“The sins of the father’s son”

We open up this issue of the most epic zombie apocalypse of all time with.. a conversation. That’s right, Rick and Lo.. err Andrea, and Eugene are having a deadly serious conversation. Eugene is suggesting to Rick that they use Rick’s son Carl’s girlfriend Lydia in a set up for a retribution murder. (If that’s a thing)  Having being previously grief-stricken, Eugene is pleading his case to Rick. Unfortunately its falling on deaf ears. Rick doesn’t think it’s the way to go. Even though he can see Eugene’s point, he wants to use compassion for this situation.

Eugene gets wildly pissed and stands up fast in front of Rick and Andrea tells him to please leave. Rick is left to sit there with his love and she comes up with a plan. Andrea feels that Lydia is not safe in this house anymore and by extension neither is Carl. She suggests that Rick let her take both Carl and Lydia away until tempers cool over. Rick after mulling it over, reluctantly agrees.

Andrea goes in to wake up Carl and tell him the news. He asks her “Mom what’s going on?” (I’ll never get used to him calling Andrea mom) She informs him of the plan thusly and he agrees to follow. Shortly after we see an outside shot of the Grimes home and it’s Michonne with her cloak donned heading stealthily into the house and heading up the stairs. She gets to the top of the stairs, hand on her trusty katana and a gun is suddenly cocked at the back of her head. She turns around to see it’s Rick and she draws her blade. Just right about now things are about to pop, and we get… drumrolllllll.. another conversation! (Facepalm.. seriously.)

The rest of the issue pertains to a deep conversation between Rick and Michonne and then Andrea leading the kids on a long walk. Lots of talking and walking people. That’s what we are treated to here. I suppose every book needs filler sometime and there was an abundance of it here. Oh we also get what is supposed to be a shocking cliffhanger, but it just falls meh.

Overall: So this book was like reading a Brian Michael Bendis comic that contained a forward written by Woody Allen, so I wasn’t overly enthralled this month. The good point is the art by Charlie Adlard was near perfect. I hope he never leaves this book. His style is absolutely perfect for it. The black and white format is also one of my favorite parts of the book as it allows the reader to pay attention more to it’s contents. On the plus side, this does make me appreciate any episode of Fear the Walking Dead TV show more. Hopefully next month we will back to our regularly scheduled masochism, but we have Halloween and nightmares for that. See you on the hill next month deadheads…

Story: Robert Kirkman Art: Charlie Adlard
Story: 5.5 Art: 8 Overall: 6 Recommendation: Pass

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review