Writers: Declan Shalvey & Rory McConville
Artist & Colorist: Colin Craker
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover Artists: Declan Shalvey, Bob Layton, Sebastian Piriz
& Paolo Antiga
Packager & Editor: Nate Cosby
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 17, 2025
In the future, Humanity's war with Skynet ravages the Earth.
Humans still fight among themselves. Still, they take heart in every Resistance
victory. But the Machines are intelligent and relentless. When they lose one
battle, they find new ways to exploit Humanity's weaknesses. How will Skynet
attempt to secure its power over Earth next? And how will an unsuspecting
populace respond to merciless killing machines? Let's grab our weapons, leap
into The Terminator: Metal #3, and see!
Story
In 1899, an outlaw treks through Oregon’s Blue Mountains. After
a shootout, he needs a place to lie low. As he leads his horse uphill, a cave
seems a heaven-sent hideout from pursuers. Still, he's wary. You never know who
else might make a cave their home.
Forty miles west, in the town of Pendleton, a young Deputy
comforts a grieving widow. Her husband was the Sheriff. After a shootout with
Bill Donovan, the Deputy is in charge. He may not know what to do, but the
widow knows what she wants.
In The Terminator: Metal #3, Humans react to what they’ve
seen or heard as they think best. But the chief protagonist in Declan Shalvey
& Rory McConville’s story is an isolated T-800. When Skynet sent it back
through time, something went wrong, and the Terminator arrived too early to
kill its target. Left with no other instructions, the robot tells early 19th-century
Oregon, "I'll be back." Then it seeks the shelter of a cave and
enters stasis mode to conserve its power, waiting out the decades until it can
carry out its assignment.
Sadly, batteries drain when not in use. By the time Bill
Donovan awakens it, the Terminator realizes it has lost too much power to
achieve its objective. After gathering information, the T-800 fixes upon a more
immediate goal. Then, the Terminator travels west, toward a town filled with
angry people, a grieving widow, and a young Deputy anxious to prove himself.
Art
Colin Craker opens The Terminator: Metal #3 with a page of
panels revealing machinery underwater, turning gears, a locomotive rolling
along, and a lightbulb. In this era of innovation and progress, Bill Donovan
climbs the hill with his horse in tow. Multiple layers of clothing, gloves, and
a hat cover him. His beard and mustache expose little beyond his cheeks to the
elements.
Back in civilization, a woman kneels beside a corpse. The
Deputy stands across from her, gazing down at the hole in his former boss’s
forehead. Cables hang between the wooden poles lining the street. When the
widow looks up, she points at a wall of wanted posters. A newspaper proclaims
Oregon's relationship with the international community and the state's
accomplishments in this technological age.
A rainbow shines amid a waterfall, signaling the treasure hidden
at its end. The yellow sun brightens the pink air between two brown mountains,
while evergreens pack the crowded hillside. Yet as the T-800 walks outside via
the James Bondian gun barrel, it sees everything through red eyes. When it
reaches the town, the world becomes a contrast of red and yellow. A red sun
hangs in the yellow sky as the Terminator, clad in Bill Donovan’s hat and clothes,
reaches for its revolvers in The Terminator: Metal #3.
Jeff Eckleberry fills white dialogue balloons with lowercase
black lettering. The narrator’s voice and off-camera dialogue appear in colored
boxes. Beige lowercase block letters locate us in time and space, while white
block letters overlay the T-800’s red vision. Sound effects amplify moments of
shocking violence. Yet most injuries and deaths in Oregon transpire silently,
while some residents of the state fight, die, and kill their fellow Humans in
the Spanish-American War. Thanks to Dynamite Entertainment for providing a
review copy.
Final Thoughts
With the 20th Century approaching fast, news
travels faster as an ailing T-800 races against time. Long before Percy Dalton
hacks a T-800 and names it Tex, another Terminator strives to complete its
objective while civilization builds the foundation for Skynet. The Terminator
may not feel pity, remorse, or fear. Yet the T-800 struggles against its
programming to preserve its life in the Sci-fi/Western, The Terminator: Metal
#3.
Rating 9.4/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
