Terminator: Metal #4 // Review
It’s January 28th, 2026. Each day brings news of fresh disasters from the AI. The fall of the Northlands base. The massacre at The Star. The machines are outmaneuvering the resistance at every turn. The resistance has something new, though. They’ve got something that just might turn the tide of the war in the favor of the humans. It’s going to be a risky offensive in Terminator: Metal #4. The writing team of Declan Shalvey and Rory McConville tells a sharp story with the art team of Fabio Gallo and colorist Colin Craker.
It’s an EMP. A really, really powerful one. It’s got a range ten times more powerful than anything that they’ve ever had before. If they can get the EMP within range, they will be able to neutralize all the machines inside a nearby factory without firing a single shot. No loss of life from within the factory. Of course...getting into range with the EMP is going to be incredibly risky. If the machines spot the device, any squad carrying it is going to be some kind of a major target. An army of killer robots is going to descend on them with speed and precision. The operation is going to have to work with machine-like efficiency if it’s going to be able to strike a powerful blow against the machines.
Shalvey and McConville construct a remarkably tight, little plot. The story that’s being delivered wouldn’t really lose anything if it WASN’T sci-fi. Theoretically the same plot could be modified to fit just about any war of just about any era. So it doesn’t really feel like science fiction so much as it does war drama. This isn’t necessarily a serious problem...it’s just not taking advantage of those things that make the Terminator franchise so appealing.
For a war drama, there isn’t a whole lot of...war...in Terminator Metal #4. There’s a tremendous amount of dramatic tension that’s being built in and within the ensemble that renders a profoundly intricate, little world for one particular end of the resistance. Rather than trying to render the drama with dynamic angles and edgy layout, Gallo presents the drama with a harsh realism that is placed on the page with a very straightforward approach. The Craker’s colors wash over the page with a harsh moodiness that captures the bleakness of an inhuman war.
The story itself is actually remarkably well-written. It’s an engrossing premise with quite a few clever turns that slowly reveal a deeper substance beyond the surface. And while the premise itself COULD have been placed in any other war of any other era, the conflict between man and machine and the need for man to be more like machine in order to win...it’s a theme that fits quite well into the Terminator franchise. It’s just not quite as interesting as it could have been if Shalvey and McConvile would have been able to find some way to frame it a bit better.
