Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle #9
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The good
State of human resistance felt like a fresh plot thread. Potentially meaningful moment between Dr. Kogan and the terminators
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The bad
Parnell is still unconvincing as such a dominant force with no hope of stopping him. Very little story progression
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The ugly
- Total score
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle #9 opens up with the 3 terminators sent back to the past by Thomas Parnell communicating with Dr. Kogan regarding the cryonic system that would preserve his body for future use. Unaware that they were sent back by him, Dr. Kogan explains the process to them reassuring them that everything is working properly and the facility will be preserved. With everything in order it’s time for Dr. Kogan to enter cryonic suspension since she’s on her last legs. However, she has a few questions she asks the terminators regarding the war between humans and Skynet. She wants to know who started it and whether or not the world they’re rebuilding is beautiful. They state that the humans started it and claim the world they’re rebuilding is beautiful. Dr. Kogan sees through that lie and whispers such to one of them. But she still goes forward with it, acknowledging that she knew the original deal was shady at best. After Dr. Kogan is preserved the terminators come to the conclusion that they have to destroy themselves so the mission isn’t compromised by them being discovered and they do so. Fast forward to the future and Parnell still has need for Dr. Kogan, and that’s to perform a surgery only she can. Meanwhile, the human resistance believes Simon’s mission has failed due to the fact that nothing has changed, which should’ve happened instantly. Since the sheer number of Terminators in their area is overwhelming they have no choice but to withdraw. Since they’ll lose the time door and potentially any chance of killing Parnell, is this the end of the human race once and for all?
What was once a very promising storyline and fresh take on the franchise became stagnant after just rehashing well-known events and being timid about exploring the initial bold direction further. And with last issue’s revelation that Parnell was the mastermind behind the terminators being sent back it raised more questions than answers. So I was looking forward to this issue to see if there would be other developments that would rekindle the initial spark in the series or at least see how events would unfold from this point. There was an intriguing moment between Dr. Kogan and one of the terminators and I don’t know if that was some type of code or just an observation, but the fact it stood out so much was indicative of the way other events unfolded this issue. And that’s because the feeling was akin to wishful thinking as the events unfolded; wishful that there was more waiting to be revealed that would get me truly excited about this series again. So when Parnell was telling Dr. Kogan about the surgery he needed her to perform and why he couldn’t do it himself using one of the terminators, I didn’t feel engrossed in the story and the details. And that was due to being unable to reconcile Parnell’s new dominate status to what was shown about him before and all the years the war has been waged between Skynet and the human resistance. So for him to change the landscape so drastically and simultaneously fight the human resistance, Skynet and design an entirely new chip capable of destroying Skynet in such a short period of time but then to be unable to implant the chip didn’t seem to make sense. I was slightly intrigued by John Connor and the situation the human resistance was in because this was new and it could at least be viewed as them still fighting a capable form of Skynet. And aside from that, the questions raised within the resistance were interesting and reflected the morale after a tough defeat. This did make me wish there was less focus on Parnell and more on showing the impact of this final battle on the human resistance in order to give these events a more engrossing context. And the exchange between Connor and Skynet would’ve fit in perfectly with that because even though it was enjoyable it still felt like more of a delay. And so I don’t know if next issue things will actually go the direction it’s been suggested for a few issues now but I hope the story progression finally feels meaningful.
SUMMARY
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle #9 is an issue that has its moments but is unconvincing when it comes to the core of everything taking place, and that’s the dominance of Parnell. There are too many factors, even shown in this series whether it was as small as influencing a terminator for a brief moment or the complexity in which all these systems could’ve been controlled simultaneously, to reconcile this utter dominance. Even with Parnell serving as a potentially interesting metaphor for the bloodlust and how an endless war could mean the end for both humanity and Skynet, the story doesn’t flow in a manner that would make it possible to appreciate that because there’s very little progress. Fortunately the questions raised about the survival of humanity and about John Connor were intriguing but this far into the series there should be more to look forward to than that.
Release Date: 9/10/14
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Pete Woods
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