Comic Review: The Walking Dead #187

The Walking Dead #187

Image Comics

Writer: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Charlie Adlard

A new issue, right on the heels of the New Year, kickstarts a brand new chapter of The Walking Dead. If you haven’t been with the series for a while (or if you’re just forgetful) here’s a quick roundup:

After meeting a brand new community of 50 thousand inhabitants, Rick took a crew and went to visit there, The Commonwealth might seem nice and cozy, but there are some serious problems plaguing it. The biggest one? Citizens get their status depending on their life in ‘the old world’. For example, if you used to be a lawyer, you get to have a nice, well-payed job with a nice flat. If you happened to be a janitor though, then tough luck for you. All of this was causing a huge divide between the two casts, and learning that there was another, ‘fairer’ way in other communities made the ‘oppressed’ a lot more anxious.

Dwight, for better or worse, decided enough was enough and Rick should take over. He pulled a gun on Governor Milton, but Rick ended up shooting his brains out. The latest chapter picks up in the aftermath of that moment. The story switches between quite a few different storylines. As Rick and Michonne try to put aside their differences, Magna send’s Siddiq to the Hilltop. Maggie’s help is needed to form a scouting crew, as Rick has been gone for too long. Attempts of character development are shoved in the book, but more on that later.

The Ups

Conflict is brewing and it’s hard to predict how it might get resolved, which is a good thing. It’s hard to insert fresh(er) ideas into such a long-running series, especially if you’re the sole writer of it for so long, but Kirkman has somehow managed to pull it off. Despite the story feeling like a really slow burn, the setup still intrigues me.

Charlie Adlard doesn’t get much to work with, but he does a decent job with the given opportunities. The book is mostly corridors, closed spaces and face close-ups, but there is this one single page of Mercer vs Zombies, which is really cool-looking.

The Downs

The end of the last arc raised some eyebrows (well, it raised at least one pair of them) when Rick snapped at Michonne and blamed her for Dwight’s death. It set up a compelling new conflict, one that no one anticipated – Rick vs Michonne. In typical TWD fashion, it became a non-twist as they squashed their beef just a couple of pages in.

As mentioned earlier, Kirkman shoved some eye-rolling attempts on character exposition. We get a really boring, by-the-books tragic backstory on Princess and some teen drama between Carl and Lydia. It’s really unnecessary and slows down the pace of the book even further. The last thing The Walking Dead needs is MORE CHARACTERS. At least kill off two-thirds of them before adding some new ones. It’s really frustrating when you see some characters that Kirkman has been trying to make you think are really important, but you just can’t bother to remember who they are and why’ they’re here.

Verdict

The Walking Dead crew has put themselves into an interesting situation. They’ve set up a compelling premise, but they constantly derail it with non-twist, an abundance of characters and semi-deep character interactions. There’s definitely a cool and interesting story to be told, but it’s a shame it’s buried in such clutter.