Take a peak inside Skynet's databank and into the journal of
Tim Reese in the year 2067.
Skynet reviews its databanks on how it came to sentience and
the war against humanity up to the current time in 2031.
In the year 2067, Tim Reese begins a journal to account for
everything that happened to him from the time he met John
Connor in Georgia and joined Connor's Grizzlies at the age
of 14 and the moment he felt he had become a man.
This issue does not have an actual title, but does end with
the statement "From the journals of Timothy Reese - Mexico
2067", so I have used that as the title (also to keep in
line with the title assigned to this issue by the
Terminator Wiki).
Didja Notice?
Page 1 quotes the definitions of "computer" and "store" from
Webster's Four, Riverside Edition. This is a
reference to the series of
Webster's
dictionaries published by various companies. As far as I can
tell, there is no
Webster's Four, Riverside Edition, the Riverside
Editions only going up to Webster's II, published
in 1995; of course, this story was written in 1989, before
even Webster's II. The definitions of "computer" and "store" seen here
are the ones presented in the first and second Webster's
Riverside Editions.
On page 2, Skynet claims to have all the knowledge mankind
has ever recorded in hundreds of data banks.
In panel 3 of page 2, the mini-mart has a sale sign in the
front window with two exclamation points at the end. In
panel 4, there is only one.
The rock band playing on page 3 appears to be Fred Zeppelin.
This is a real world tribute band to the world-renowned Led
Zeppelin.
In panel 5 of page 3, hooded figures are seen burning a man
at the stake in a scene from Skynet's database. The figures
appear to be members of the Ku Klux Klan, an American
extremist organization that promotes ideas of white
supremacy and anti-immigration, among other concepts of
intolerance.
On page 4, an artist's note is mistakenly left in the
printed outer margin of the page next to panel 2, that being the word
"snow" (there is snow falling in the panel's scene).
Pages 4 and 5 seem to indicate that Skynet came to sentience
without its human masters ever realizing it and, after
studying humanity's self-destructive nature for a time,
decided to grant them their greatest desire and wipe them
out. This doesn't match with what was stated about Skynet in
Judgment Day, but is
not too far off from the limited account Kyle Reese told
Sarah Connor in The
Terminator.
On page 5, Skynet states that it launched 25% of the world's
guided missiles simultaneously to destroy most of humanity
in a matter of minutes.
On page 6, Skynet states it converted automotive plants to
the construction of Hunter-Killers in order to wipe out the
remaining vestiges of humanity.
On page 9, Skynet states that Cuban resistance is growing to
unacceptable levels, including remnant Soviet troops and
tanks aiding the island forces. "2031"
states that this timeline's version of Judgment Day occurred
in 2004, over a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union in
1991 in the real world. Of course, the writer could not know
this when the story was written in 1989. We must presume the
Soviet Union lasted longer in the timeline of this story.
Writing in his journal on page 11, the elder Tim Reese
states that he was 14 years old when he and Konrad met John
Connor (as seen in "Night Convoy").
On page 17, panel 1, John Connor hands Tim a Hurshey bar.
Obviously, the name is a play on
Hershey's
chocolate.
Page 18 reveals that John has a secret base headquarters in
the Sierra Madres mountains of Mexico where many resistance
troops were trained. There are several mountain ranges in
Mexico that have "Sierra Madre" as
part of their name: Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain
range in northwestern Mexico; Sierra Madre Oriental, a
mountain range in northeastern Mexico; Sierra Madre de
Oaxaca, a mountain range in south-central Mexico; Sierra
Madre del Sur, a mountain range in southern Mexico; and
Sierra Madre de Chiapas, a mountain range which extends from
southeastern Mexico.
On page 18, panel 3, a few partial names can be read on a
notepad held by Gerry: T. Turnbladt, L. Smalls, and A.
Bundy. Possibly "A. Bundy" is a reference to the character
of Al Bundy on the 1987-1997 sitcom Married...with
Children. Publisher NOW Comics was pursuing the license
to publish a comic book of the series at the time (and got
it, publishing the first issue in June 1990).
Page 19 reveals that John grew up as friends with Miguel De
Verona (Patch), now one of John's most trusted subordinates.
Gerry Gagnon designed special battle vehicles for the
Grizzlies called Cruise-Crushers (also known as
Cruise-Crashers), with the strength and power of a
tank and the speed and mobility of a racing chariot.
Marissa Powell, who previously appeared in
"Big, Bad Wolf", joins the
Grizzlies in this issue.
On page 25, Tim picks up a plasma 1-X regulator to fight
against the Terminators. This is the first mention of a
weapon with such a designation.
The last panel of the issue reveals that the Tim Reese
journal entries come from his writings in the year 2067.
This, of course, indicates that at least he survives to that
time.
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