The Terminator: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town // Review
It’s the future. It’s after Judgment day in fact. And it’s the evening of December 24th. That date meant something once. Now that. Skynet’s taken over, it’s a night for survival just like any other. A T-800 has been sent out to hunt down a small resistence group. They’re having trouble enough witht he drones. A deadly killing machine, though? THAT’S going to be almost impossible. They’re going to have a hell of a time making it to Christmas morning in The Terminator: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Writer Paulina Ganucheau delivers a festive yuletide sci-fi horror with artist/colorist Kendall Goode.
Honestly, the T-800 unit could have chosen anything. Precisely why it decided to dress like Santa Claus as anybody's guest. It's not exactly like it had to blend in. But it's not exactly like it's going to be nostalgic or anything like that. Perhaps it's simply so a strategic advantage in choosing to dress itself as a beloved holiday icon. Whatever it is, the resistance is needs to think on its toes if it's going to be able to defeat this particular Santa Claus. They have retreated into a derelict shopping mall. There are a lot of different places to hide in a place like that.
Ganuchaeu delivers a tight, little tail that doesn't lean into the holiday nearly as much as it could. This is actually a very good thing. The snow and the setting and the imagery are enough to bring the one shot story into clever holiday focus. Add in a little bit of reminiscing about the days before the AI apocalypse and it really becomes a truly enjoyable trip from one cover to the next through the snow and bloodshed. It's a great deal of fun that doesn't try to take itself too seriously.
Goode is given a lot to work with with the imagery itself. And really the visual appeal of this particular issue. The issue gets a lot of mileage out of the image of a cold, emotionless T-800 terminator unit in a Santa suit. The metal skull and the glowing red eyes peer out from a white beard and the classic red and white Santa hat. It's remarkably clever stuff on a visual level. The action is delivered to the page with a dynamic that feels somewhere between comedy and horror. And that's really exactly where it needs to be.
Santa-as-killer has been a fixture of holiday horror, and yutide homicide for a very long time. The fusion between Santa Claus and a classic T-800 terminator unit feels like a very natural fusion. And, honestly, although it really is just sort of a one joke idea, Ganucheau does a brilliant job of making it run the entire length of a full-length issue. In spite of this, it really has no business being anywhere near as entertaining as it is. It might have all of the thematic weight of a light, stocking stuffer, but Ganucheau and company deliver something that feels quite a bit more resonant than the cheap bit of gimmickry it could have been.
