The resistance struggles to reprogram the captured Terminator to protect human lives rather than take them.

 

Read the story summary of "Before the Rise" parts 1 and 2 at the Terminator Wiki

 

Didja Know?

 

Terminator 3 was a 6-part mini-series published by Beckett Comics in 2003, coinciding with the release of the theatrical film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Due to the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Judgment Day itself has been delayed from its "original" date in 1997. The first two issues of this mini-series are titled "Before the Rise" and cover the events in 2032 leading up to Skynet sending the T-X series Terminator back in time to 2004 to kill John Connor's future officers before Judgment Day. Issues 3 and 4 are titled "Eyes of the Rise" and tell the Rise of the Machines story from the perspective of the T-X. Issues 5 and 6 are titled "Fragmented" and tell John's story after an alternate version of the events of Rise of the Machines.

 

Didja Notice?

 

The cover by Essad Ribic features a T-900 Series Terminator. A T-900 is seen briefly in the Rise of the Machines movie and appears more prominently in the tie-in video game of the same name, as well as the following video games, The Redemption and War of the Machines (a first-person shooter that adds little, if any, storyline to the ongoing universe, so it is not covered by a study on PopApostle).

 

The graveyards being full, the resistance tends to dispose of dead comrades by dumping them into the Venice canals. In this case, I believe the reference is to the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, judging from the style of bridge over the canals, other structures, and the ragged palm trees in the background.

 

During the simulated battle staged in the captured Terminator's electronic mind, the bullets fired at it by enemy Terminators expand into silvery impact points on his chest, as seen on pages 10-12. But this would not happen with a standard Terminator series robot, only the polymimetic alloy types such as the T-1000 and T-X. Though, since this is all taking place in the robot's head, it might be possible to excuse the effect as a surreal anomaly similar to those that occur in human dreams.

 

Page 16 suggests that the canines used for sniffing out Terminators are also known as "seeker units" (at least by Tin Can).

 

A Terminator that looks just like the T-X from Rise of the Machines shows up on page 29 in the simulated battle in the captured T-850's head. This would again seem to indicate that John Connor is using his memories of the past in an attempt to change the future through the programming of the captured T-850.

 

At Alexa's funeral on page 33, the priest is quoting Psalm 23 from the Bible.

 

The HK that attacks the funeral seems to be a hydro version of the flying HKs.

 

How was the resistance able to regrow the skin that was missing from the captured Terminator's face? Is it capable of healing that completely by itself?

 

A smaller version of an HK, capable of flying through a door and through corridors is seen in the attack on the resistance base near the end of the issue. They are referred to as FKs (Flyer Killers) in the T3 video games Rise of the Machines, The Redemption, and War of the Machines.

 

Tin Can is destroyed by an HK on page 41.

 

On the inside back cover of this issue, the Skynet Image File photograph is the endoskeleton head of the T-X. 

 

Unanswered Questions

 

Why are the resistance forces having such a difficult time reprogramming the captured Terminator? From all indications, they reprogrammed one fairly quickly in 2029 before sending it to 1995 to act as John's protector (as told in Judgment Day). Perhaps, because the current Terminator is a T-850 (as opposed to T-800), it has more protection to prevent such reprogramming?

 

Why is Connor seeking to capture and reprogram a T-850 now? I presume he and Kate are hoping to prevent his assassination by the T-850 that is foretold will kill him in 2032 in Rise of the Machines, so they will need a different unit to send back to 2004 to protect him.

 

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