THE WALKING DEAD #48Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard
I don't know if I should praise or hate Kirkman at this point. This storyline has been amazing and it's pretty much hitting every high point possible. However, the man is killing every single character I love and have been following for the past couple years. No one is safe, indeed.
The book started with the only real blemish I could think of. Remember all that speculation on who was holding the shotgun to Lori and the baby's head last issue? Ya, that was just a cop out where one of the other prisoner's were going to act like they were keeping her hostage and hope the attackers would take her and the children in and let them live. I'm willing to let this one slide, as Kirkman rarely ever has any cop outs like this and, hey, they all die in the end anyways, right?
As I said, everyone dies, but the devil is in the details. The Governor has his followers out for blood here and they begin picking off the fleeing prison population. I won't go into every death, but there are a couple that deserve mentioning.
First up is Hershel and his son. After a few people get shot, they try to make a run for it. Hershel has his son's hand and is leading them to the escape route when his son takes a bullet in the head. Hershel keeps running, dragging the falling son before he turns and realizes what's happened. He simply falls to his knees and starts crying, everything he has left finally taken from him. The Governor chews out the men for not killing Hershel. They just assumed he'd be a prisoner since he gave up and wasn't even trying to get away. Hershel begs the Governor to kill him, to which he is more than happy to oblige. For such a minor character that I didn't even like or expect to last this long when we first met him, I can't believe how much his death affected me. Really well done on Kirkman's part.
The other deaths I want to talk about is Lori and Rick's newborn child. Yes, even the child. As Rick and his family make their getaway, the Governor isn't having any of that and forces one of the females in his group to fire. The bullet tears through the mid section of Lori and straight through the baby, killing both in a pretty damn graphic splashpage. Kill the wife? Ya, I expected something like that. But her and the baby at the same time? Damn, your cold Kirkman.
However, there is justice. The woman that the Governor forced to fire is sick to her stomach and can't believe what she's done at this point and takes this out on the governor, who she kicks into the oncoming zombies and blows his brains out, finally putting an end to him.
The issue closes with the Woodsbury army nearly out of bullets and fleeing the zombies, who are pouring into the prison. Rick and his son, who appear to be the only survivors at this point, flee through the pack of zombies and make it to the hills. The preview cover for the next issue shows Rick in shadow being lead by the hand by his son. Rick has the posture and staggering pose of a zombie, making me believe he got bit on the escape or maybe sometime during the next issue.
Verdict - Must Read. I loved this issue. It was a fitting end to this story arc and I half expected Kirkman to do a full on purge or possible time skip after this. However, there are the lingering doubts on the viability of the book post-purge. Will new characters be as interesting? Did he just throw the baby out with the bathwater? I have faith I'll still enjoy the book, but it'll be a completely different book after this anyway you look at it.
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