been kept in the dark. Connor and Angel argue but I think they will make up pretty quickly. We also get an explanation for why Gunn has been acting like a crazy man and why he believes that he’s doing the right thing. Angel and Gunn were very much in character when they finally confronted each other and I really liked those scenes.

The artist has changed and I’m sorry but I don’t really care for the new art. The fight scenes in the first issue are pretty confusing and the action tends to be a bit hard to follow. On the plus side, the characters look like the actors in some panels.

Once again, the collection ends in a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, the Finnish library system doesn’t have vol. 4.

 

Angel: After the Fall, vol 2: First Night

The second collection of the comics continuing the story of the vampire with a soul after the Angel TV show ended.

Written by Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch
Art by Franco Urru and various artists
Page count: 104
Publication date: 2008
Publisher: Dark Horse
Collects issues 6-8 of Angel: After the Fall comic

This time we get a collection of stories, short stories really, about what happened to the individual characters at the moment LA was sent to Hell. There is a frame story about the telepathic fish Betta George whom Gunn has kidnapped and is trying to convince to work for him. Since mostly Gunn just beats up Betta, that isn’t really successful.

The other stories focus on Spike, Connor, Lorne, Wesley, Kate, Gwen, an unnamed doom-sayer, and Gunn. There’s also an art gallery with covers and pin-ups. The collection starts with Groosablog where our blogging hero does a recap. Each story has a different artist which creates a somewhat different moods for the stories.

Every story is just a few pages long. In the Spike story, Spike at first thinks that he can retire since he’s now survived two apocalypses. Then, he finds Fred in her human form nearby. When demons appear, Fred changes into Illyria. I have no idea what that is about but I now have a bit of (probably false) hope that Fred will get rid of Illyria at some point.

Connor’s and Kate’s stories are intertwined and we get to see how Connor decides to get involved in the rescue effort. Lorne’s story is perhaps the most bittersweet one. He wants to create a better place for people but, of course, this is Hell. The doom-sayer one is about a civilian who knows that the end of days is near and is telling it to everyone. Then, the world does end.

In Wesley’s story, his employers tempt him with a paradise with his love. Yet, he sees through it and makes his own decision about helping Angel. In Gunn’s story Gunn’s pulled away from the fighting and patched up by a group who wants to recruit him. In both Wesley’s and Gunn’s stories there are tantalizing hints about things to come. Wolfram & Hart say that Wesley is the reason they are going to win and in Gunn’s story, one of the group says that they have an inside line, but not to whom. It might be to Wolfram & Hart. I doubt it’s to Wesley or Angel

This is an okay collection and stands on its own, although you have to be familiar with the characters to get much out of it. I would have rather gotten on with the story….

 

Angel: After the Fall, vol 1

The first collection of the comics continuing the story of the vampire with a soul after the Angel TV show ended.

Written by Bryan Lynch
Art: Franco Urru
Publication date: 2008
Publisher: Dark Horse
Collects the first five issues of the on-going Angel: After the Fall comic

A lot has changed after the series ended. Because of that it’s not absolutely necessary to watch the show before reading the comic although I highly recommend it. While the main characters and their relationships are mostly introduced, the secondary characters aren’t, so you get a lot more out of it if you watch at least Angel season 5 beforehand. I’ve seen seasons 4 and 5 years ago when they were shown in Finnish TV and started to watch season 1 on DVD recently.

The story picks up a couple of month after the final episodes with a new status quo. Most of the characters survived the end of the show and Angel is still the hero who does his best to rescue humans. However, that’s a bit harder now because the evil incarnate (otherwise known as Wolfram & Hart) have yanked Los Angeles to Hell. Literally. Demons are killing and enslaving the humans, and the more powerful Demon Lords have divided Los Angeles amongst themselves.

Angel made Wolfram & Hart’s former headquarters his own. He and and an incorporeal Wesley Wyndham-Pryce are somewhat uneasy allies and are holding their own against the Downtown LA’s Demon Lord who isn’t too thrilled about Angel’s activities. Oh, and Wesley is still Wolfram & Hart’s LA representative and this apparently gives him more clout among the demons than Angel has, despite the fact that Angel has now a dragon. The dragon who attacked our heroes at the end of the last episode was apparently a misguided dupe and Angel was able to persuade it join his side.

Angel sends the humans he rescues to a building where his son Connor and some other people are protecting them as well as they can. Apparently, they can’t leave LA so smuggling them out isn’t possible. To make matters worse, Angel manages to annoy the Downtown Demon Lord by killing the Lord’s son.

Meanwhile, a human looking team is battling one of the Demon Lords in Westwood. The Lord has a horde of human slaves and a telepathic fish. The group manages to defeat the Lord and his minions but instead of rescuing the humans, they start to feed on the poor former slaves. Their leader is the former vampire hunter and current vampire: Charles Gunn!

In the next issue, Angel heads out to warn Connor about the enraged Demon Lord. However, Connor is investigating Westwood where several demons are trying to claim the title of Lord of Westwood. After the battle, Angel and Connor find writing is an ancient tongue, and Angel heads out to find the person he thinks is responsible for the kill and the writing: Illyria.

Spike and Illyria are living in an paradise-like state with several semi-nude young women. Illyria is one of the Demon Lords and they don’t seem eager to annoy her. However, Illyria isn’t happy about Angel dropping in and things escalate. Meanwhile, Gunn has kidnapped the telepathic fish and has big plans for it, and for himself. He think he should be the one to save LA and he isn’t going to let Angel stand in the way of his heroism.

I liked this collection a lot, mostly, although not as much as the first Buffy collection. The circumstances are very much changed from the show but the characters seem to be themselves, mostly. I wasn’t thrilled about Spike’s treatment, though; it seems to me that Spike has now taken the role of a comic sidekick instead of bad ass vampire. However, he was later shown to… sorry, I’m not going to spoil that! It made me feel a bit better about him. There’s also disappointing level of sexism here: the women slaves are all almost nude (not to mention young and thin), and all women wear skin tight clothing and have apparently been given boob jobs. Bleargh, to quote Buffy.

I have a hate/love relationship with Illyria. I really liked Fred and I really didn’t like it at all when Illyria replaced her, and of course when she replaced her. (I should have known better by then because Whedon seems to have something against happy couples.) However, I really like Illyria as a character and I’m hoping that we’ll get to see a lot more of her.

Mostly, I was very happy with the LA in Hell thing, which brought on new problems and villains and twists to the characters. Near the end of the collection we get to see some characters from the show who aren’t introduced at all and might cause confusion to people who aren’t familiar with the show. I was happy to see them again.

Urro’s style is very different from Jeanty’s who draws the Buffy comics. Urro doesn’t even try to emulate the actors’ features but instead makes the characters his own. And of course, a comic doesn’t have to conform to a show’s special effects budget or actor availability.

Oh and it ends in a cliffhanger. Which isn’t resolved in the next collection!

 

Serenity: Better Days

The second comic set between the TV-series Firefly and the movie Serenity.

Written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Art: Will Conrad
Page count: 80
Publication date: 2008
Publisher: Dark Horse
Collects the original three-part miniseries Serenity: Better Days

Like the first comic, this one, too, reads like an episode of Firefly. Again, the characters and the world aren’t introduced so you should watch the show Firefly before reading this.

The art is again fantastic: the characters look like the actors and it looks like the art was painted in rich colors. I really love the gorgeous Adam Hughs original covers and if I could put anything on my walls, I would buy another copy, cut off the covers and put them up.

Mal and his crew are in the middle of large robbery. At the same time, nearby a man with a scar is demonstrating his new tactical robot to a large audience. So, when Mal and the crew are trying to drive away with the loot, the scar faced man uses his remote controlled robot to attack the Serenity crew. The robot turns out to be well armed, fast, and flexible but Mal and Kaylee manage to bring it down. The man with the scar isn’t happy and he was able to identify Mal. It turns out that the crew was after the robot and they deliver it to the man who ordered it. He doesn’t have the money but know where the crew could get enough. Mal agrees and so… they raid a Buddhist temple.

Meanwhile, Inara has an old soldier as a client. He tells her about terrorist Browncoats who are called Dust Devils. They killed civilians during the war and the soldier is still after some of them. Of course, Inara suspects that Mal was one of them.

