Villordsutch reviews The Walking Dead #114…
“They march to certain doom.”
This is an odd issue of The Walking Dead. I know that possibly isn’t an initial sentence that fills you full of hope for this comic, but once you’ve read it I’m sure you’ll (possibly) agree with me. I’m unsure whether this is the end of this storyline and is going to be continued in a future issue (at some point) or if this is just another part of the current storyline, but my review is going to go with the end of the storyline point of view.
I don’t know how to say this without an impending dread of feeling the wrath of Robert Kirkman fans marching down on me but this isn’t an overly good issue of TWD. It’s quite empty and nothing much occurs. Not only that but there are bits that bother me, like Jesus dodging bullets from all of Negan’s goons (clearly they all attended the “Stormtrooper School of Shooting Straight”) and having the ability to get a tiger through hordes of zombies with a cluster of armed “good guys” and then hide in a bushy area without Negan noticing or hearing any sort of roar! It’s that lack of realism that bothers me in this fictional zombie world. It was all a bit Deus Ex Machina when the tiger appears; after the tiger gets her dinner we come to a regrouping of opposing forces and a “fire in the belly” building speech and it just sort of ends.
There are a couple of places that held my interest, such as Negan’s hostage holding and his rousing speech to his hired goons, but that is unfortunately it within this month’s issue. I can’t recall flipping through an issue of TWD, reaching the end and thinking, ‘Oh! Is that it?’. My guess is I expect too much from Kirkman as I do when I find any good writer and when they produce a so-so issue I am disappointed as I want them to constantly raise the bar.
The art however is the simple and great from Charlie Adlard. I say of course “simple”, but I couldn’t even attempt to generate what he creates on the page. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in previous reviews of TWD but it’s the details across the whole picture which makes Adlards work so perfect; nothing is forgotten in his work.
This month’s issue on a whole isn’t the best of The Walking Dead, but it continues the lore of TWD and those collectors out there will be more than happy to hand over their hard earned cash to complete their vast collection.
Villordsutch is married with kids and pets. He looks like a tubby Viking and enjoys science fiction. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published September 13, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
