It’s fine to give Rick and the survivors a respite - they’ve definitely earned it after what they’ve been through - but it’s wearing a bit now and I’m beginning to think this safe colony is the worst thing to happen to this series as it completely neutralises any menace and momentum the story had.
A whole lot of nothing happens in this volume, the biggest of which is probably Rick taking it upon himself as new constable to deal with a case of domestic abuse by beating the crap out of the abusive husband on his own lawn! This scene of course underlines once more that, yes, Rick is kinda losing it after all he’s been through… and? Do we really have to keep pointing out that they’ve changed and aren’t yet ready to settle down to “normal” life - wasn’t that what the whole last book was about?
Glenn and Rick pilfer some guns from the colony’s lockup (weapons are forbidden) which involves Glenn surreptitiously sneaking in and unlocking the outside window so he and Rick can climb in, grab what they need and climb back out. And then Rick says he’ll somehow get back in to lock the window from the inside - a scene we never see. How does he do that? It took a lot of effort for Glenn to make it in with a group who were heading out and needed guns and he was being watched nearly the whole time - how would Rick do it alone? It’s a small detail but felt like a plot hole because if it were just that easy, why spend the time to have Glenn go in, in the first place, to unlock the window?
Another small thing that irked me was Charlie Adlard’s art when he was drawing Michonne - when she and Rick are talking as they walk their beat, he draws part of her face completely white with a line separating the white from the darker skin. I think he’s going for a lighting effect but it completely fails and looks like she’s wearing a plastic jaw or has painted her face partly white for some reason! Either way, very poor artwork from Adlard, who’s normally pretty good.
They’re building a new wall (because construction work is so fascinating to read!) and Abraham shows how tough he is by taking out a bunch of zombies by himself; Glenn and a new person head into D.C. to grab some medical supplies; and finally some idiots with guns try, and fail, to storm the colony’s walls. This volume feels like a retread of stuff we’ve already seen, and done better, before.
The Davidson backstory - the former leader who had apparently turned evil - was mildly interesting and I’m already guessing that it was fabricated by Douglas and he’s really the evil one, but we’ll see how that plays out. Meanwhile there’s just a lot of dull moments - some characters we barely know die, Andrea goes on a first date, Glenn and Maggie have relationship issues… zzz...
I really hope this colony blows up or something so they’ll be forced back out into the wilderness soon because a whole lotta nothing is going down right now and it’s super boring to read! Too Far Gone? More like they’ve been here too far long - let’s kick it up a couple gears, guys!
The Walking Dead Volume 13: Too Far Gone
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