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The Terminator graphic novels

Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future

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he can bend steel, leap tall buildings, and is faster than speeding bullets...but can he save the future?! The sentient computer known as Skynet has been sending Terminators into our present to find and destroy a boy named John Connor. Not just any boy, he will grow to lead a resistance force against a massive robot army that has brought mankind to the brink of extinction. Now the Terminators are hunting for young Connor in Metropolis. But Skynet didn`t plan on the Man of Steel coming to the rescue...or did it? As the battle to save mankind rages in the Metropolis of the present and the future, will the combined might of Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, and Steel be enough to stop the deadly killing machines -- and their new ally, the Cyborg-Superman -- from terminating John Connor? And will Lex Luthor lend a helping hand...or does he have something more sinister in mind for the Terminators? The ultimate battle for the future ends here -- and the results will shock you! Co-published with DC Comics.

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

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About the author

Alan Grant

1,775 books138 followers
Alan Grant was a Scottish comic book writer known for writing Judge Dredd in 2000 AD as well as various Batman titles during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is also the creator of the character Anarky.

Alan Grant first entered the comics industry in 1967 when he became an editor for D.C. Thomson before moving to London from Dundee in 1970 to work for IPC on various romance magazines. After going back to college and having a series of jobs, Grant found himself back in Dundee and living on Social Security. He then met John Wagner, another former D.C. Thompson editor, who was helping put together a new science fiction comic for IPC, 2000 A.D., and was unable to complete his other work. Wagner asked Grant if he could help him write the Tarzan comic he was working on; so began the Wagner/Grant writing partnership.

The pair eventually co-wrote Judge Dredd. They would work on other popular strips for the comic, including Robo-Hunter and Strontium Dog using the pseudonym T.B. Grover. Grant also worked on other people's stories, changing and adding dialogue, most notably Harry Twenty on the High Rock, written by Gerry Finley-Day. Judge Dredd would be Grant's main concern for much of the 1980s. Grant and Wagner had developed the strip into the most popular in 2000AD as well as creating lengthy epic storylines such as The Apocalypse War. Grant also wrote for other IPC comics such as the revamped Eagle.

By the late 1980s, Grant and Wagner were about to move into the American comic market. Their first title was a 12-issue miniseries called Outcasts for DC Comics. Although it wasn't a success, it paved the way for the pair to write Batman stories in Detective Comics from issue 583, largely with Norm Breyfogle on art duties across the various Batman titles Grant moved to. After a dozen issues, Wagner left Grant as sole writer. Grant was one of the main Batman writers until the late 1990s. The pair also created a four issue series for Epic Comics called The Last American. This series, as well as the Chopper storyline in Judge Dredd, is blamed for the breakup of the Wagner/Grant partnership. The pair split strips, with Wagner keeping Judge Dredd and Grant keeping Strontium Dog and Judge Anderson. Grant and Wagner continue to work together on special projects such as the Batman/Judge Dredd crossover Judgement on Gotham. During the late 1980s, Grant experienced a philosophical transformation and declared himself an anarchist. The creation of the supervillain Anarky was initially intended as a vehicle for exploring his political opinions through the comic medium. In the following years, he would continue to utilize the character in a similar fashion as his philosophy evolved.

Grant's projects at the start of the 90s included writing Detective Comics and Strontium Dog, but two projects in particular are especially notable. The first is The Bogie Man, a series co-written by Wagner which was the pair's first venture into independent publishing. The second is Lobo, a character created by Keith Giffen as a supporting character in The Omega Men. Lobo gained his own four issue mini series in 1990 which was drawn by Simon Bisley. This was a parody of the 'dark, gritty' comics of the time and proved hugely popular. After several other miniseries (all written by Grant, sometimes with Giffen as co-writer), Lobo received his own ongoing series. Grant was also writing L.E.G.I.O.N. (a Legion of Super-Heroes spin-off) and The Demon (a revival of Jack Kirby's charac

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5 stars
11 (8%)
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14 (11%)
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45 (36%)
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45 (36%)
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,631 reviews13.1k followers
November 11, 2017
Say hasta la vista to any hopes of being entertained with this tedious crossover between iconic franchises, Superman vs The Terminator: Death to the Future!

Sarah and John Connor show up in Metropolis and, wouldn’tyaknowit, Terminators aren’t far behind! In scenes hard to suppress chain-yawning, Superman effortlessly punches wave after wave of killer robots, retarded time-travel is tossed in, and the whole thing is about as imaginative and worthwhile as any of the non-James Cameron Terminator movies!

Alan Grant ticks off his list of things to include in a Terminator comic (weirdly minus an Arnie-lookalike) while Superman goes through the motions alongside Supergirl, Steel and Lois as they go up against Skynet and that shitty one-dimensional ‘90s character, Cyborg Superman. The only thing that remotely caught my attention was when Supergirl sprouted flaming wings – what was that about!?