It seems like the crew got the money and are rich so, they go to a vacation planet. Unfortunately, their enemies are quickly on their tail.

This time we get to know more about some of the characters’ past and there’s some great scenes between the characters. Kaylee is talking about his crush to Wash who is trying to encourage her to approach the doctor herself, the crew is fantasizing about what they are going to do with their money, and there’s a poignant scene with Mal and Inara at the end.

I liked this one more than the first one, especially since it had one my favorite twists near the end.

Again, too short! There’s no time to really develop the villains or story lines feel short and underdeveloped. We don’t get to know much about one of the villains and the ending feels a bit too convenient.

 

Serenity: Those Left Behind

The first comic set between the TV-series Firefly and the movie Serenity.

Written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Art: Will Conrad
Page count: 104
Publication date: 2006
Publisher: Dark Horse
Collects the original three-part miniseries Serenity: Those Left Behinds

This reads like an episode of Firefly: a heist gone wrong, crew bickering, Simon being oblivious to Kaylee’s advances, a desperate try for more money, familiar villains return… The art is fantastic: the characters look like the actors and it looks like the art was painted in rich colors. The dialog is also spot on.

The story starts with a bank robbery gone wrong. Mal, Jayne and Zoe are in the vault having a standoff with another gang, lead by a man called Tott, while the Shepard is giving a sermon to the people of the town. Tott and his people fire on the Serenity crew but manage to escape with the money. The townspeople think that Mal and his gang have their money and chase them. So Book has to steal a car and rescue the trio.

Meanwhile, the former Agent Dobson receives two visitors: the men with the blue hands. All are anxious to get their hands on the Serenity and so they decide to work together.

Inara plans to leave Serenity. Without the money from the job, Mal is hard-pressed to get enough fuel for the spaceship. When Badger appears with a lucrative offer, Mal just can’t refuse it – even if it means robbing a graveyard. The conflict between Book and Mal escalates.

Yup, just like an episode of the show. Except that it’s too short. . On the one hand, I liked it a lot. But on the other, I expected to get… more. More explanations about the guys with the blue hands, for one thing. Who were they? Where did they come from? Apparently, we’ll never know. And for recurring, mysterious characters that’s disappointing.

The comic is fine as a continuation as long as we get lots of them, a whole continuing storyline. Otherwise, it’s a bit… fluffy.

It has pin-ups of every character and I liked them a lot.

The characters and the world are not introduced at all, so you should definitely watch the TV show Firefly before reading the comic.

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer vol 6: Retreat

Collects issues 26-30

Written by Jane Espenson
Art: Georges Jeanty, Andy Owens
Page count: 145
Publication date: 2010
Publisher: Dark Horse

In contrast to the previous collection, this one is all about the season’s main plot. Buffy is worried because no matter where the main Slayer force goes, the bad guys always find them. Now, the attacks seem to be escalating. Faith and Giles are hiding in a former Nazi bunker but a demon horde still finds them, Andrew is back in Rome and leading a Slayer cell. They are also trying to hide underground, but a horde of goatmen finds them and attacks. Andrew is also confronted by his old “friend” Warren who tries to persuade Andrew to change sides, again. Fortunately, the goatmen attack before Warren’s plea succeeds.

The hounded groups manage to join Buffy and the main Slayer force. They are all under attack by demons with tanks and catapults. Willow has woven several magical shields around their hiding place but they fall under the attack and the Slayers are forced to flee – on a submarine.

In the middle of fighting, they managed to get a prisoner and after Willow interrogates it, she knows how the bad guys can find them. The group of Slayers and Wiccans are highly magical so, Twilight can trace the magic. When Buffy hears that, she has a plan: they need to find someone who can make the magic go away. So, the group go the Tibet to find Oz.

Oz has moved on with his life: he has a wife and child. His wife Bayarmaa knows a way to make a person’s magic go to the Earth. That’s how Oz got rid of his werewolf. Buffy is convinced that getting rid of their magic, and so making all the Slayers into ordinary girls again, is the only way to hide for Twilight.

