Zeb Larson reviews The Walking Dead #139…
FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD. A new arc begins as our world gets even bigger.
We finally get to see some characters we haven’t seen in a very long time, and their return is a good thing for this book. The reunion unfortunately dominates this issue to the exclusion of Maggie and Carl’s plotlines, but those will presumably receive more attention in subsequent issues. This new storyline is off to a good start. I will be discussing spoilers ahead, so read on at your own discretion.
Rick heads to Ezekiel’s former kingdom, where the two of them are waiting for their makeshift fishing navy to return. The two discuss future plans and fortifications for Alexandria before the ship arrives, where we discover that the captain of this boat is Michonne. She’d run away from Ezekiel a while before, and Rick finally has a chance to talk to her about why she left: the memories of her dead family. In the Hilltop, Maggie notices the absence of Carl and worries about the next step with the Whisperers. Meanwhile, Carl has managed to catch up with that group, though his first meeting is not a pleasant one.
It’s good to have Michonne back in this book, and the reason for her absence makes a lot of sense given everything that we know about her character. It wasn’t a contrived fight with another person (though she uses that as a sort of excuse) or even wanderlust, but guilt. It’s inevitable that members of this group would be carrying a lot of survivor’s guilt, and in hindsight we can see that Michonne was always very good at using her surroundings to ignore that guilt. Being such an important part of the group’s muscle and a confidante of Rick allowed her to always stay busy. When things finally quieted down, she finally had time to look backwards and think about everything she’d lost.
The action at the Hilltop unfortunately feels somewhat muted in this issue. Part of that is simply because Rick’s reunion with Ezekiel and Michonne takes up so much space, and that meeting has been so long in coming that it will inevitably be the more important story. However, it’s frustrating that we don’t see the other residents discussing Gregory’s failed coup or their next move. So much was made of their frustrations last issue that we should see something, though I suppose we’ll have to wait for subsequent issues to see where this is going.
There’s also some interesting discussion of the economy, including’s Alexandria’s production of bullets in exchange for fish from Ezekiel and timber from Dwight. The mention of Dwight is small, but that tiny mention of the Saviors and their activities is still nice to have. Maybe next issue will get to check back in with Andrea and the other Alexandria survivors, who we haven’t seen in quite some time.
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsp_bmDYXc&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
