Terminal #1 Review: Cosmic Chaos, Superhero Bloodshed, and One Wild New Recruit

Terminal #1 does not knock politely. It kicks the door off the hinges, throws a monster through the wall, lights the room on fire, and then says, “Welcome to the team.” WEPA! Now that is how you start a comic!

From the opening pages, this book wants readers uncomfortable in the best possible way. We begin with a storm, a strange transformation, and the kind of body-horror imagery that makes you lean closer while also saying, “Nah, I should probably not be eating while reading this.” The issue immediately sets the tone: this is not just another superhero introduction. This is sci-fi, horror, cosmic weirdness, secret organizations, family trauma, and full-contact superhero violence all tossed into the same blender.

At the center of the issue is Marilyn, a sharp, curious, conspiracy-minded character who gets pulled into something much bigger than she expected. She is not some wide-eyed rookie walking into a shiny hero academy. She is dragged into a hidden world where power, secrecy, and destiny are all moving at dangerous speed. Her relationship with Alessandra gives the issue its emotional hook, because underneath all the cosmic madness is a very human wound: family, abandonment, trust, and the painful question of who was really there when life fell apart.

That is where the writing from Robert Kirkman and Joe Casey hits hardest. The issue moves fast, but it does not feel empty. There is a lot of mythology being thrown at the reader: mysterious facilities, powered beings, cosmic entities, hidden agendas, and a larger mission that clearly has “this will absolutely go wrong” written all over it in flaming letters. The dialogue has attitude, the world-building has bite, and the story knows how to balance mystery with momentum. It gives you answers, then immediately makes those answers feel dangerous.

Andy Kubert’s art is a monster truck with a jet engine strapped to it. The action scenes are big, physical, and nasty. When characters clash, you feel the impact. When bodies break, stretch, mutate, or explode into nightmare fuel, Kubert makes sure the page earns that reaction. The opening sequence is especially strong because it uses atmosphere before mayhem. The storm, the glass, the silence, the transformation it all builds like a horror movie before the comic throws blood on the floor and says, “Yeah, we’re doing this.”

Dave McCaig’s colors add serious flavor to the chaos. The cold blues and stormy grays give the early pages a haunted, isolated feel, while the action scenes blast the page with fire, energy, and danger. The cosmic sequences shift into something stranger and more hypnotic, giving the book a feeling that the world is bigger, weirder, and far less safe than Marilyn understands.

Rus Wooton’s lettering deserves a shoutout too, because this issue has a lot of energy flying around screams, blasts, impacts, cosmic voices, and dramatic reveals and the lettering helps guide the reader through the madness without letting the page turn into visual traffic. The sound effects punch hard, especially during the action and horror beats.

The only place where Terminal may challenge some readers is in the amount of mythology it drops early. This is a dense first issue. It throws you into the deep end with powered characters, secret systems, cosmic explanations, and a family drama all at once. But honestly? That is also part of the fun. This book is not trying to spoon-feed you baby food. It is serving a full-course comic buffet with explosions on the side.

By the final pages, the issue makes it clear that Marilyn is not just being recruited into a team. She is being pulled into something much more dangerous, something tied to transformation, destiny, and maybe a whole lot of bad decisions made by people who think they are saving humanity. Classic superhero mistake, right? “We’re helping the world!” Meanwhile, the world is in the corner sweating.

Terminal is a bold, bloody, cosmic-powered debut that gives readers mystery, action, horror, and enough emotional tension to make the chaos matter. It feels like superhero comics with the safety rails ripped off. Big concepts, big punches, big weirdness and a new lead character standing right at the center of the storm. This is a wild first issue that blends cosmic horror, superhero warfare, and family-driven mystery into one explosive debut. It is messy in the best comic book way: ambitious, loud, strange, violent, and impossible to ignore.

Crusaders Score:
4.5 / 5

Writers: Robert Kirkman & Joe Casey
Artist: Andy Kubert
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Editor: Alex Antone
Publisher: Skybound / Image Comics

In Shops July 22, 2026

Author Profile

Al Mega: I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!