Review – The Walking Dead #102 (One of These Things Is Not Like the Other)

SPOILERS BELOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So, I wanted Kirkman to do something different with story line vice The Governor story arc. And he did; it just wasn’t what I expected. After Glen’s death (which, again, was completely predictable) I wanted Rick to rise up in righteous indignation and pour his wrath out upon the despicable forces of Negan. I wanted it, Rick’s people wanted it, and if he could communicate from beyond the grave, Glenn would have wanted it. And that’s when Rick does something very un-Rick like. He gives in. He concedes to Negan in full. What’s worse, he get’s Michonne and the rest of the town to agree.

Since I was reading this comic at work (thank you Comixology), I had to swallow my cry of anguished disappointment. It was, nonetheless, there. How could Rick do this to me? How could Kirkman do this to me? Well, here’s how. Kirkman prides himself on maintaining a believable, realistic universe; and that’s why things had to go down the way the did. As Rick points out to his detractors:

• Negan overtook and dominated his group easily.
• Negan had enough men to overtake Rick’s group AND wage war on the town.
• Negan is powerful enough to intimidate multiple communities (larger than Rick’s) into paying tribute.
• Rick and crew are fast running out of bullets, and simply do not have enough ammunition to fight off the hordes of Negan indefinitely, should the issue arise. And it certainly would.

That’s really it. They’re simply outmatched. The title says it all. It’s a story about Something to Fear. Specifically, it’s something for our protagonists to fear.

But wait. Oh tricky Rick. Sometimes down, but never out. In the last few panels of the issue it’s revealed that this whole thing is an act that Rick is selling not just to Negan (and Negan’s captured follower, who Rick subsequently releases), but to his own people. Immediately after convincing the town he’s given up, he sends Jesus out to do some reconnaissance work (tracking  said follower of Negan) against the enemy. This is hopefully building to, I fervently pray, a story arc titled Something to Kill.