Hello? Hello, story? Where did you go?!
You were there during the whole Governor thing, and even for a little bit after but these last couple volumes, you’ve been totally absent. And what’s worse is that this volume doesn’t even have a zombie herd attacking – the characters are stuck doing nothing!
The zombie herd has been eliminated and Rick decides to create defences for their colony, so a group begins digging a trench around the fence while others move cars in the way to provide another obstacle, and a different group goes out food scavenging.
That’s the whole book.
There’s a half-hearted “rebellion” led by a lone nut with a gun which fizzles out so quickly it may as well not have happened. For so little to be stretched out into an entire book is really disappointing. In earlier volumes, this kinda material would be going on in the background while a plot would be playing out.
Carl isn’t dead which also annoyed me – the kid had a chunk of his head blown away and yet a non-surgeon doctor with limited supplies in a house could somehow save his life?!
Robert Kirkman thinks that focusing on the characters is more interesting which it would be if the characters were interesting, but without facing any dangers, they’re not! I don’t care about Rick talking about his feelings or the non-romance between Andrea and some guy, or Rosita finding out Abraham’s been sleeping with Holly – I don’t watch soap operas, I sure as hell don’t want to read one, especially in a book about the zombie apocalypse!
Kirkman’s strength is plotting and story, not character work which is more than evident here. I’ve made it 15 volumes into this series because the story is compelling not because I want to see Kirkman’s ham-fisted attempt at a character portrait in Rick – he isn’t talented enough to do that. But tell an exciting story? He can do that – he just isn’t doing that here, so we’re left with a load of nothing instead.
I dearly hope you return soon, story, you are sorely missed.
The Walking Dead Volume 15: We Find Ourselves
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