Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Walking Dead #95Walking Dead #95
Image Comics
Kirkman, Adlard & Rathburn

Rick and friends show up at the new civilization with their new found savior, Jesus. As you may guess, the issue is high on tension. Trust is thin and visions of the Governor cutting off Rick's hand shortly after meeting him dance through long-time reader's heads. On the other hand, the nice and calm meeting of Douglas, the last community leader that Rick met, makes the reader unsure of what is going to happen next. And that is the beauty of this book: you never know what's coming. This issue is slow and has some fairly standard drama surrounding trust until the very end when Kirkman pulls the rug out from under the readers. This is a good read.

Rick doesn't trust Jesus. Jesus seems to be one step ahead of Rick all the time but never takes any sort of advantage. It seems like this is a trustworthy characteristic. Rick loosens his hard stance up when his son, Carl, reveals that he trusts him. It's interesting to see Carl not side with his dad, but it helps to give Rick the nudge he needs to go into the new community.

Adlard puts on quite an artistic display throughout this issue, but none more than as Rick and company enter the community. Adlard gives the new community a unique, but still disheveled look. He's got a great layout of the place complete with a horse stable, a blacksmith and a chicken coup. It's like something between Little House On The Prairie and Mad Max and it's outstanding. Adlard also gets to flex his muscles at the end when the surprise occurs.

Eventually Rick meets the leader, Gregory. The oddity here is that it is so eerily familiar with the meetings with The Governor and Douglas, but if Rick is to just be a trade partner why does it seem like Gregory is showing him around as if he will live there? Eventually we learn of a possible hostage situation in another community and Kirkman springs his surprise.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe issue is slow for about fifteen pages. It feels like it takes forever for Rick to make up his mind about going into the community and, then, even more time before he meets Gregory. The other noticeable part of the story that I wasn't a fan of was the lack of involvement of the other characters, especially at the end. They felt like background noise and barely had a role in the book. The ending makes this book rise above the land of average, but even the most average Walking Dead book is 95% better than anything else I read on a monthly basis.

The good news is that the buildup is over. If you have been waiting for something to happen then you will wait no longer. I'm not sure how everything is going to play out from here but that is the joy of reading this title. I definitely recommend checking this book out.

3.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles