Dark Horse Comics were on a serious roll, firing on all cylinders, with their licensed comics back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Snapping up adult oriented licenses left, right and centre, they absolutely knocked it out of the park with comics for nature readers based on Aliens, Predator, Terminator and more besides.

They even had The Mask, a satirical yet ultraviolent comic that ended up getting neutered when it travelled the other way on the Hollywood food chain.

Though Marvel briefly had the RoboCop license, their adherence to the Comics Code didn’t do the property justice – and inconsistencies between the first and second RoboCop films didn’t help the expanded universe of the Marvel comics.

When Dark Horse Comics picked the license up in 1992, it felt like the property could be utilised properly for the first time.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, the first release after the license was acquired was this crossover with The Terminator.

Notably written by comic book heavyweight Frank Miller (who also scripted the second film, getting story credit and co-screenwriting credit on RoboCop 3 too), who teamed with the equally well respected comic book creator Walt Simonson (on art duties), RoboCop vs The Terminator is a crossover that treats itself as much more than just a battle between two separate movie universes.

Dark Horse had form for this too, of course, with their numerous crossovers – including the groundbreaking Aliens vs Predator – being treated with absolute respect and steering clear of cheapening either property.

The setup here is that the technological advances made possible by RoboCop’s creation lead directly to Skynet being able to create Terminators and thus, essentially destroy humanity.

A lone soldier in the future is able to infiltrate Skynet’s defenses and travel back in time, with the intention of killing Alex Murphy/RoboCop to stop the war before it begins.

It’s clever stuff, marred by what now feels like uncomfortably social and political commentary; in that sense, this issue has aged horribly. It once felt edgy, but the violent tactics of a cop who doesn’t seem to be accountable to anyone just leaves a bad taste in the mouth these days.

Yet the premise is smart and the art is fantastic, leading me to hope that the rest of the series has matured a little more gracefully.

Definitely a product of its time, RoboCop vs The Terminator #1 is at least an intriguing snapshot of a particular point in time.

1992’s vision of the imminent future seems uncomfortably grim these days, but in fairness it felt like that back then too – it just felt new and excitingly mature at the time, despite feeling incredibly juvenile now.

It took a long time for comics to shake off the stink of the ultraviolent 90s and evolve into something much more interesting.

That said, the basic intelligence of RoboCop vs The Terminator’s combining of the two franchises does at least make it worth checking out, if only for curiosity’s sake.