Following on from the events of The Terminator: 2029, the second half of the series continues as The Terminator: 1984.

With Kyle Reese having been sent back in time and kicking off the story of the first Terminator movie, Ben is in pursuit, having been sent back himself by an older Reese.

Now as any fan of The Terminator knows, and with the film being 40 years old this year I think I’m safe to say this, Kyle Reese dies in the climax of the first film. So how did an older Reese even exist to send Ben back to help him in the past?

Well, that hasn’t been revealed yet. The problem we have is that, over the decades, whether you’re watching The Terminator for the first time or roughly the hundredth (who knows how many times I’ve watched it? It’s a lot), every time you see it, it’s devastating when Reese dies. We’ve always wanted him to survive, right?

But if he does, it changes and cheapens the story; it doesn’t set Sarah on the path of being John’s parent, teacher and protector.

We’ve all thought about it, but the fact that Zack Whedon is actually doing it just makes me feel like he hasn’t really gone past the desire to see Reese survive, without thinking about the consequences.

Though in fairness, the situation is handled pretty well in the way this issue progresses, though the whole ‘what if Reese survived’ thing certainly isn’t as interesting as Whedon thinks it is, or perhaps it’s just his writing that’s the issue.

Anyway, the best I can say is that this is better than the 2029 half of the series that preceded it, but that’s mostly thanks to the recreation of scenes from The Terminator that Whedon didn’t write.

The art still feels a little amateurish too; it’s not great, in honesty. Still, overall this is a step up, and I don’t know where it’s going, which is definitely not a bad thing.