What They Say:
Rick discovers that there are communities of survivors nearby, and begins to explore a larger world. Reprinting issues #91-96 of the Eisner Award-winning series, The Walking Dead.
The Review:
Having survived the internal struggle that was going on in the community, The Walking Dead is ready once again to shift gears. We got to see pretty well that things in Rick’s community are now fairly well settled after what Nicholas tried to do and that worked out fairly well overall. While the tensions dissipated perhaps a little too quickly, it’s easy enough to see it happening mostly off camera. It also helped that Nicholas felt like he really came to his senses and was in essence acting like Rick does at points. A lot of what we see in others is how Rick reacts to others as well, though he often doesn’t know it since he’s so focused on survival. But now that he’s shifting his mindset to be more about looking towards really building something and thinking about the future, the world is starting to look different to him. But it’s still not easy to really shake off what the past has taught him.
One of those things is that as much as he may want to, and as much as Andrea may want to, he’s refusing to get closer to him. He’s lost so much already, as has everyone else, but in his mind everything is all the worse and he refuses to go through it again. He’s cloaking it in some belief that those that get close to him end up dying and she refuses to believe that, having survived with him since he first made it to that camp back outside of Atlanta. It’s understandable where he’s coming from, but she refuses to let him push her away to keep her safe so that she’s not one more that dies because she’s close to him. Having come so close to losing Carl, physically and mentally, he’s even more on edge about everything, to the detriment of both Carl and Andrea. And to Rick as well.
While there’s a few little movements going on in the community at this phase, particularly with trying to get more supplies so they can survive at least the next few weeks, the main focus is on trying to survive the winter. It’s getting bleaker and the area is definitely far more scavenged than they thought it would be. Thankfully, the long term planning side is starting to come into effect again and they’re looking for ways to start doing some kind of farming come spring and get themselves on a little more self sustaining route. It’s not ideal and it won’t help much in the short term, but it’s part of that balanced equation that Rick is trying to live with. What throws things off a good bit is the arrival of someone new, after an encounter with Abraham and Michonne of all people, who has some pretty wild claims. Claims that certainly do make sense in the two plus years since the world went to hell like this.
Jesus, who has the look of it to be sure which is why he earned the nickname, claims to be from something pretty interesting in the surrounding area. According to him, there are several communities in the area that have set up trade agreements that they work through in order to survive. His community is some twenty miles to the west and has over two hundred people residing in it. There are some that are even closer to Rick’s group that they deal with as well, with those there giving indication to something going on around this area, having heard shooting coming from this area recently but not venturing far enough to see what would have been Rick’s community. Discovering that there are others nearby certainly is intriguing and threatening at the same time, but it offers the potential for survival and a forward motion for Rick’s hope of a real future.
Of course, Rick and the others who have been at this for an age on the outside can’t exactly go into this quietly or easily. Rick’s level of distrust is obviously off the scale and he puts Jesus through his paces quite hard, though Jesus repeatedly proves just how capable he is. Too capable, when you get down to it, but for someone like him who survives as a scout, it makes a certain sense to be larger than life. There are trials to be faced in forging this agreement though, and one of them has a group heading to Hilltop, where the main community that organizes all of this exists. Similar to other communities we’ve seen before, it’s intriguing to see how this one is set up, but it’s a dynamic that feels like it’s real luck that has caused it to survive. As Rick notes while talking with the others in his group, they all see different things with Hilltop. Something to love, something weak and something to fear. But Rick’s new vision allows him to see a restart of civilization, especially with what all is in the area that they can start rebuilding from.
Digital Notes:
This graphic novel compilation via Comixology contains issues ninety-one through ninety-five of the series in one file that has a total of a one hundred and fifty-seven pages. As these replicate the original issues, there are plenty of letter columns and credits pages.
In Summary:
While we’ve seen some varied communities and small groups along the way, and we’ve seen Rick and his group do their best to start their own, what we get with this segment of the series is something that is definitely required. The Walking Dead has plenty of material it can cover like it did, bringing in new people, moving again and again, discovering new areas. But what it needs to do at this point, with it now being over two years since the epidemic hit, is to show how more people have survived and to start building up to something else. What we get here are the first glimmers of it and it works well, showing the balance of distrust and hope that Rick has and the wary nature of so many that he’s worked with. The elements are coming together well and the beginning of a new society, done much as society has done in the past, is being forged. You know things won’t go well, or easily considering the task that Rick has taken on to be a part of this group, but the payoff could be fascinating and layered with a number of new challenges, both human and walker alike. I can’t wait to get my hands on more.
Grade: B+