Also, Buffy and Giles are finally reunited, and she tells him what happened to her in the future in “Time of Your Life” collection.

I have really mixed feelings about this collection. I loved seeing Oz again and finding out what had happened to him during the years he was away. His spouse is a great character and the kid is great, too. I though I would like it when Faith and Giles rejoined the rest of the cast; unfortunately, they were mostly diminished into faces in the crowd.

However, I had big problems with the plot. Frankly, I think that Buffy overreacted big time. She didn’t really think about the consequences of getting rid of the magic for all of them. Would they be hiding from Twilight for the rest of their lives? What about the other threats around the world? What would happen if Twilight managed to catch them without their powers? She didn’t consider any of these questions (on-screen) and none of the other character raised them either. That was very much out of character for Faith and Giles at least. Or Dawn who should have been concerned for her sister possibly being in danger. None of the nameless Slayers and Wiccans resisted, either which I also considered weird.

I also thought that the way the depowering (because that’s what it is: lots of powerful girls are being robbed of their powers) was done was also weird. The Slayers were told to do physically exerting stuff and not use their supernatural strength. I wasn’t aware that a Slayer can just choose not to use her strength. How on Earth would that work? I mean sure you can not use your full strength when hitting someone but when shoveling or moving large boulders? Only use their pinky fingers?

Then, Oz’s domestic bliss made Willow speak about how she could never have kids of her own (because of the magic). This seemed a bit weird to me, too. She’s never said before that she would want to have a “normal life”. Granted, the whole gang was very young during the show but even when Xander was getting married, Willow never said a thing. So, it seemed wildly out of character to me. Also, when did Xander and Dawn become experts in rocket launchers and radars?

There’s also the kissing scene. I didn’t recognize one of the characters so for a while I though things were really different than they actually were. I’m still not sure how I feel about the prospective couple.

There are also two short stories, each a couple of pages long. The first is Harmony’s public interview and the second is Buffy’s dream. In Buffy’s dream Spike and Angel start making out, and I would have enjoyed the hell out of that except that they were spouting misogyny about dirty girls.

Oh, and the collection ends with a big time cliffhanger.

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer vol 5: Predators and Prey

Collects issues 21-25

Written by Jane Espenson, Steven S. Deknight, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie
Art: Georges Jeanty, Cliff Richards, Andy Owens

Page count: 145
Publication date: 2009
Publisher: Dark Horse

The first story starts with Harmony Bites: Harmony’s reality show where she bites people on camera. The Hollywood people are interested but they think that the show needs a villain. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to a new Slayer. The nameless Slayer was part of an all-female, Hispanic gang and was only able to leave when she got her powers as a Slayer. Buffy’s offer of “Togetherness! Unity! Sisterhood!” doesn’t appeal to her and she starts to look for vampires to kill on her own.

The second story stars the lesbian Slayers: Willow’s girlfriend Kennedy and the Japanese Satsu. Kennedy advices Satsu to forget about Buffy and move on to a girl who actually likes girls. At the same time, she’s evaluating Satsu’s new job as a leader of a Slayer cell and helping her fight… Vampy Cat dolls!

Next, Andrew gets a lead on the rogue Slayer Simone and especially on Simone’s closest aid Nisha. Buffy and Andrew expect to just get Nisha out of a demon trap but instead they have a showdown with Simone herself. It seems that she’s gathered her own gang of Slayers and is terrorizing the countryside. Of course, Buffy has to do something about it. Also, Andrew’s been more sinister than usual.

Then we finally get a new Faith and Giles story. One of the new Slayers tells them about a town which is a Slayer Sanctuary and they have to investigate it. Handelstadt turns out to be quite a strange little town.

In the final story, Dawn is missing, and Buffy and the gang are trying to find Dawn’s previous lover so that he can dispel the spell that has changed Dawn into different shapes.

First of all, I loved the reality show! It was such an off-beat and fun idea. The trade has two fake covers about Harmony’s magazine, Harm, and a couple of pages of Harmony’s interview and “information” about Slayers and why they “hate America”. The Slayers, however, are horrified especially when it turns out that the show is making the Slayers into villains. I’m not convinced that most of the viewers know or believe that Harmony is a real vampire. Most likely the viewers think is just a special effects so the Slayers overreacted.

