GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH

TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH marked two milestones in comic book history. First, it was the first comic book series that extended the story first created by director James Cameron and his films THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and second, it marked the debut of famed comic book artist Alex Rose, who would go on to do phenomenal MARVELS and KINGDOM COME series (among others).

Written by Ron Fortier with painted art by Ross THE BURNING EARTH was a post apocalyptic story about the last days of the residence with John Conner doing battle with his remaining band of soldiers against the sentient Skynet who plans on killing every living thing on Earth with nuclear bombs.

One of the great things about Ross’ artwork is that even though the main color pallet is blues and grey, he manages to create a style that doesn’t muddle the look of the scenes but give them a deeper and darker meaning as if the reader was thrust into a horror film of impending danger and destruction. No one is safe in this world of man verses machines, not even the conflicted leader of Conner who is just trying to hold on to what humanity he has left in this never ending war.

Although not the best of the Terminator series (Dark Horse Comics would later get the license to continue the franchise), it is still definitely one of the darkest of the series and since it was the first it has a lot of advantages over the others. This is also a great series for people who want to see some of Ross’ earliest work and where his current style came from (Ross was 19 when he did this series and only one year out of art school).