Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Terminator #6! Terminator alone is terrifying, its iconic look is also a major standout, and the story of how the Terminators got that look is utterly traumatizing.

In Dynamite Entertainment’s Terminator #6 by Declan Shalvey and Lorenzo Re, the series takes a moment to really dive into one particular Terminator model: the T-600. Dynamite’s Terminator anthology comic series changes that entirely, and actually reveals that the T-600 was absolutely instrumental in Skynet achieving its greatest feat: time travel.

Terminator skinning a human.

As hardcore Terminator fans know, the only way time travel is able to work properly is if the person (or android) that is using the time machine has human skin. For a human, that’s easy, as all they have to do is strip down naked (as clothes of any kind will catch on fire if they go through the time portal) and they’re good to go. However, for a Terminator, that process is a bit more tricky. When the T-600 was Skynet’s latest model, it tried to use the time machine with its rubber skin, and the fake flesh melted off its metal endoskeleton before the entire robot shut down. But, Skynet learned from the failure of the T-600, and found a horrifying solution: skin farms.

Skynet kidnapped humans, kept them in pins, forced them to breed, and farmed them for their skin. The skin was ripped off the humans and made into perfect flesh suits for the T-600 Terminator. Unfortunately, the bulky T-600 endoskeleton wasn’t the right fit, as it kept tearing through the flesh during the time travel process, resulting in failure. So, the T-600 was made obsolete, giving rise to the T-800 fans know and love today - aka, the Terminator’s iconic look.

The Terminator’s Human Appearance has a Messed Up Origin Story

Human Skin Farms is a Horrific Explanation for the Terminator’s Iconic Look

Custom image of Terminator Zero and The Terminator
Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury

It was always assumed that Skynet used a method of growing synthetic skin that was real enough to trick the time machine into accepting the Terminators and allowing them to travel through time. Given the high-tech nature of Skynet as a whole, that wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to consider. Skynet developed killer robots, after all, and is itself an advanced Artificial Intelligence, so why not synthetic skin that looks and feels real? While that would have been an acceptable explanation, this new Terminator series takes things further than fans would have ever expected - and it’s awesome.

Terminators harvesting flesh from captive humans - some of which were bred in captivity, as this issue implies - is utterly horrific, and total nightmare fuel. It’s a level of horror this franchise hasn’t seen since the first movie, and it’s incredibly refreshing. Not only that, but this added detail regarding the Terminator’s iconic human look fulfills a promise Declan Shalvey (the writer of this series) made at the start of the series, as he promised to bring The Terminator back to its horror roots. Basically every single issue in Dynamite Entertainment’s Terminator series has contributed to the fulfillment of that promise, but this really cements it.

The Terminator’s Original Explanation for Human-Looking Skin is Way More Tame

The Original Explanation Also Gave the Terminators a Huge Weakness

A scientist explaining that the Terminators almost had a kill switch installed in their skin.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time The Terminator franchise offered an explanation for the T-800’s skin. However, the original explanation is decidedly more in-line with what fans expected it to be - ie, no human skin farms. The previous explanation was given in Dark Horse Comics’ Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy, which tells the story of a doctor who finds a way to create synthetic skin that’s nearly identical to organic human skin, all the way down to the fact that it can be grown, and even grow on its own. This skin is what would eventually be used by Skynet for its T-800s. Regardless, Skynet still sent a T-800 back in time to kill her.

Why would Skynet want to kill the very human responsible for giving it the T-800s’ human skin? Well, because of what the scientist was planning to do to it after she invented the synthetic skin: include a kill switch. There’s a reason the Terminator went back in time after the synthetic skin was already invented, but before the doctor added the kill switch that would neutralize the skin (and whatever it was wrapping) with the push of a button. Skynet wanted the benefit of that skin without the potential weakness that the kill switch would have added to its Terminators. Therefore, the scientist had to die.

Terminator intact next to one on fire.
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Enemy of My Enemy offered an interesting explanation to how the Terminators got their realistic skin, and even adds an entire story arc to Terminator lore surrounding it. However, that previous explanation is nowhere near as horrific and brutal as the new one Terminator fans just got, which not only also adds a captivating story to how the Terminators got their skin, but ups the ante by making that story utterly terrifying.

The Terminator Should Have Kept the T-600’s Rubber Skin a Little Longer

The Rubber Skin Might Be Bad for Time Travel, but It’s Such a Cool & Underutilized Design

Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 Terminator with one glowing red eye.

As cool as the story of how the Terminators got their iconic look is, the franchise shouldn’t ignore a version of the Terminator that the franchise famously glosses over: the T-600 and its rubber skin. As previously mentioned, this issue spent more time with the T-600 than any other Terminator story; that much is true. However, the franchise should also take the time to tell a full Terminator story where the main antagonists are the T-600 Terminators while highlighting their nightmarish rubber skin.

A Terminator: Salvation-style story where the main focus is on the T-600 rubber-skinned Terminators would be an epic addition to Terminator lore, either in the comics or as a live-action film (indeed, the franchise has been so obsessed with making the Terminators impossibly advanced in the movies that taking a step back to highlight an older model would be refreshing). That being said, nothing will ever be better than the original Terminator and its iconic look, and the story of how they got that look is utterly traumatizing.

Terminator #6 by Dynamite Entertainment is available now.