Most of the stories are one-offs and don’t really advance the main plot which a bit frustrating. Well, except for the first story.

I really love the painted covers which are added as a bonus. While Jeanty’s art is okay, it rarely looks like any of the cast. This actually became a problem for me in the next volume. The male characters are more recognizable because there are fewer of them and, well, Xander has the eye patch.

I’ve never liked Andrew and I still don’t. I was amazed that Buffy let him stay after what was revealed about him in the third story. But Buffy has a tendency to keep the people she’s adopted as part of her family, unless they turn completely to evil and even then there can be redemption.

The volume is pretty light and fluffy, and it’s clearly aimed at the fans who already know the characters and the world.

 

Lone Wolf and Cub vol. 1: The Assassin’s Road

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

Page count: 294 + a glossary, creator profiles, and Ronin Report about the history of the samurai
Publication date: 2000
Publisher: Dark Horse

The collection has nine stories which follow a similar pattern except for the last two.

Itto Ogami is a mysterious assassin for hire. He travels through Japan with his young son looking for lucrative assassin’s work. Often enough we don’t know at the start of the story who has hired him; it will be reveled during the story or at the end. Otherwise the stories are pretty straightforward: he finds his mark, often with trickery involving his son, and kills brutally him or her and the guards. The fight scenes are bloody and brutal. Often enough, his enemies make the fatal mistake of underestimating a man with a child or not considering them a threat at all.

The first stories establish his reputation and skills as an unbeatable swordsman. At the start of the first story we get some men gossiping about Itto Ogami’s past; how his wife had run off and left him with the child. Of course, there’s no way to know if the gossips are true.

The next clue about his background comes from the eight story and more is revealed in the final story. This is a very different storytelling techinque from the modern Western one which I’m used to. Usually, even if the hero/ine starts with a mysterious past, that past is revealed in the first book.

Itto Ogami is also different from the usual Western anti-heroes who usually have a soft heart and goes out of his way not to kill women, children, and pets. Itto Ogami has been hired to do a job and he will do it to the best of his ability. Only in one story does he do the job not in the way that his wicked employer had planned it, but in a way that saved lives from a faction Itto Ogami had some gratitude towards. He’s clearly interested in only what benefits himself and his son, and so he’s not a very sympathetic main character.

His son Daigoro is young but I can’t say for sure what his age is. He doesn’t talk much but he can walk and run, and even bow correctly. But in the last comic he can only crawl, not walk.

The art is in black and white, and it’s sometimes a bit hard to follow, especially during fight scenes. Sometimes during a dialogue the artist concentrates on the background or the people’s feet instead of their faces. Unfortunately, the book is such a small size that it’s sometimes hard to read the text.

The comic has a lot of violence and a rape scene.

My library has many books in this series but I’m not sure if I’ll continue with it. I’m not entirely sure how the storyline can continue because it seemed to me that he got his revenge in the final story.

 

The Terminator: The Dark Years

The fifth and final story in the second omnibus.

Script: Alan Grant
Art: Mel Ruby
Original publication: apparently a four part limited series in 1999.
Terminator Omnibus vol. 2 publication year: 2008
Publisher: Dark Horse

In 2030 in ruined Los Angeles, a Resistance cell is trying to survive. One of the members is Jon Norden who is an ecologist and owns a dog named Jez. The leader of the cell is Walker who doesn’t like Norden at all. Terminators attack and the cell is forced to blow out their current hideout. When they flee in the sewers towards the next safe place, the dog Jez finds a rat which has mechanical innards. Walker decides to take the mechanical rat to Connor himself. He wants to take the dog with him and so he has to take Norden as well. Together, they rescue a girl whom they take with them to Connor.

It’s 1999 and New Year’s Eve. Sarah and John Connor are in the middle of a celebrating crowd in Los Angeles. Suddenly, a Terminator appears from the future and promptly kills a cop and takes his clothing and gun. He finds Sarah and starts shooting. The Connors try to flee but the machine is relentless.

