The Terminator #7 is the seventh comic book issue in The Terminator comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment. It was published on May 21, 2025.
Premise[]
Official description of The Terminator #7 from Dynamite Entertainment:[1]
BACK TO THE FUTURE!
Everyone knows that in the year 2029, John Conner led the Resistance to victory, smashing Skynet's defense grid and defeating the machines once and for all. His mother had trained him from birth to be the perfect soldier and leader that the remnants of humanity needed in their darkest hour.
But who did John Conner turn to for guidance when his mother was gone, and the Hunter-Seekers and Terminators had humanity on the ropes? One person in particular became a mentor to Conner in his darkest hour - someone whose own fight against the machines has gone on longer than anyone's!
Intrepid chrononauts DECLAN SHALVEY and DAVID O'SULLIVAN return to the dark days ahead in The Terminator #7 - enlightened by covers by SHALVEY, EDWIN GALMON, CAT STAGGS, and DAVID COUSENS!
Plot summary for "The Engine"[]
1944, Stalback, Poland. During a snowstorm, two Soviet prisoners escape from Nazi soldiers and their dogs. One of the dogs picks up a different scent and pulls its handler, Braun, away from the main search party. Suspecting that the prisoners may have split up, Braun decides to follow the trail, only to suddenly come face-to-face with a completely naked man.
Later, back at the prisoner of war camp Stalag I-A, the Terminator (now wearing Braun's uniform) arrives and infiltrates the offices, finding information on its target: a prisoner named Masha Alekseev. Meanwhile, outside the camp, Nazi soldiers recapture and execute the escaped prisoners, mocking their deaths as a waste of bullets, when suddenly their dogs detect the scent of Braun’s real corpse.
Back at the camp, the Terminator finds Masha and orders him to come with it. After guiding him behind a shed, it begins to strangle Masha, stating that calculations indicate that he may pose a threat in the future. Before it can complete its mission, a camp guard, suspicious of the Terminator’s behavior, appears and holds it at gunpoint, ordering it to release the prisoner. The Terminator complies but immediately crushes the guard’s pistol and snaps his neck, killing him.
As it realizes that Alekseev has escaped during the brief brawl, the Terminator is confronted by another guard who doesn’t believe its story that a prisoner killed the first guard. With both its primary mission (terminating Alekseev) and secondary objective (escaping undiscovered) compromised, the Terminator begins recalculating its next move. The guard is convinced it’s an Allied spy and opens fire, but the bullets have no effect. Just then, the search party returns, confirming that the real Braun is dead. The Terminator makes its decision: eliminate all opposition. It massacres the Nazi soldiers and their dogs, trying to escape the camp by walking straight through the concertina wire. The camp goes on high alert and soon brings artillery to bear, eventually destroying the machine.
The remains of the endoskeleton are carried to a furnace and thrown in. However, an SS officer quietly keeps the Terminator’s CPU. The narrator reflects on the atrocities committed by humanity itself, questioning whether true evil lies in the human heart or in the cold, unrelenting engine of technological destruction that mankind has created.
Characters and machines in "The Engine"[]
Covers gallery[]
Notes[]
- Despite its official description, this issue doesn't feature John Connor nor does it tell the story of its mentor, being instead a World War II tale and a prequel of sorts to Whiskey Dark.