The future isn’t what it once was, with Skynet’s priorities – and origin – drastically changed, thanks to the arrival of the Cybertronians on Earth.

Sending a lone Terminator back to 1984 (coincidentally, the year that both Transformers and The Terminator first appeared), the intention is for the Autobots and Decepticons to be destroyed before they gain a foothold on Earth. Dragging a reluctant Sarah Connor along as a guide, the Terminator discovers that he’s arrived at a bad time…

Though an intriguing concept with excellent, minimalist covers, the writing is – like Skynet itself – a little too self-aware, with numerous references to the franchise that are just a little awkward in practice. The art for the more humanoid characters feels really off too, though the Transformers look great (particularly in their upgraded future war forms, which we saw last issue) and the origin of Skynet is a welcome piece of exposition.

There’s nothing all that interesting going on here, however, beyond the change to Sarah Connor’s place in the saga and the Transformers themselves allying with – or fighting against – the Terminator in a surprising way.

Halfway through the series, it’s already hard to get too excited because, even with the few neat touches to the lore of each respective franchise, there’s just not enough being done with the concept to make it truly worthy. We shall see if this continues to be the case as the series heads into its second half.