The story alternates quickly between 2030 and 1999 especially in running or fighting scenes which makes it a bit hard to follow. Often there’s only one or two pages until the scene shifts to the past or the future. There’s some character development but like most of the other Terminator comics, it’s centered on action. However, the body count isn’t as high as in the other comics and this time we even get to see John Connor in action in addition to seeing the 1999 Sarah and John Connor.

However, I was pretty surprised that the cell has only one dog which is trained to smell machines. Surely, they are so useful that there should be more of them. Also, the comic’s name seems a bit inappropriate to me and set different expectations; it cover only a few hours in both the past and the future.

The Terminator in the past is very persistent and hard to kill. He also kills other people indiscriminately in order to get the Connors. However, the Terminators in the future seem to be pretty easy to kill with either a single bomb or some gun fire. Of course, the Resistance probably has better guns.

The artist Mel Ruby has two different inkers. Ruby has a somewhat exaggerated style but it’s not a problem at first with Andrew Pepoy. However, the latter inker Christopher Ivy exaggerates it even more so that it looks comical and cartoony to my eyes. Unfortunately, this style wasn’t really compatible with the grim Terminator world and the dramatic events in the latter half of the story.

For me, this second omnibus was better because it has a wider range of stories than the first omnibus. However, I’d still recommend them only to Terminator fans.

 

The Terminator: Death Valley

The fourth story in the second omnibus.

Script: Alan Grant
Art: Guy Davis, Steve Pugh
Original publication: apparently a two-part limited series in 1998
Terminator Omnibus vol. 2 publication year: 2008
Publisher: Dark Horse

The story starts in 2029 when a small Resistance group ambushes a moving comm tower. However, a Terminator kills all but one of them. The survivor is interrogated and he reveals enough information that Skynet is able to send two Terminators, a man and a woman, to the past, to the Death Valley in 1998.

In 1998, a one-eyed ex-cop is on the trail of a group of Satan worshipers whose camp is in an abandoned mine in the Death Valley. The ex-cop had been hired to find a girl that the group has supposedly kidnapped. He finds the group but the girl seems the be there willingly. That point becomes moot, however, when two naked people assault the group. They ask about Sarah and John Connor and the group’s leader, called Killerman, claims to know them. The Terminators consider the rest irrelevant and start to shoot them. However, Killerman manages to blow up the mine and escape. The Terminators follow him again killing everyone who gets in their way. Later, the ex-cop (whose name we get to know much later) manages to dig himself out of the rubble. Then he starts after the Terminators.

Nearby, ecological scientist Ken Norden is trying to teach his son Jon about the nature surrounding them. Unfortunately, Jon is more interested in his GameBoy. When they get home, Ken’s wife Sara confronts him. She’s tired of the isolation and wants to get back to San Francisco. Unfortunately for Ken, his day is about to get much worse.

This is perhaps the most complex of the Terminator comics I’ve read so far. The Terminators, the Nordens, Killerman, and the ex-cop all have their own story lines even though they intersect. We also get to see Sarah Connor working as a maid in one of the Death Valley hotels. There’s also an additional storyline about a man who is working on defense robots for the military.

The male Terminator arrived a little later than the female one, and he starts show quite unTerminator like behavior, such as asking if the Terminators are live, like humans are. He also tries to stop the female from killing a wounded human.

Killerman has the most straight forward story; he’s just trying to survive. Unfortunately, he thinks that he can reason with the machines even after he saw the way that they slaughtered his followers.

The ex-cop has the most flimsy excuse for staying in the story. After he just barely survived the shooting, he really should have gone away and thanked his lucky stars. But in the middle of the fight, he accidentally shot the girl he was supposed to get away from the Satan worshipers. He blamed the Terminators and wants to make them pay. He also has horrible nightmares about being caged.

There are also secondary characters, such as the fat woman sheriff, who round out the cast in way that’s not typical to (mainstream US) comics.

One of the best ones so far.

Davis is the first artist and he’s style is somewhat sketchy but I felt that is suited the scenes at the start: the fight in the future, the interrogation, and the shoot-out with the Terminators. The machines were also naked during that time but Davis didn’t make that detailed at all, which was great. Pugh has far more detailed style.