The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1
Recap
It’s Christmas Eve in Skynet’s apocalyptic future, and the atmosphere is pretty far from festive. But even in the blasted rubble of civilization, the surviving elders of the Resistance have fond memories of the holiday — and in between drone attacks, the younger members are eager to hear about them.
The story of the jolly old man in a red suit who infiltrated people’s perimeters is especially intriguing. How did he avoid the sentries and guard dogs? What kind of exfiltration technique was he using? And most important, did he have glowing red eyes that matched his fur-trimmed hat — like the hulking figure that’s now advancing on their position?
Review
The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1 is a novel Terminator comic if for no other reason than that the culture humans lost after Judgment Day, in this case celebrating Christmas, isn’t something that Terminator fiction typically addresses. And in this case, the holiday oriented story makes for a lighter tone than the current Terminator series usually delivers.
That lighter tone is in part the result of The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1’s terminator antagonist wearing a Santa Claus suit. It’s hard not to chuckle at the incongruity. Ganucheau’s choice to do it in the story isn’t necessarily an obvious one (after all, it’s already on the main cover), but it is strangely charming even though Goode draws it in an appropriately menacing way. This is still a terminator, after all.
The real heart of The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1 is a resistance fighter who was too young to experience Christmas asking his older superior officer what Christmas was like. This feel good story is accompanied by most of their squad getting wiped out by the Santa-suited. It’s a strange juxtaposition, but surprisingly the violence and gratuitous death doesn’t overtake the Christmas theme Ganucheau centers the issue on.
Goode’s art and color choices play into this generally lighter tone. Shading is minimal at best with most of the characters’ features being defined by short, thin lines. And even then, such definition is limited mainly to establishing cheekbones and adding definition to the mouth and chin. Character expressions are therefore somewhat broad, established largely by the size of their mouths and eyes and the angle of eyebrows.
Coloring leans toward the brighter side (relatively speaking since The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1 takes place at night). Overall the coloring is flat. Goode doesn’t vary color shades in reaction to implied light sources or shadows.
These style choices contribute in large part to why the action, as fun and exciting as it is, doesn’t overtake the recounting of what Christmas used to be like.
The only real exception to this is Goode’s depiction of the terminator which is heavily detailed relative to every other character. Indeed, this is why the image of the terminator wearing a Santa Claus suit is so amusing.
There is not shortage of sound effects throughout The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1. They are routinely a standout visual element in the issue as Eckleberry usually goes big relative to the other art in the panel. Eckleberry’s color choices ensure that the sound effects match Goode’s coloring, so they don’t work against the overall visual style.
Final Thoughts
Fighting terminators is usually a bloody and serious business. And certainly there are no shortage of gratuitous deaths in The Terminator: Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1. But it also manages to be a strangely lighthearted story talking about some of the holiday’s fun traditions. By no stretch is it required reading for Terminator fans. But it’s a nice entry for fans of holiday comics.
The Terminator :Santa Claus is Coming to Town #1: Light but Deadly
- Writing - 7/107/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 6/106/10
- Color - 6/106/10
- Cover Art - 8/108/10