Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Walking Dead #138
Image Comics
Kirkman, Adlard, Gaudiano & Rathburn
Walking Dead rolls on with another good issue. The tension gets fairly heated in this comic book and that is a big plus. Kirkman continues to focus on Maggie and her community and this is also a plus for the book, though some of the letters from readers seem frustrated that their favorite characters have been absent for so long. To me, this is better than the bouncing around he had done between communities only a few issues ago. Overall, this is a good read.
Before the dust can settle on Carl's first love encounter, with Lydia, things unravel. Maggie is rescued by Jesus, but the plot is far from resolved because Maggie and Jesus are pulled away to deal with an army at their front door.
Lydia's people show up in force to Maggie's community. The interesting part of this is that no shots get fired to open things up. I'm not entirely sure how each side feels this is a given and allow so many of their people to simply walk out into the open under some sort of sign of peace. Whatever, the case, Maggie and the leader of Lydia's people, a woman named Alpha, have words. Turns out a prisoner exchange is worked out to avoid an all-out battle. However, the truce worked out seems very vague because the respective territories aren't exactly mapped out. This makes the you-stay-away-from-my-space kind of impossible to comply with.
The pace of the book is perfect. The events of the previous issue get some play in the beginning and then attention turns towards the new threat while eventually transitioning to the next unbelievable cliffhanger. The book is constructed very well.
The downside to the book is nothing really happens that you might expect to happen. This seems true for events carrying over from the previous issue as well as new events in this issue. The issue feels too much like either a red herring centric issue or set-up for future issues.
The artwork comes down to two, double-page splashes. Each look fantastic and both are more for effect of the scene and not so much for shock. There are two spreads of the army and they play well with each other because they visually set-up the threat and show the resolution of the threat. The artwork outside of those splash pages is good but it does shy away from details on the panels that zoom out. Generally, this is a good visual story.
Walking Dead is as strong a read as ever. As Kirkman builds out all of these various communities he seems to stick closely with the core characters. This seems to keep these issues more focused on characters that readers have come to believe matter. This helps build the drama and tension, even in issues where no one dies. This is a very good but is not new reader friendly. I recommend checking this out.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