Like most Superman crossovers, Superman vs The Terminator is pointless rubbish – no wonder it’s out of print! I’d time-travel back to stop myself bothering in the first place if I could!
Profile Image for Timothy Boyd.
6,837 reviews45 followers
March 16, 2023
This is actually not a mad mix of these two franchises. I was at first hesitant to read it but I did enjoy how the story was handled. Recommended
Profile Image for Chad.
8,800 reviews969 followers
August 23, 2017
A Terminator shows up and Supes gets zapped to the future where he must defeat SkyNet. At the same time, Terminators are showing up by the dozen to fight Supergirl and they team up with Cyborg Superman. It's a fun book with great art by Steve Pugh.
Profile Image for Roopkumar Balachandran.
Author 7 books34 followers
September 3, 2016
I already had a bitter experience on reading Superman Vs Predator. With that in my mind I borrowed this book to read. At the end, no big disappointment.

What happens when Superman is added to the Terminator story line is the imagination. The year is 2000, Sarah Connor and John Connor are saved by Superman in Metropolis. Subsequently the Skynet sends powerful robots each time to fight with Superman.

Unfortunately Superman was sucked into the future year 2032. What happens to Sarah and John in 2000? The answer Super girl and Super boy lends their help. But will the duo able to hold the ever power full robots coming from the future with capable of flight? Did Superman put end to the reign of Skynet in future? Did Superman returned from 2032?

All are answered in the remaining two chapters of the comic.

Art work is better compared to Superman Vs. Predator. Most Superman fans will like the story line.
Profile Image for Pablo Rodriguez Perez.
34 reviews4 followers
September 3, 2021
Sarah y John Connor llegan a Metrópolis encubiertos cuando son descubiertos por un Terminator que venia del futuro con la misma misión de siempre: Borrarlos de la linea temporal para que así en el futuro las máquinas puedan vencer en la guerra contra la humanidad. El intento fracasa al ser evitado por Superman y todo parecía que iba a estar bien hasta que Superman es enviado al futuro por error, dejandolos a Sarah y a John a merced de los continuos Terminators que sigue llegando... o casi, porque tenemos la participación especial de Superboy y Supergirl (del período Matrix+Linda Danvers). A todo esto, Cyborg Superman hace contacto con los dichosos Robots futuristas y deciden apoyarse mutuamente para cumplir sus objetivos. En el futuro, Superman se encuentra con John Henry Irons, que forma parte de la resistencia humana, y luego de un rápido tour por el futuro distópico, Superman decide ayudarlos y luchar contra Skynet.

La historia es entretenida tranqui. No soy especialmente un seguidor de la saga Terminator, pero me dio la sensación de que se queda corto en el contexto de dicha franquicia. Hay mucho hincapié en los personajes de DC. El personaje de Cyborg Superman también podría estar mucho mas explotado... pero a fin de cuentas la realidad es que no hace nada relevante. Sarah y John solo juegan el papel de disparador de la historia y ya luego aportaran poco. Y por último, creo que se la juegan mucho al querer darle un cierre tan abrupto no solo al comic sino también a toda la guerra del futuro... es como que entonces toda la saga Terminator termina sin ningún tipo de epicidad y sin los recursos de su propia historia, sino por cuenta ajena.

Las portadas de los comics individuales son hermosas, dibujadas por Steve Pugh al igual que los interiores. Eso queria destacarlo.
Author 3 books
July 7, 2015
The Man of Steel faces his greatest challenge in Superman Versus The Terminator: Death to the Future. Written by Alan Grant, Superman comes to the rescue of Sarah Connor and her son (who are hiding out in Metropolis) when a Terminator shows up and attacks; Cyborg then ceases this opportunity to seek his revenge on Superman by aligning with Skynet, enabling it to build Terminators that can defeat Superman. Surprisingly this crossover works especially well, and is able to integrate characters such as Steel and Lex Luthor into the Terminator mythology. Additionally, the artwork and coloring are incredibly vibrant; leaping off of the page. An extraordinarily exciting adventure, Superman Versus The Terminator: Death to the Future is a must read for any fan or either franchise.
Profile Image for Benji's Books.
283 reviews
November 7, 2023
It seems just about all my followers who disliked Batman vs Predator liked this one and vise-versa. I'm one of the people who enjoyed Batman vs Predator, but strongly disliked this. It had great covers, but the interior art just wasn't it for me. The story was also lacking.
337 reviews3 followers
April 15, 2020
Superman fights Termminators from future, what is there not to love with that concept? Well, here are a few things:
1) John Conner is depicted as a 8 year old in 2000. He would have been 16 and not acting like this (same issue applies to writer Alan Grants other Terminator stories)
2) Superman acts surprised that something from 30 years in future would know who he was. If there was a god like savior in 2000, people are going to remember!
3) the sheer number of cannon fodder Terminators take away the scary aspect of a relentless hunter
4) why are events of Skynets fall in 2032?
5) Cyborg Superman's dialog is more like Skelator from He-main cartoon

Good points:
* unexpected tie in to main Terminator comics from the time
* Steel in future working with Conner was cool
* the art is mostly really good and colors are very vibrant
419 reviews2 followers
June 3, 2019
I am glad that Superman was at full strength throughout this battle, and it made sense that multiple SuperFriends had to get involved. There wasn't much time for character development but I think this is mostly going to be a niche story so most readers will already know all the background they need.

3.5/5!
5,630 reviews5 followers
February 9, 2021
Did not waste anytime getting right to the meat of the story.which unfolds in 2 separate timelines.metropolis in the year 2000 where Sarah connor along with Lois lane and supergirl fight to keep john connor safe from the vast array of terminators.metropolis in the future year of 2032 steel and superman take the battle to skynet in the hopes of humanity overcoming the age of the machines.
Profile Image for José Vázquez.
Author 49 books71 followers
April 16, 2020
Sin pretensiones, mucha explicación y con varios huecos en la trama, es un cómic sencillo de leer que pudo ser mucho mejor, pero que al final te deja un buen sabor de boca. No se puede esperar una trma compleja, solo golpes y acción desde el principio hasta el final.
Profile Image for Timo.
Author 3 books11 followers
April 17, 2022
Ehkä kuitenkin vastuussa olevat toimittajat olisivat voineet sanoa, että "tehkääpä uusiksi". Tässä ei ollut mitään hyvää. Ei taide, ei hahmot, ei tarina. Kaikki ärsytti.
Profile Image for Abu.
57 reviews1 follower
June 4, 2023
While not the best written book, it's still a fun match-up.
Profile Image for Robin.
229 reviews6 followers
October 27, 2022
You look at the title and think “huh, how’s that supposed to work” and then you finish reading it and think “huh, how was that supposed to work.” You probably figure Cyborg is gonna be involved and Lex is gonna hear about Sky Net and think “hey that sounds dope, lemme get in on that” and yep exactly those things happen. (Though, the latter is just foreshadowed on the last page which again you could’ve probably guessed as soon as it wasn’t part of the main plot.)

These two worlds just kinda don’t go together at all and trying to pretend they do results in this really weird, sterile nothingness. And this period of time wasn’t exactly a nadir for either one of these franchises on their own, so seeing them combined into something so thoroughly unimpressive was kind of sad.

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Check out my compilation review, The RoboCop vs. Terminator Non-Franchise Franchise, on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...
Profile Image for Beetlebox.
6 reviews11 followers
July 25, 2014
Awful, simply awful.
Put simply, if this book was a person I'd punch it right in its stupid face. If I was to list all the things that made me wince, I'd be retelling the entire book frame by frame. I knew things were going to go horribly wrong when I saw Superman fighting Terminators wearing a toga.

This is the first Superman graphic novel I've ever read, but luckily I'm a forgiving man and I won't judge all Superman stories on this horror. I may need some time to get over this one though, if only to try and forget the irritating and inexplicable twerp that was Super-boy.
Profile Image for Dovile.
282 reviews35 followers
September 9, 2013
For a Superman comic, this one's is OK, there have been worse. The art is decent, but nothing memorable or revolutionary. If you're mostly interested in Terminator, don't bother, there's nothing really new here and Terminators T-800, T-850 or Model 101 don't even appear (if they do, then they're drawn so badly, than I couldn't recognize them).
Profile Image for Dorthea Kemp.
68 reviews11 followers
January 14, 2014
Sarah and John Connor were not done well, and the villian was kind of hokey. But, Superman and Steel were well written and this was mostly their story. Not the best of the Terminator universe, but worth reading if you were curious about a match up between Superman and the Terminators.
Profile Image for Wetdryvac.
Author 457 books4 followers
March 28, 2016
Well, that could have gone better. A case where I like the idea - the weird DC vs. comics usually catch my attention - but this lost me on both plot and some of the image tropes, as well as some inconsistencies with everything.
Profile Image for Simon.
953 reviews10 followers
January 8, 2013
Oh dear. I like Alan Grant, but this was just terrible.
Profile Image for Ilias Avramidis.
107 reviews1 follower
August 25, 2017
Usually i don't like comic crossovers because they're non-canon and the story is messed up, but when you love both sides you gotta give it a shot! Can't complain! It was a fun read!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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