Funny story. I’ve been waiting a long time for the third compendium to be released but I did some research and found out that it’s not likely to come out until the end of the year. I didn’t want to wait that long to continue the story of the comics so I decided to pick up the smaller collections. Only I forgot that it’s really easy to breeze through them so you’ll see a few of these coming out. This is volume 17 Something to Fear and it features the introduction of a character that I’m sure comics and non-comics fans of The Walking Dead have heard of – Negan.
With regards to the television show it’s a name that has been touted for a long time and as such the expectations grew as I read this collection. I’d only heard one major spoiler, which didn’t lessen the impact of it when I read it, and Negan really is something else. I loved how the story built him up into something of a mythic figure and when he ripped the heart out of our heroes it was crazy, with some amazingly gruesome artwork to accompany the events.
It takes the story in a new direction and opens up the world a little bit, but it still feels a logical development and the existence of Negan and his group makes sense in the world as it is presented. It provides a good challenge for Rick and the other survivors, and the way that they deal with this challenge is also something a little different.
There are a few other subplots going on but the big event here is Negan, and it’s him that I’m sure will dominate the next few volumes.