Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Walking Dead #121
Image Comics
Kirkman, Adlard, Gaudiana & Rathburn
Chapter Seven of "All Out War" is a bit of a slow issue. Generally, Rick and friends lick their wounds and kind of try to make a case to keep the battle going. Negan is high on his attack on Rick and then finds something that clearly puts his group in a great position to weaken Rick and strengthen his side. It's a necessary issue to set up what's to come but it isn't anything too amazing in the process.
The bulk of the issue is Rick walking around the community and assessing the damage. It seems clear that many of the groups are willing to simply pack it in and move on. Rick sort of accepts that the community is too far destroyed to be salvaged. With this in mind then why are they still fighting Negan? Sure there are other communities that are at stake but why not just move on from the area entirely and start over? It feels like an ego thing but it is an interesting topic of discussion.
The part of the comic that is an upswing is what Negan discovers. Negan finds and captures a very important piece of Rick's community. It's not clear if he's looking for this place or if he is even aware of this place, but he finds it. The highlight of the book is the interrogation and the grotesque detail that Negan goes into about what he plans to do to these people if they don't cooperate. It's creative, funny and gross all at the same time. Negan is truly a great character.
The artwork is good but it is not the best in the storyline. This is partially because of the lack of action but also it's because of the flow that is presented. Some of the pages that seem to demand a splash page get a small panel where other parts of the book get giant images of parts of the story that don't seem to be too important to the issue. It's a style preference but it's worth noting. Overall the book is the usual high level of storytelling artwork we've seen all along.
Walking Dead rolls on with another consistent issue. At this point it makes sense that this is a breather issue because it is the seventh in a twelve issue arc. The shining star in the issue is Negan and this seems to always be the case. It will be interesting to see how Rick raises morale to keep this fight going. Right now, he and his people sure looks defeated.
3.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
