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.
