By: Robert Kirkman (writer), Charlie Adlard (art), Cliff Rathburn (gray tones), Rus Wooton (letters)
The Story: Nobody loves a collaborator.
Review (with SPOILERS): Well, this was a downer, huh? Aside from the beginning of the issue where we see Jesus following the guy back to Negan’s base and when Rick lets Andrea in on the big secret, there’s not much to add.
It’s hard to know what to make of Jesus’ scouting mission. I kinda assume that whatever Jesus sees at Negan’s base will be some sort of revelation–like he has the electricity on or something. But, I could also see that plot-line taking a long time to develop. Seriously, would it shock you if we saw Jesus get to Negan’s and all we readers see is his shocked expression, then we get 3-4 issues of him finding his way back to Rick and telling Rick, “Man, you’ve gotta see this!” and then a few more issues until we readers finally get let in on the secret? I just have a feeling that this storyline will take awhile to develop, so I can’t take too much away from Jesus’ trek. Also, did it seem that Dwight (?) was pretty carefree on his way back? Just strolling down the avenue without any worries about zombies? He certainly wasn’t crouching and hiding. Usually when we perceive a detail like this in TWD, it is for a good reason, even if that reason isn’t clear yet.
However, it was a little uplifting to see that Rick chose to let Andrea in on his little insurrection plans. What this tells us is that Rick can’t stand the thought of losing her. He is willing to let his son and everyone else HATE him, but he can’t lose Andrea. I guess he perhaps doesn’t quite trust a little kid like Carl to shut up, but he could probably have some faith in Michonne to play along, right? And his failure to confide in Carl almost has disastrous consequences when the little tyke mouths off to Negan.
Speaking of Negan, what an aura of menace he has about him! I know that Kirkman had to sacrifice Glen to “create” Negan as a threatening character, but it was worth it. I know I was plenty worried about little Carl and even more worried about the nurse. We’ve seen what this guy can do. In a way, he is almost a microcosm of the first ~25 issues of TWD where “anyone can die….nobody is safe.” You just feel like this dude could kill anyone just because he feels like it. Kirkman & Adlard are also doing a great job of making us hate Negan. He just looks like a complete d-bag with his biker-jacket and slicked back hair. He looks like he was the jerkiest guy on his high school football team and then went into law enforcement where he does nothing but pull over attractive women and then suggest that they can get out of the ticket with sexual favors. He’s a bully! No one will mourn him when his day comes.
As heartening as it is to know Rick has a secret plan, will he be able to keep the community together long enough for his plan to pay dividends? It won’t be easy. Collaborators have a tendency to get killed by their own people. Just saying…
Even though I think Adlard’s art is getting a little muddier than I really prefer, he still aces in this issue. So much of the emotion comes off of people’s facial expression. I mean, you can just tell that little Carl is disgusted with his father. That feeling is all from the brushes of Mr. Adlard. Another example is Negan. Even though he has some character similarities to the Governor, they come across as very different characters due to the art. It’s a shame he doesn’t get more acclaim for his work on this series because he’s a huge part of why we love the soap opera of these characters’ lives.
Conclusion: A lot of good character work, but “not a lot happens.” Not a particularly happy issue either.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion