In this review of Terminal #1, Robert Kirkman and Andy Kubert introduce us to competing teams of superpowered beings fighting over a new recruit. But who are the good guys?
Terminal #1
Writers: Robert Kirkman and Joe Casey
Art: Andy Kubert
Cover Art: Andy Kubert & Dave McCaig
Variant Covers: Dave McCaig, David Finch, Arthur Adams, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rob Liefeld, Frank Miller, Andres Juarez, Marc Silvestri, Ian Bertram
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: July 22, 2026
Terminal #1 begins enigmatically and with more gore than one might expect, setting the tone for the opening for the highly anticipated superhero series. Andy Kubert’s skills are immediately on display showing an island villa in the midst of a storm, including a gorgeous view from inside the master bedroom as an unknown man watches the chaos from floor-to-ceiling windows. The beautifully illustrated tropical mansion is suddenly less idyllic when the man’s eye begins pouring blood and bulging out of his skull, ballooning to unreal proportions as he screams.
Is this explained? No.
We skip forward an unknown amount of years to two superpowered individuals fighting in a server farm in Utah. This seems more familiar fare, even when it ends with one of the combatants disemboweled.
This series is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.
The rest of Terminal #1 gives us something of a proxy in Marilyn Howe, a regular citizen-turned-conspiracy theorist as she hunts for her missing older sister, Alessandra. Who then appears, saving Marilyn from the killer from the Utah incident and spiriting her away to the island from the opening scene, revealing the man to be the leader of a team of superheroes. Marilyn is given the choice to have her own latent powers awakened and join the team with Alessandra, or return to her life and potentially risk being abducted by their enemies.
With industry vets Kirkman and Casey as series writers, Kirkman specifically being the creator of Invincible, it would be unwise to allow yourself the comfort of believing you have identified familiar tropes. That you, reader, have a good bead on what sorts of things Marilyn might discover about her sister’s comrades, their intentions, and the new world in which she finds herself.
If you don’t want a big spoiler, stop reading here. Go read Terminal #1. The pacing, switching between perspectives, locations, and times, works wonderfully both for introducing a main cast of characters and a general idea of the conflict they’ll have going forward. Apart from gorgeous background work, Kubert has created some memorable character designs, and Kirkman and Casey do an excellent job of economizing the space they have in one issue to help us get to know and connect with a lot of them in a short space.
Last chance to back out…
Here’s the twist:
Marilyn is dead by the last page.
Suddenly the fact that none of her sister’s teammates really wanted to get to know her makes more sense. Suddenly the way her sister was encouraging her to join but also seemed hesitant and even unhappy about it, it all clicks. Except that Alessandra didn’t seem to know that Marilyn might die. This was news to her.
And in the last two pages of the issue, we learn that it’s not just Good Guys versus Bad Guys, there’s a third team. And the direction that Kirkman and Casey seem to be going with this story is that the entities awakening these powers in humans are not doing it for the humans benefit, and ultimately our protagonist will be Alessandra joining Team #3, Team Humans.
Final Thoughts
While Terminals #1 is heavier on the gore than expected, it’s also aiming to give a fresh look at the superhero genre. I don’t think it’s headed for full deconstruction, but it feels like they’ve got something specific to say, and I’m looking forward to hearing them out as we watch Alessandra’s story unfold.
