The cycle of death continues unabated.
What They Say:
At long last, the survivors of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic survival adventure find the hope they’ve longed look for. Can a town not yet ravaged by the horrors unleashed on Earth possibly be all it’s hoped for? Is there a far more sinister secret behind their newfound safe haven? Even worse, can people forever changed by the worst in humanity ever hope to get back to their old selves? The next chapter of The Walking Dead is primed to change everything!
The Review:
After finally seeing a herd and getting away from it, the group is continuing to suffer in a lot of ways. The psychological and emotional breakdown is getting stronger the more time they spend on the road, but the food situation is starting to get a whole lot worse as well. So much so that it’s pretty much one of the few things Michonne says in this volume, and she says it several times as the need to ration is definitely important and not being taken care of. On the plus side, along the way they come across a van that can be used which even has a pair of mattresses in the back. It’s like a little slice of heaven for everyone when they get their chance to take advantage of it considering what they’ve been sleeping on all this time. Getting the van to work at all was a great victory though, an uplifting and bright spot in an otherwise very mind numbing journey.
Unfortunately, it’s very short lived because the group has to face yet another very draining hurdle. The kind that can definitely break the spirit of most people when you get down to it. With Dale and Andrea doing so well in taking care of the boys and trying to find a way to get a place to settle down so they can have some consistency in their lives, it all goes horribly wrong when Andrea discovers them both in the woods only to realize that Ben has gutted Billy, but as he put it, left his brain fine so he can come back and be a part of the group still. Suffice to say, poor little Billy has gone around the bend. The revelation of this to everyone else puts them in a real bind, as some like Abraham knows what must be done, as Ben has lost his connection to reality. And in a perfect world, the chances of such a kid being set right was already slim. In a world where killing people and ending the dead is common, his chances are essentially non-existent. It’s a challenge to be sure, and one that can split the group dynamic since emotions run high with those that have known them for so long. Never mind Dale and his belief that Rick keeps bringing them bad things into their lives.
In the midst of this comes an interesting new character, a preacher named Gabriel who has survived this past year by staying in his church and keeping his dark secrets to himself, though he does eventually fess up to everyone. What Gabriel brings is a bit of surreal to events as he’s not been followed in the week or so since he left the church and that he survived in that one place without any real problems for so long. His story is actually interesting as you get into it, and the moral position he put himself into could easily lead him to going crazy sooner rather than later when he really gets to dealing with what he’s done. But walking into the middle of this event with Ben being kept in the van by himself to keep everyone else safe, he’s a strange presence that feels like a portent of bad tidings.
What this story leads into though is a five chapter piece entitled, “The Fear Hunters.” We’ve seen a fair variety of methods to survive so far since Rick walked out of the hospital, but this group that’s in the town the preacher came from certainly has its dark side to it. With just a handful of men and women, they’ve taken to stalking and watching those that pass by and they go for the stragglers, the loners and the small groups. What they do with them, and the one that they capture from Rick’s group, is an unsurprising attempt to survive in a quickly deteriorating world. It’s a slow arc overall, one filled with a fair bit of tension and fear which is the point of this hunting group, but it has some very dark, despondent moments to it as more of the core group are whittled away.
The story of the boys is strangely not all that difficult since they haven’t figured largely into things, and killing them off allows the group to thin down a bit while putting a big moral quandary in place. The fact that Carl settles it is not all that much of a surprise, but watching his character arc is the second best thing about this series beyond Rick himself. Carl’s going to be in a different position than the adults here with what he’s growing up with and seeing him go hard, doing what has to be done at that age, can be difficult. It can be vicariously thrilling as well. With Adlard’s art, the whole sequence with Carl doing what must done is even starker and more brutal than you’d think and it reinforces the whole less is more mentality to things.
Digital Notes:
This graphic novel compilation via Comixology contains issues sixty-one through sixty-six of the series in one file that has a total of a hundred and thirty-five pages with no extras, alternate covers or anything else.
In Summary:
With five chapters given over to one story, it may feel like there’s a bit less going on than usual, but it’s a powerful story overall. And with the final chapter for it, Adlard provides some of his best panel layouts and breakdowns yet in how he portrays the brutality of what’s done in a stark way that’s very haunting. We’ve seen the way everyone has hardened themselves over the course of the series to deal with the hand the world has dealt them while still trying to retain some of the good things, the soft things that make us human and not the walking dead that they feel they are. Andrea and Dale have some wonderful moments in here, both of them strong in different ways, while everyone else tries to ride out the storm and do what they can. Rick has a big role as is usual, and Abraham is fitting into the group moer and more, but it’s Carl that really draws the most attention here and offers the most pain, heartache and growth as he copes with what’s been done. Great stuff that’s only getting better, which is hard to believe considering how the first sixty issues went with such great results.
Grade: A-
