Another double bill of Walking Dead comic volumes and once again it’s mostly setting the scene of Alexandria being a new safe haven with no more outside groups to deal with (oh how wrong they turn out to be…) but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments, especially involving the, well, walking dead. Let’s take a look!
“Too Far Gone” slowly shows us “our” group becoming part of the Alexandria family, but with issues. Abraham is verbally criticised when he breaks out of formation to save a girl when his work group is attacked, Glenn goes on a trip for supplies only to find the area full of walkers and Rick has serious suspicions about a man named Peter who he thinks is abusing his wife. On the flip side Gabriel tries to get Rick and co. kicked out of the area by going up to Alexandria’s leader Douglas and telling him the things they did to survive, but Douglas takes it as just that: things they had to do to survive. Eventually Rick does confront Pete and gets into a fight where he even pulls a gun on him but Michonne is able to pull him back from making a major mistake. There is also a lot of romance, or lack there of going on as well, with Michonne sleeping with Morgan (but both regretting it), Glenn complaining that Maggie isn’t sleeping with him any more (she’s not in the mood after the whole attempted suicide thing, which is fair enough really…) and Andrea goes on a date with Spencer (Douglas’s son) but it still thinking of Dale. Oh and Rick is caught by Carl talking to phantom Lori on his disconnected phone, which I’m sure while awkward probably doesn’t count as a romance example, but I thought I’d mention it!
Awww, he thinks he’s tough and seasoned…
So yeah, lots of non-violence going on, the new larger group trying to mould together. That’s why when Pete interrupts Douglas and his wife having dinner, pulls a knife and says he’s going to kill Rick and then accidentally slashes Mrs. Monroe’s throat it really hits hard. Douglas gives Rick immediate permission to shoot Pete dead, which he does. A short while later and a group of survivors arrive at the gates threatening to come in “or else” but their sniper is sniped by Andrea and the group is soon dealt with. Douglas declares Rick the new leader of Alexandria but the celebration is short-lived as all the gunfire has drawn the attention of a zombie herd.
Rick shows no mercy… once he’s allowed to.
The first half of “No Way Out” is all build up to the big incident as Abraham and others take out smaller herds of zombies while people in Alexandria begin to come to terms with Rick as their new leader. Rick, by the way, has sex with Jessie, Pete’s widow, and finally puts down the phone on phantom Lori, so… things are looking up for the Grimes family! *ahem*. The zombie invasion itself is a good bit of much needed shaking up, but I’ll get to the details in the spoiler section. It does act as a great finale and pay-off for all the more human drama that these two volumes presented.
Overall Thoughts:
Just another day at the office.
This double bill takes a while to get going but I’m happy to say the finale is a good one, once again taking things back to survivors vs. zombies. I probably could’ve done with less “whose sleeping with who” drama, or lack there-of, but I won’t deny its an effective tool for showing us how our team of survivors are starting to integrate into the community (that sounded like an intentional double entendre but I can assure that wasn’t… intentional, that is) Overall, not my favourite chunk of comic Walking Dead, but the ending saved it from a middling score.
So the herd of zombies bursts through the gates and all hell breaks loose. Morgan is bitten on the arm and has to have it amputated, and although he gets to give a few speeches to Carl and Michonne he dies (now that’s a major difference from the TV show, given Morgan’s still going around post main story) Rick and Andrea come up with a plan to lure the zombies outside away from the walls and then thin the herd already inside as a group effort, using the old “cover yourself in zombie guts to blend in” method. Sadly Jessie and her son Ron are killed when they “break character”, for a lack of a better term, Jessie holding desperately to Rick’s hand as she’s devoured, giving Rick no other option than to lop her hand off so he and Carl can escape (damn!). Douglas comes out and starts firing randomly and gets killed for it, but a stray shot hits Carl in the face, taking one of his eyes out in the process (no less shocking than when I saw it in the TV show, but maybe a little more gruesome!)
“Yes Carl, what is it?! I kind of busy you know- … Oh. Fair enough.”
Rick runs for Denise’s house, a local Doctor and leaves Carl in her care. As Rick and Michonne head back out and start killing walkers Abraham, Aaron, and a whole bunch of people from both sides pour out of the houses and join in and as a group they clear the town of the dead. The volume ends with Rick by an unconscious Carl’s side saying that after all this time he feels they have a real chance at building a new world as everyone showed what can happen if they all work together…
Hogan Reviews 