Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Walking Dead #133Walking Dead #133
Image Comics
Kirkman, Adlard, Gaudiano & Rathburn

Walking Dead charges along as the tension builds and the action gets heavy. This issue reveals the threat facing Rick and company. While the concept of folks getting isolated and picked off one at a time isn't new to this series, the execution feels fresh but is far from perfect. This is a step towards some great conflicts and shaking things up. This is a good read all the way around and worth picking up.

There are some quiet scenes here and there. Carl reads a love letter from his girl "back home" but is then seen connecting with girl-away-from-home. We also get Andrea spilling out a bunch of information to the newcomers and then we get a severely awkward scene where Rosita (who has scarcely been seen in months) reveals she is pregnant with someone else's baby to her apparent love interest, Eugene. Alone, these scenes make for some average to bad reading, but thankfully there is more to this book.

On two different fronts we get some exposure to the group that dresses up like the dead. They apparently have a large following of people. We see one scene of some light interrogation and then we get an excellent scene where Jesus and friends are surrounded by them and things do not go well. The final pages have some great tension even if you pretty much know what will happen.

The book moves along at a nice pace, which is a big positive. The scenes of characters interacting with each other are short and sweet. The action is generally brief but effective helping to make this reading experience a good one.

There are many problems with the book, but most are minor ones. How a group of men behaving like zombies could possibly keep pace and catch up with men on horses seems totally unrealistic. The scene with Eugene is bad on a lot of levels. First, it really hasn't been established that Eugene and Rosita are even an item and second, Rosita hasn't been seen in so long I thought this was Maggie until the last couple of panels when Eugene finally said her name. Finally, Kirkman doesn't do any favors to a new reader. Characters are rarely introduced by name and that is across the board. Jesus, Sophia, the blacksmith, any person in the new group in Andrea's house. All of them go the entire issue without a name attached to them.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsAside from the fact that Maggie and Rosita look exactly alike the artwork is very good. There is a certain sweetness in the opening of the book with Carl reading the letter from his girlfriend and the artwork pulls that off nicely. There is also a nice casual atmosphere with Andrea and friends that helps to make that potential threat seem low or altogether gone. Then, the tension at the end is built up nicely by the art and presentation.

Walking Dead appears to have a new battle rising up. It will be interesting to see how Jesus deals with the new threat. The subplots do not do much for the comic but they may have a payoff down the road. This is a good read with some minor slips here and there.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles