Image credit: Dark Horse Comics
This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Terminator, and I’ve been reading Dark Horse’s early ’90s comics. Having read “Tempest” and “One Shot,” the next series chronologically is “Secondary Goal.” Is that a good thing? Let’s find out!
As a direct sequel to Dark Horse Comics’ first Terminator series, The Tempest, I had high hopes for Secondary Objectives.
Especially since we still have Mary, a time-outcast Resistance fighter who is a human-Terminator hybrid stuck in the past and desperately trying to override her machine side. It’s a really interesting premise, and one that goes to different and more unusual places than any of the movies.
It’s worth noting that at the time Tempest and Secondary Objectives were written, the creators of Dark Horse didn’t have much source material to work with. Terminator 2 hadn’t been released yet, so there was only the first Terminator movie at the time.
But while “Secondary Objectives” has some very well-drawn action and memorable visuals, including a bare metal T-800 in a punkish metal-encrusted black leather outfit, It’s a horribly boring and strangely repetitive read that doesn’t go anywhere at all.
Two Terminators who fail their mission set in Tempest (to stop Resistance soldiers from interfering with the past) return to the past/present and wreak havoc, triggering a second purpose and killing Sarah Connor. is their target. end.
Sounds like it would be a very exciting read, right? Well, definitely not. The screenplay has an unusual stylistic touch, repeatedly detailing the life stories of bystanders before they are often murdered indiscriminately by the Terminator, but it’s not just about why they don’t do it for all the minors. The character who is killed in the story serves only as a reminder of the characters who are killed in the story. If it just disappears on the next page anyway, what’s the point? Yet writer James Robinson repeats this pointless trick over and over again.
If it’s not the second part of a four-series story arc, then I wouldn’t worry about it, but if you’ve already read Tempest, you might want to read Secondary Objectives as well. Set your expectations as low as possible and you won’t be disappointed.
