Spoilers for The Terminator #2!

reinvented the T-800 in a brand new time and location that has never been seen before.

Released to widespread success both critically and financially in 1984’s The Terminator, writer/director James Cameron took audiences by surprise with an intense game of cat and mouse that pitted an unstoppable T-800 killing machine against Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, the future parents of the world’s eventual savior.

Turning back the clock in a comic-exclusive story set in 1976 — a year after the Vietnam War ended — The Terminator #2 shows a T-800 as it disguises itself as a member of the Vietnamese army, bringing with it a fresh character design that reflects the country’s culture and time period.

The Latest T-800 Terminator Model Uses a Vietnamese Soldier as a Disguise

The Terminator #2 - 2024 (Declan Shalvey and David O'Sullivan)

Arriving in Saigon in the middle of a Vietnamese encampment, this T-800 is tasked with taking out Edward Duggan, an American soldier whose detail is on the verge of being pulled out of the country. Needing a fresh set of threads to wear as per usual, the T-800 immediately makes with a local Vietnamese soldier, and after the soldier attempts to kill the T-800, relieves the man of his fatigues, reinventing this murderous robot assassin with a nón lá and a handy assault rifle that he subsequently uses to gun down the rest of the soldiers in the area.

Almost always seen sporting sunglasses and a leather jacket, all Terminator models, specifically Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayals of the T-800, are meant to blend in upon arrival yet always stand out no matter the situation. Featuring a more slimmed down T-800 in this issue, this comic book Terminator can integrate itself more easily in this time period, with the utter eradication of the military outpost it lands in proving that while this Vietnamese disguise is a smarter and more strategic one than usual, it’s still just a piece of cloth hiding the true nature of this futuristic murder machine’s time-traveling intentions.

New Vietnamese T-800 Is a Never-Before-Seen Design Exclusive to Terminator Comics

It’s worth noting that this franchise is no stranger to introducing new Terminators as needed both in the live-action and comic book space — like the comic-exclusive T-1002, T-Infinity, and Xenomorph/Terminator hybrid models, for example — with each iteration finding unique and often hilarious ways to cloth themselves when they arrive buck naked on the street in present day. It remains to be seen what other periods and designs will be introduced for the T-800 or any other Terminator in this series, so fans should be sure to check out The Terminator's third issue when it hits stands later this month.

The Terminator #2 is available from Dynamite.