Trouble inside and out threatens the community, though the menace inside is far scarier.
What They Say:
Life in the community is as near as Rick and his group can ever hope to come to returning to normal life. So why is Rick so on edge? Will his behavior spell doom for everyone else? Will they let it get that far? Collects THE WALKING DEAD #73-78.
The Review:
The arrival in the walled in community in the previous volume certainly lead to a surreal feeling for both the characters and the readers as we saw things approaching something of a normalcy when it came to life. Not only living in houses and spreading out after a few days of precaution, but things like taking on jobs and figuring out where they stand with each other. Living inside this community with all the other people is completely unlike the time that they spent out in the wilds of the countryside, surviving as best as they can with a small group of people, knowing exactly who they had to protect and what everyone else was going through. Even though it was filled with unknowns, there were a great deal of knows within the group that allowed it to work even with the strains and pressures it had.
But in the community here, the pressure to be civilized is different. While they tried to not lose their humanity out in the woods, the highways and in encountering other people, in the community they’re trying to deal with what they’ve been imprinted with when it comes to society with laws and interactions with each other. As we saw from their first entry into the community, Rick singled out Pete as a problem due to his police background and knew that the man was likely beating up either his wife and kid or both of them. That’s had him asking questions and getting closer to figuring it out, but he treats it like a police problem strictly while having the survival instincts from the outside world in him. It turns a bad situation worse, quickly and puts a lot of uncertainty in the air about Rick’s mental state. Which is never good cause his mental state is never good in general at this stage of the game.
While most of the main group that arrived is acclimating, such as Abraham gaining more presence because of the actions to save Holly before or Andrea taking on lookout duties and adding a layer of protection nobody thought of, the Father is set to cause the most trouble but it’s amusingly extinguished before he can get even a flicker of a flame. I loved that he saw this community as his chance to try and guide a new flock in the right way by exiling out those that were problematic he had been with for so long, but Douglas is all too aware of the realities of the world and isn’t blinded by doctrine to abide by it. You can see the way the priest is crushed by this since it wasn’t the sign he was looking for or truly, truly hoping for.
The exterior threat gets a good bit of play in this volume as well as we have Glenn and Heath heading into D.C. In order to score some medical supplies and more and they find that there’s another group out there. It again shows that Rick’s group views the world “right” as Glenn wants to get a feel for them to see if they’re a threat. And they’re a cutthroat group to be sure with how they sacrifice one of their members. But there’s a desperation about them at that point and later when they discover the community that at least makes it understandable. Certainly not justified, but you can see where they’re coming from after fighting through so much and not having a personality to lead them by binding them together but rather going with survival of the self over all else. That’s not a bad way to live, but it makes surviving long term much harder and places like the walled community even more difficult to live in than like those in Rick’s group.
Digital Notes:
This graphic novel compilation via Comixology contains issues seventy-three through seventy-eight of the series in one file that has a total of a hundred and sixty-eight pages with no extras, alternate covers or anything else. This set does contain issue 75 which a bonus section that is absolutely hilarious and there’s also several stills and promotions that were in the original comics for the TV series when it debuted in 2010.
In Summary:
The dead action here again is minimal, but once again it’s very easy to find this a highly engaging series for so many reasons. And each of the reasons are the characters and how they all interact and adapt with the situations thrown at them. There’s a lot to like here as they deal with living in normal while making sure they don’t get caught flatfooted like they have before. From sneaking weapons, going over the edge in dealing with a domestic issue and even Rick going to his phone again, there’s so much going on here. Add in the threat from outside, potential for romance and a general sense of unease about being in this place, you just end up waiting for it all to collapse and come to an end and the group moves on, in a different configuration of course. You hate that you feel this way, but the inevitability of it all is very much there as well.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
