The Walking Dead #133 – Review

SPOILERS ALERT

Well, this was a bit of a kick-the-can-down-the-road issue, huh?  It isn’t that it’s a poor issue, it’s just that nothing hugely important happens.  Lots of little plots get advanced.  Some of them are A-story (like the new skin-zombies) and most are definitely B-story (but still interesting).

There isn’t a whole lot revealed about the skin-zombies.  Anyone looking for answers to WHAT these guys are up to or HOW they are doing it will be disappointed.  I’m sure those answers will be forthcoming in the future, but we’ll just have to be patient.  I guess we did learn that they have “lands” that were “invaded” by the protagonists and also that they aren’t totally bloodthirsty, since they don’t kill Darius instantly.  I’m enjoying the mystery of the skin-zombies even if the logical parts of my mind are screaming in protest.  It just doesn’t seem to make much sense to wander around in zombie skin, but I’m still intrigued by the mystery.  We’ll just have to wait…

We also have a LOT of B-story in this issue.

• Carl’s Love Life – I guess it is a natural thing that Carl would develop some romantic interests since he is growing up.  The Sophia/Carl thing has been brewing since they were little kids.  The easy and natural thing would be for Kirkman to just let THAT relationship develop.  That Kirkman is choosing to devote pages to building up this “Anna” intrigues me.  He’s obviously got some bigger story in mind and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
• Andrea & The Newcomers – Remember when The Newcomers were the A-Story?  The air has really gone out of that balloon– to the point where they’re just getting a civilized history lesson from Andrea at the kitchen table.  They seem to accept everything Andrea is saying at face value, so I’m kinda wondering what the point of the Newcomers is.  I just don’t see how the story needed more characters or what element of drama they are supposed to inject.
• Rosita & Eugene – This relationship really intrigues the heck out of me.  I almost wish we could have a spin-off comic about it.  This relationship has been burbling for ~60 issues and we’ve seen Rosita accept that she can be with a man who is kind of a nerd, as we’ve also seen Eugene morph from a nerd into a leader of the community.  It’s just an interesting dynamic to see people’s pre-apocalypse notions of romance and who they find attractive carry over into this post-apocalypse setting.  Now Rosita is pregnant with another man’s baby, and it’s safe to say that the father is probably bigger and more muscular than Eugene.

Of course, there are other B-stories that are being neglected.  Like Michonne and Negan.  It’s not like these are stories that just fell to the wayside.  We’ve had significant cliffhangers associated with the idea of Negan getting released and the whole “Remember what happened with MICHONNE?”  Kirkman needs to follow up on that.

-Dean Stell