Like many people I imagine I was finally convinced to read The Walking Dead after watching the TV series. I’d been seeing Walking Dead comics around for years and it looked intriguing but I’ve never been good at committing to an ongoing series. After getting addicted to those early seasons of the TV show I was desperate for more zombie action. Luckily for me there was The Walking Dead compendium. This huge tome collected together the first 48 issues. I devoured that collection and luckily there wasn’t too long of a wait till the second compendium was released. But there was a very long wait until the third compendium and my interest in The Walking Dead had begun to wane…
The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead TV series and comic series (up to issue 144).
Can you believe we’re already on the sixth season of The Walking Dead? We’ve come a long way since Rick Grimes woke from that coma. These days I often feel I’m only still watching out of some sort of misplaced loyalty. Sure there are still characters I care about and there can be some good episodes but it’s become very inconsistent and lost that magic spark that made me love it. From the end of season 2 through the first half of season 3 that show was the best thing on TV. It was tense, exciting and you could believe anyone could die at any moment. No one was safe and that made it must watch television. But then after the season 3 mid season break something changed. Characters were introduced just so they had someone to kill off and we were supposed to act like we cared about them. Every fantastic episode would be followed by a dull one and they started dragging stories out. Keeping the Governor alive at the end of season 3 was pretty much the point I realised the show wasn’t what it had once been. But this is a review of the comic so why have I wasted all this time talking about the TV show? Well my growing dissatisfaction with the TV show bled into my opinion on the comic series. Reading in 48 issue batches meant it had been a long time since I’d read any and I lost interest in reading more. In my mind the comic was equal to the television show but then I saw the third volume of the compendium was due for release and I decided to give it another shot and thank god I did…
The bulk of this volume is taken up by the conflict with Negan and the Saviours. Having read the first 12 issues of the collection in the individual volume releases a long time ago I didn’t really have high hopes for this storyline. I felt like Negan was just going to be the Governor mark 2 but once I started reading I was absorbed by a truly epic story. In The Walking Dead comic no one is safe (except maybe Rick and Carl for now at least). Where as in the television series you can’t really imagine them ever killing off Daryl when it comes to the comic every turn of the page fills you with a sense of dread. People can and will die when you least suspect it and it often comes out completely out of the blue (rest in peace Abraham). Volume three sees a handful of major characters bite the big one. The most notable of which is, of course, Glenn who is brutally slaughtered by Negan in one of the hardest scenes to read in Walking Dead history in the one hundredth issue. Glenn has always been there and it was hard to imagine a time where he wouldn’t be and things were going so well for him and Maggie which makes it all the more heart breaking. Kirkman and co have crafted characters we root for and need to succeed. Glenn was one of the good guys and he’d survived so much already we always thought he had to be okay and to see him killed in such an awful and avoidable manner is a real sucker punch. And the art work certainly pulled no punches. Glenn’s death continues to be felt throughout the 44 issues that follow it and this demonstrates just what a great character he was. Abraham’s demise is not quite so grand and earth shattering but it does play a big part in the actions of other characters throughout the Saviours storyline. One of the greatest strengths of The Walking Dead is these deaths are permanent and they have a real impact on everything.
The centrepiece of this collection is the epic “All Out War” arc. The build up is some of the best work in the entire series. Kirkman does a fantastic job of building a world that feels real. The different communities add a real depth to the story and offers a change of pace from what has gone before. Despite the constant pain and suffering our heroes face on a page by page basis there is so much hope in this collection. Oh and best of all there’s a guy with a tiger!
The Walking Dead thrives on conflict and the series is at its best when the survivors have an enemy to face. Boy what an enemy it is this time! The Governor was such a definitive villain that it must have been incredibly hard to avoid just constantly recycling him. Luckily Negan is his own beast and he may be a foul mouthed psychopath but he’s also incredibly likeable. He does some evil things but you never really get the sense that he is pure evil. Even the brutal death of Glenn was for the greater good as far as he’s concerned. He also brings alive every scene he appears in. With every turn of the page you expect him to flip out and kill another of our beloved characters. And perhaps best of all at the end of “All Out War” Negan survives and will continue to play a part in the saga. After 144 issues I’m now in a place where I don’t believe Robert Kirkman is just going to rehash old story lines so whatever Negan does next is likely to be different and unexpected and I’m so damn excited to find out.
The whole Saviours storyline is fantastic in my opinion. Our main characters all get a lot to do and the stakes are always high. Michonne, who remains my favourite character, is paired with Ezekiel who is one of the best new characters and not just because he has a mother fucking tiger! There is something just perfect about the whole concept of The Kingdom. Kirkman really taps into something real with self proclaimed kings and armour wearing knights. Of course if normal people had to rebuild society they’d do something completely bonkers like this. Ezekiel’s flamboyant and over the top façade makes him a fun character and the blossoming of his relationship with Michonne makes him one of the most fascinating characters in the whole series. Rick and Andrea being allowed to find happiness with each other is nice but who are we kidding we know it’s just setting us up for more heartbreak in the long run. Carl continues to be at the heart of the story and the war with the Saviours helps put him on a path to recovery after everything he’s been through. He’s not a kid any more and I can only assume there will be much bigger story lines coming his way in future issues. The storyline concludes in a way that isn’t quite what I expected but the ability to surprise us is what makes The Walking Dead a must read comic.
