The Walking Dead: What We Become

[Mr Wallstreet]

I love Zombie stuff

Another winner by Kirkman.

At the end of the last story, Rick, Carl, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, Dale, Andrea and their kids agree to accompany the new band of survivors to DC where supposedly, they can stop the plague. Many tragedies befall the group as they head out to DC. Maggie tries to commit suicide; Rick, Carl & Abraham stop by Rick’s old town to stock up on ammo and to see if Morgan and his son, who Rick met wayyyyyyyyyy back in issue #1 are still alive. On the way to find them Rick and co. are ambushed. During the ambush Rick sees that Carl is about to be raped, he goes batshit crazy and rips the jugular out of his attacker and rips apart the other guy with a knife.

Carl sees his fathers actions but isn’t disgusted by them or afraid of him. Not too long after Carl, Rick and Abraham air out their dirty laundry. Abraham had been needling Rick for a long and finally tells Rick about his past. Abraham’s family was tortured by their friends while Abraham was away. When he returned and what they’d done to his family, he massacred them. Abraham’s brutal actions drove his family away – who eventually died. This all unhinged Abraham and the only thing keeping his sanity in check is Rosalita.

Rick tells Abraham about the men he’d killed in cold blood. Carl awakens and tells them both how it felt to kill Shane.
And Dale is now officially sick of Rick. He wants nothing to do with him anymore and wants to separate from them Rick and his friends. He feels Rick is the cause of everything that went wrong.

This story cements the true threat now faced by the survivors (if it wasn’t done before) and it isn’t the zombies anymore, though they are still a threat. The primary threat now facing survivors are other survivors. So far we only had to contend with the governor but being the only example of a sadist in power but through Rick, Abraham and Carl we see other examples of humans taking advantage of the apocalypse.

Many of the survivors now encountered by Rick may seem trustworthy no one can be trusted at face value anymore.
The general consensus is that there is no going back to acting civilized. Whatever needs to be done to survive and protect ones self and loved ones – has to be done, even if it turns them into monsters.

One thing I was pleased to see was that Carl didn’t pussy out or whine and moan how cruel his daddy behaved when he was cutting up his would-be rapist. Too often in tv shows, books, movies we see a cop out to cheap by drama when children bemoan their parents for being overprotective and resenting them for not treating them like adults. Rick is teaching Carl to take care of himself and to be an adult but he also lets Carl act like a child when he needs it. Carl accepts that his father is teaching him to be self-sufficient but also allows him to be a child.

I was also pleased to see some common sense exercised; specifically that constantly using firearms only alerts more zombies to your position as well as other enemies. Why they never realized it, I’ll never know.

Also there is something fishy about the alleged genius with a mullet who knows what caused the plague. A lot of things about him just don’t add up. I have a feeling that he’s going to wind up being some crack-pot who thinks he knows what caused the plague and believes he is working for the government – which will wind up fucking over everyone else.

One last thing that has always bothered me: in pretty much every medium whenever a story about zombies is done, the characters rarely, if ever, use the term “zombie” to describe the dead flesh eaters. They call them various other names but almost never refer to them as zombies. Why is that?
In books/shows/movies about other supernatural creatures such as vampires, werewolves, mummies, sea monsters etc…when those creatures show up, the characters call them by their names: vampires, werewolves etc…The characters in zombie fiction almost never call the walking cadavers zombies. Its always annoyed me.

[Stocky Boy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Dale story pans out.

I'm guessing by now Dale stories are potentially running their course and more interesting stories can be found in how Rick and Carl interact with the new people. I suspect Dale's stubborn appraisal of Rick will lead to his or tragically someone elses demise - which in itself could lead to Dale guitly blowing his brains out. Who knows.

Don't know if I share your thoughts on the genius guy. Got to love how both of us love this series but can't remember this important new character's name.
I suppose it could be conceived as suspicious how he could devulge some of his suspicions already, but hasn't. At the same time though, there's been other interesting tales they've been able to get to by ignoring him for now.

I can't remember Morgan from the first book dude. Good memory! He's clearly gone a bit wacko though. Oh and you just know the decision he made's going to cause a fuck up somewhere down the line.

[CountD]

This "hunted' storyline is great.