The Walking Dead - Book 9 (2013)

Review

"You should all go home ... before you learn just how dangerous we all are." - Carl Grimes

With a plan of action in mind Rick and team start to head back home but are waylaid by some of the enigmatic Negan's men. Naturally a fire fight ensues with Rick's by now battled hardened crew getting the upper hand. Rick strangely leaves one of their attackers alone to warn off Negan, guess no thought of reprisals. And naturally some of Negan's men take out Abrahams and capture Eugene. They attempt to use Eugene to get into the settlement but Rick's crew repel them with ease and free Eugene, who is still working on a plan to manufacture ammunition.

Rick decides he needs to revisit Hilltop to keep the people there informed of developments, and in a surprise move Glenn and Maggie decide they want to move to Hilltop permanently. On the bright side they get to camp out, on the bad side we finally get to meet Negan - who makes the Governor look perfectly sane. Long story short Rick needs to make a deal with Negan to keep Negan's cohorts in check, but naturally Rick has an ulterior motive which isn't helped when Carl infiltrates Negan's base and shows he can use his weapons!

Seems like for ever since we touched bases with the never ending Walking Dead graphic novel, but the wait was worth it with book nine setting up some well past awesome concepts for the next story arc. Speaking of story arcs, once again we get two in the book, Something to Fear and What Comes After that see's Rick and his crew facing a danger far more deadly than the Governor, Negan is a total psychopath who has managed to build a powerful force in the Saviours and seeks to force a sort of Feudal rule on the communities near his base of operations. While the Governor was certainly a foe to be reckoned with Negan makes him seem like Ronald McDonald at a kids picnic! Both story arcs are in black and white though we do get a lot of colour in the individual comic covers and concept art included in the back of the book. Once again I'm loving these releases from Image comics and have my fingers crossed for another book being released real soon now.

Okay the plot of both story arcs pretty much sets up Rick's crew versus Negan's Saviours, with a little help from friends. Currently Rick is on the back foot with both Negan and Rick's own people not getting where the former lawman is coming from. Negan has a large community of cutthroats who work out of one of the coolest compounds yet seen in The Walking Dead universe. Got to love zombies being tied up and impaled just outside the walls, that seems to have ensured the safety of Negan's hood, at least from the outside, there is no safety inside. Rick's people are wondering why their leader has meekly accepted Negan's terms, clearly they don't realise Rick is one devious hombre. While everyone is shocked at Rick's apparent acceptance of Negan's terms, Rick is carefully working toward discovering where the Saviour compound is and exactly what the crew will be facing when they go medieval. Rick is receiving some help from the most unlikely of people, Jesus - the ex-army dude from Hilltop, and surprisingly Eugene is getting very close to supplying as much ammunition as Rick's group could desire. The next story arc should be a ripper!

I guess I should mention that we also lose a couple of major characters in this book. As stated previously Abrahams goes down, which was pretty unexpected for mine, but another character also reaches the end of their journey, only this time it's a character with a huge amount of support in the fan community. Am expecting some real backlash on this one, and am now intrigued to see if the television show will have the same guts and also dispatch a fan favourite. As ever, don't get too attached to the characters in The Walking Dead, besides Rick and Carl no one is safe! Man got to love a horror outing that simply dispenses with the rules and keeps you on your toes by regularly culling the characters, two thumbs up to Robert Kirkman, the dude rocks.

Surprisingly Negan turns out to be quite a complex character with a set agenda, motivations, and an iron fisted rule. For sure I'm digging this villain more than the Gov, who was a firm favourite a few story lines back. Negan has a "vampire bat" he calls Lucille, which is the physical manifestation of the utter psychosis he operates in! However the dude has a plan that works, albeit involving the application of a hot iron to anyone in the Saviours ranks who displeases him or breaks one of the myriad rules. Negan has an almost medieval thing happening where the surviving communities pay him a tithe in order to secure some degree of safety, or it could simply be stand over tactics. Anyways it's working for the Saviours but generating dissatisfaction amongst those paying tribute. Surprisingly Carl, more on our teen terror shortly, breaks through Negan's defences and guns down a whole bunch of Saviours. Rather than throwing Carl to the theoretical lions Negan spares him and returns our wayward son to Rick without any retribution. I figure Negan was most taken with Carl's facial features, particularly the left side devastation. Hey don't know what I'm talking about here, read the comics yo! Anyways Negan shows a remarkably complex character, two thumbs up to Robert Kirkman for this character, he certainly is going to drive the next story arc at least.

I just wanted to make mention of Carl Grimes here, the character has gone from irritating to interesting in a kick arse fashion. Thus far Carl has dispatched zombies by the truck load, marauders without thought, and has culled the herd of psychos when the adults were dithering on the options. In this book he goes in guns blazing when he thinks Rick is dropping the ball. Carl is turning into a real fire and brimstone dude, Kirkman has his fingers on the developing youth in the ashes.

Okay in this review I've only briefly touched upon Paul "Jesus" Monroe, the dude from Hilltop who seems to have a knack of overcoming obstacles, and I haven't mentioned "The Kingdom" at all, another community run by Ezekiel. I'll cover both these angles in the next book review; hey there is only so much room friends and neighbours.

Finally Kirkman has got away from all the emo angles and is dealing with some action, two thumbs up for the new characters, in particularly Negan. And in case you are wondering yes there are plenty of zombies in the mix, though as stated previously on this site a good zombie outing really is less about the zombies and more about the survivors. Book Nine really does rock and for mine reinvigorates The Walking Dead with action, plenty of plotting, and dynamic characters that aren't simply card board cut outs. Add in the excellent artwork and you have something to treasure, in simple terms this is one graphic novel you won't want to miss. I'm back in shotgun with Kirkman's epic, can't wait for book ten and the likely clash of opposing forces in amongst the zombie shamblers.