It’s a bold decision to follow “All Out War” with a two year time skip but I’d say they pull it off well. After years of hopeless misery it’s good to see the survivors finally building a new world. Things have settled down since Negan fell and Rick and the gang are well on their way to building a proper society. We all know it can’t last but it’s great to see the world becoming a bit more normal. I finally realised just how remarkable the character Rick Grimes is. It’s been a long time since he had leadership thrust upon him and he’s been to hell and back several times and over the years he’s made some poor decisions (my heart sank when he tried to kill Negan on a whim earlier in the collection) but you can now see he is the right man to rally behind. Rick Grimes is the future, man kind’s last and best hope at survival which probably dooms him to an unpleasant demise in the not too distant future. Rick’s allowed himself to be happy and this can only end badly for him. Carl has grown up and is ready to be a man and the one eyed zombie slayer is a big hit with the ladies now (apparently if you wanna get a lot of action with the fairer sex in the post apocalyptic world you just need to get shot in the face).
Now as much as I enjoy our heroes being safe and happy it’s not really good entertainment and I began to worry things were going to get dull but as ever I greatly underestimated Kirkman and co. Even things that seem like they should be really dull (you know the type of things that get a full episode of the TV show with some sort of deep and “clever” concept like black and white flashbacks) such as the leadership struggle at Hilltop are really compelling. Maggie has certainly become a far more interesting character after her husband had his skull caved in and her decision to execute Gregory sets up some huge conflict with Rick in future issues.
The arrival of the whispering roamers did set off alarm bells at first as I’m not really keen on the idea of zombie evolution. Zombies shouldn’t change, they shouldn’t learn to talk or use tools or anything. They are scary because they are nothing but undead brainless animals that live on instinct. They are what we fear we will become and what we are destined to be. Luckily Kirkman hasn’t lost the plot and the reveal that they’re humans wearing the skins of the undead is brilliant. It builds on what our characters have done in the past (smearing themselves in zombie guts and Michonne’s “pets”) and adds a new terrifying dimension to it. The Whisperers are such an immense threat that it’s hard to see how Rick and the gang can possibly overcome it. Alpha makes a nice contrast to our previous villains and she may just be the most horrifying one yet.
Now I must make a confession here. When reading the final issue in this collection I became the most scared I’ve ever been for the characters in The Walking Dead. The build up was tense and I was convinced we were about to see the end of Michonne and Andrea and maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as that but those final few panels were a real gut punch. The way it’s drawn is just fantastic with each death revealed above a panel of characters questioning the whereabouts of the deceased adds to the devastation. My heart sank when I saw Ezekiel, I knew he was doomed after he ran off to save his relationship with Michonne, but goddamnit I thought we had longer than this. Once again I truly believe anyone can die in The Walking Dead and I’m absolutely terrified to turn the page in case my favourite character will be the next to perish and that’s what makes the series so compelling to read.
A few stray observations:
- I like Jesus but I never feel we get enough of him interacting with other people.
- Dwight’s becoming a potentially interesting character. His rise as unwilling leader mirrors that of Rick nicely and I hope we get more of him in future issues.
- Negan is seriously gonna do some mental shit at some point and I’m so glad they didn’t kill him off. I enjoy his use of colourful metaphors.
- Did you see the size of the Whispers herd of roamers? There’s no way this story line can end any other way than totally epic.
- Rick’s continuing health issues can only mean we’re getting closer to his eventual demise. He’d have stood no chance against Negan if he’d been up for escaping and just what is that crafty son of a bitch up to?
- Carl’s love life is not something I want to explore in too much detail. I mean I like watching mental girls licking empty eye sockets as much as the next guy but I’ve got my limits.
- After the tragic demise of Shiva the tiger I’m hoping we’ll see more exotic animals joining the battle against the undead. I’m mainly thinking monkeys because monkeys are hilarious.
- How badass did Michonne look when she finally showed up again?
- I genuinely let out a Darth Vaderesque “NOOOOOOO!” when I saw the disembodied head of Ezekiel at the end. I fucking loved that guy, he had a tiger for a bit and he was good for Michonne!
- Will we be seeing any of what happened in the two year time jump? There’s a lot of questions left unanswered.
- I enjoyed the third compendium so much that I’m actually going to start reading the series monthly for the first time. Which means I’ll be sharing my pointless opinions on a more regular basis.
Better Book Ends 