'The Walking Dead': The Comic Book

I did a search for 'Walking Dead' in General Comics Discussion, and nothing popped up. I seem to remember reading about the comics somewhere on this site, but maybe I'm remembering the "Movies and TV" section thread about the TV show. Anyway, if there's an ongoing discussion about The Walking Dead the comic book somewhere, I apologize.

Meanwhile, there's just something I want to mention. And that is:

SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER

Once again, The Walking Dead the comic book is getting kind of slow ... and every time that has happened in the past, something huge and awful has happened to winnow down our hapless heroes. I see no reason why that won't happen again, especially since we're five issues from issue #100, and the solicits already indicate "the unthinkable" will happen then (actually, in issue #99).

OK, I'm not falling for hyperbole. But just the same, I noticed something odd in the last two issues. If you're following the book, you know that Rick & Co. have run across a guy named Jesus, who has ridiculously sharp fighting skills. But he isn't an attacker, but instead a scout, who wants to lead the gang to his community, which is larger than Rick's, for the purpose of trade and such. So Rick taps Glen and Michonne to go with him in a van, leaving the other regulars behind to defend their community. But Andrea fast-talks her way aboard, and Carl stows away. Nothing much to say about that, except ...

Those are exactly the surviving members of the original group. Andrea, Carl, Glen and Rick are the only survivors from the first storyline, with Michonne coming along around issue #14 or so. Everybody else we've met from before the Governor's attack around issue #50 is dead (except Maggie, who doesn't show up much these days). So these five are the most familiar faces in the book -- nobody else has been around even half as long.

So why separate the Big Five from everyone else as issue #100 approaches? It's not as if it happened organically -- the smart move (which was Rick's original plan) is to leave Carl and Andrea behind, but writer Robert Kirkman found (slightly implausible) reasons for them to come along. So now they're together in one separate group, something I don't recall happening before.

My wife says that means everyone they've left behind is toast. It does raise the issue of whether Kirkman is now going to kill off his original crew and leave Abraham to lead the survivors. (He's itching to make a play for leadership anyway.) Or maybe it doesn't mean anything at all.

What do you Dead-O-Philes think?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) on December 4, 2012 at 1:01am

Now that I'm back in this thread (Just read trade paperback #17, putting me only two issues behind!) I have to recommend Cabin in the Woods to you, Cap, based on this paragraph.

I mean, I was having the reaction I usually have when I'm watching horny-teen horror movies and when the lights go out and somebody says, essentially, "let's split up and look in all the closets and basements and attics." I mean, if you're THAT dumb, you kinda deserve what's coming next. So Rick & Co. had been as dumb as the horny teens in a Halloween movie, and that's pretty dumb -- which is to say, implausibly dumb, and a deliberate set-up that the reader can see a mile away. People who love horny-teen horror movies don't mind the obvious set-up, because they're not there for story coherence. But I demand story coherence to enjoy a story, which is why I don't watch horny-teen horror movies -- or enjoy bad comic books.

I mean, it looks like a dopey teen horror movie... but when you see the way it plays with those conventions, I suspect you'll adore it. It was the only movie I saw last summer that got me more pumped up than Avengers.