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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
at popapostle-dot-com
Transformers vs. the Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy (Part 1) "Enemy of My Enemy" Part 1
Transformers vs. the Terminator #1
IDW

Story by David Mariotte, Tom Waltz, and John Barber
Written by David Mariotte and John Barber
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by David Garcia Cruz
Letters and design by Jake M. Wood
Cover B by Alex Milne
March 2020

 

In 2029, Skynet leads the resistance in a losing war against the Decepticon invasion of Earth and sends a Terminator back in time to 1984 in an attempt to alter history.

 

Read the summary of this issue at the Transformers Wiki

 

Notes from the Terminator chronology

 

This story takes place in TIMELINE Transformers-1 in the PopApostle Terminator chronology, a timeline independent of the Terminator series of films, though it borrows elements from them. In this timeline, the evil Decepticons of the Transformers franchise defeat the good Autobots of the planet Cybertron and conquer Earth. Skynet rises as the Earth resistance, using Terminators to battle the Decepticons. Losing the war in 2029, Skynet sends a T-800 Terminator back in time to 1984 to stop the Decepticons before they conquered Earth.

 

Didja Know?

 

Transformers vs. the Terminator was a 4-issue mini-series published by IDW in cooperation with Dark Horse Comics (holder of the Terminator comic book license at the time).

 

Although the comic-book series itself is titled Transformers vs. the Terminator, the story contained in these four issues is titled "Enemy of My Enemy" (not be confused with the earlier Terminator comic book mini-series Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy from 2014).

 

The image seen on the inside front cover of each issue depicts what may be a Terminator's eye view of the planets Cybertron and Earth.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue

 

1100100000

Jazz (body only, deceased)

Refraktor (body only, deceased)

Bumblebee (body only, deceased)

Gears (body only, deceased)

unidentified Terminator
Skynet (mentioned only)

Starscream

Seekers

Insecticons

Megatron

T-8000

rude Big Jeff's patron (trucker, dies in this issue)

Sarah Connor

Big Jeff's manager

Optimus Prime

Soundwave

Thundercracker

Starscream

 

Didja Notice?

 

On page 1, the totaled car with a 4 on it that 1100100000 runs past is a fallen Cybertronian, as evinced by the Autobot symbol on the hood. (This Autobot may be Jazz, who could transform into a race car and who had the number 4 on it in the Transformers Online 2017 video game.)
Autobot symbol Decepticon symbol
Autobot symbol
(from the Transformers Wiki)
Decepticon symbol
(from the Transformers Wiki)

 

    On page 2, one of the dead Decepticons on the bridge (lying face down on the left edge of the page) appears to be Refraktor, whom we will meet in 1984 in TvT: Enemy of My Enemy Part 2. The yellow Autobot in the middle of the bridge appears to be Bumblebee, who will also appear in TvT: Enemy of My Enemy Part 2. And, on the right-hand side of the bridge, Glyph.

   On the next bridge up, which is split in half, the fallen Autobot on it may be Gears.

 

On pages 3-4, 1100100000 is near the Los Angeles ruins of the Big Jeff's restaurant that Sarah Connor worked at in 1984 as seen in The Terminator, although the statue outside the restaurant seen here more closely resembles the mascot of Bob's Big Boy than the Big Jeff mascot. Big Jeff's is a fictitious restaurant.

 

1100100000 attempts to learn to smile throughout this issue. The protector T-800 in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day also attempted this once or twice.

 

Skynet's L.A. resistance base is called Omega Base.

 

Inside Omega Base, it appears that Skynet's resistance is building its own Transformers for use in the war as well. Possibly they are fallen Decepticons reprogrammed to obey Skynet orders. The concept art extras by Alex Milne at the end of the issue identify the giant Terminator Transformers as T-8000s.

 

The time displacement device has taken many different designs in the various Terminator stories told throughout multiple forms of media. The one seen here is very similar to the design seen in use by Skynet in the 2015 film Terminator Genisys

 

On page 11, the news program on the TV set in Big Jeff's is reporting on the imminent eruption of Mount St. Hilary in Oregon. Mount St. Hilary is the site of the Autobots' first base on Earth in the Transformers mythos. This is a fictitious volcano, generally considered to be near Portland.

 

Sarah's waitress uniform looks very similar to what she was seen to wear in The Terminator, but the dress is too long and her white socks are too short.
Sarah's waitress uniform Sarah's waitress uniform

 

    Sarah tells the Terminator to take the 5 freeway to get to Mount St. Hilary in Oregon. U.S. Interstate 5 runs from the border of Mexico in California at the south end to that of Canada in the north, passing through Oregon and Washington.

    While on I-5 in Oregon, the Terminator and Sarah pass an exit sign to Mount St. Hilary which also indicates highways 20 and 26. These are both U.S. highways that run east-west in the state of Oregon. If they are on the I-5 with a sign indicating the direction to highways 20 and 26, it would tend to suggest they (and Mount St. Hilary) are near the town of Albany, about 70 miles south of Portland. On the other hand, they just passed the "Welcome to Oregon" sign during their brief conversation on pages 16-18 and the distance between the Oregon border and Highway 20 is over 200 miles!

 

Sarah refers to the T-800 as "a German guy", but since this T-800 is identified as a Model 101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) Terminator, his accent is Austrian.

 

On the last page of the issue, the Decepticon leader Megatron is holding a gun (Megatron's fusion cannon) on the dormant leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime. In the background are Decepticons Soundwave, Thundercracker, and Starscream.

 

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