TERMINATOR:2018 continues our comic series review of IDW Publishing's TERMINATOR:SALVATION Official Movie Prequel Issue #3, the next penultimate in the movie tie-in comic quadrilogy setting the scene for Warner Brothers' summer sci-fi thriller starring Christian Bale.

Carrying on from our review of Issue 2, the Sand in the Gears story gets its name from the worldwide plan by human resistance soldier to attack Skynet in a coordinated global assault.  Detroit resistance leader Elena Maric plots to destroy a former auto plant which Skynet converted to a Terminator factory, while Nigerian leader Bem Aworuwa, has obtained a low-yield nuke to destroy a Skynet uranium mine.

Issue 3 lights the fuse on this Sand in the Gears offensive amid personal tensions between the fellow soldiers who still carry their pre-Judgment Day prejudices and misconceptions about what was the Real World, now seen through the lens of gritty survival.

Launching a timed, multi-front worldwide attack isn't easy on its own merits, but manning it with a disparate band of pseudo-soldiers drafted from all walks of life.  The issue makes clear that, despite Skynet resistance, the success or failure of the Sand in the Gears mission rests upon human cooperation and teamwork. Can these surviving soldiers and civilians defeat ruthless machines bent on their destruction?

Some plot highlights are discussed in the following paragraphs, but no genuine movie spoilers are revealed:

Sand in the Gears Part 3, humans gain success defeating individual Terminator soldiers and units fighting with guerilla tactics, but these small victories merely lay the groundwork for their international offensive against Skynet.

Elena and her team coordinate the launch of their attack with Bem in Niger.  Yet her speech to the troops is prefaced by a mysterious flashback from two years earlier, apparently revealing how a Flying HK may have captured her and other humans then crashed outside of ruined Detroit.  This one-page flashback may be a dream carry-over from the end of Issue 2, or might it have a greater meaning to Elena's history in the war?

Bem and his troops in Niger plan to use the captured Hunter-Killer Tank to push a huge construction truck as an armored 'convoy' to deliver the nuke warhead into the uranium mine.

Yet before Bem's plan can be put into motion, Skynet Sidewinders (snake-like infiltration weapons) attack his team.  Elena's crew breaks into the power control center in Detroit, but are delayed in shutting down the defense grid due to the Terminators' modification of the power lines not on their schematics.  They too must repel a T-600 charge while struggling to smash Skynet's defenses to facilitate a human aerial attack.

Issue 3 ends on this critical cliffhanger split between global fronts of human resistance, leading up to the fourth-chapter finale of this TERMINATOR:SALVATION prequel comic series.

While we're teased with the implications of the Sand in the Gears offensive, it only just gets into action by the cliffhanging cutoff.  Readers can't help but feel that Dara Naraghi's story and high-caliber panel illustrations of Alan Robinson are saving the best for last.  Issue 3 also touches the least on story or character elements which could extend into this summer's TERMINATOR film, which is a bit disappointing after Issue 2's multiple hints at what may appear on the big screen in May.

The issue's end-panel caption Next: Terminated is vague and predictable enough to offer little insight into what will happen next as well, though the previewed cover art for Issue 4 looks quite impressive and promising.

Sand in the Gears, Part 3 of the TERMINATOR:SALVATION Official Movie Prequel comic quadrilogy perhaps fulfilled the least of its potential across the series to-date.  I can only hope that it was purposefully burdened with the bulk of exposition story and action set-up to free Issue 4 to deliver some mind-blowing graphic art action in the main battle.

TERMINATOR:2018 looks forward to a satisfying, climactic confrontation in the final issue, expected to invade retailers and newsstands after mid-April.  Be sure to return for our series concluding review of Sand in the Gears, Part 4 as T:2018 continues its expansive coverage of TERMINATOR:SALVATION.