Review

"So that's it?! Wam-Bam thank you Negan?! I don't even get a sad eye-contactless hand job?!" - Negan

News of the Whisperers border decorations has everyone in Alexandria on edge and demanding action. Rick is slow to act reasoning they need to find out what they are facing before taking direct action. After being attacked by a couple of disgruntled Alexandrians Rick surprisingly turns to Negan for some advice, Negan is as usual no-nonsense straight to the hearts and minds solution. Get people angry about the Whisperers and show them that things are being done. Queue some political slogans on walls and the decision to train a militia, which is down to Dwight as he has previously military experience.

In other developments Carl flees to Hilltop in order to protect Lydia from retaliation from angered Alexandrians, and decides to stay to continue his smithing training. Negan escapes and heads into Whisperer territory with his own plan in mind. Eugene fixes an old radio and is talking to someone, which quite possibly isn't the best course of action. And Dwight decides he can't lead the Saviours, but what the heck he finds Lucille and takes leadership of the Alexandria militia. There are probably a few other story arcs but what the hell want to talk about the book rather than throw a whole bunch of possible spoilers on the page.

As usual book thirteen contains two full story arcs, No Turning Back and Call To Arms, both of which deal with the day to day issues of the various communities but with a central thread about the Whisperers to keep things rolling nicely. There are a whole bunch of full page colour panels at the back of the book which I assume are the covers of the individual comics the book is comprised of. In all there are a massive amount of pages in a hard back release, just like the previous twelve books in the series. So if you want to talk value for money then right there friends and neighbours, under $30 bucks for one heck of a good book.

What I liked about this edition in one of the biggest graphic novel series I've ever run across is we get more insight into the Whisperers, talk about your truly warped characters. We learn that not only are they lead by Alpha but there is also a Beta, a big dude who is pretty much why Alpha is still in power as he has a thing for her. Anyways anyone can challenge Alpha for the leadership, there are no rules, and yeah they are big on the whole human skin thing to walk unhindered with the undead. They also can't stand anyone encroaching onto their territory, hence the whole warning markers that Rick and crew found at the end of the last book. All in all this lot have a whole mob of Roos bounding around their collective top paddocks. Slightly freaky, and am really hoping the television show focus on this aspect, the Whisperers are in amongst groups of Walkers and will attack with knifes before their victims realise they are dealing with more than the undead.

I was also sort of glad to spend some more quality time with Negan; the dude sure does light up the panels with sheer mayhem and over the top opinions on a hell of a lot of subjects. For no apparent reason Rick seeks Negan's advice, gets some leadership lessons and then implements to dire results. Hey Negan will be Negan, and if we had to be honest his grasp of reality isn't exactly on the same page as the rest of us. We later learn that Negan actually is a psychopath as he confesses to Alpha that he is broken and does not have feelings. Interestingly that goes someway to explaining his megalomaniac behaviour while ruling the Saviours.

I must admit there was some great scripting from Robert Kirkman during the course of the second part of the book when Negan gets free, released by minor character Brandon, and settles on a path toward Whisperer territory. Brandon wants mutual destruction of the Whisperers and Alexandria as his mom was one of the border warning victims, and you know easy answers for Rednecks, the Trump Nation. Anyways Negan has other plans which Kirkman keeps hidden through various interactions with the Whisperer nation. For sure Beta isn't exactly dialling into Negan's shtick but seems his full frontal rather sexual moves on Alpha hits its target.

Which all builds towards the final panel in the book, it gives word to Negan's intentions and for sure is one hell of a shock moment. I guess the cool thing to take from this is Robert Kirkman's continued ability to surprise us with plot twists that change the course of the narrative without seemingly throwing left field developments at us. On the bright side Negan's actions will ensure we have a hell of a war on our hands through the next book, will be rocking that one on release day.

As stated last franchise book review we need to start talking about some of the minor characters who inhabit The Walking Dead universe. And what better person to start with than Jesus, gay warrior from Hilltop who seems to have an answer to any problem sent his way. Surprisingly we don't actually get a lot of Jesus this edition, but hey he certainly gets mentioned a couple of times, and got to say at least once in an unfavourable way. Really hoping they bring the bearded dude back real soon now.

So starting to sum things up, Robert Kirkman writes a suspenseful and highly entertaining couple of story arcs in the ongoing graphic novel. Characters are well developed, do interesting things though definitely not out of their character scope, which means we are not dealing with left field developments that honestly are simply there to push the script along. Not content with strong drama amongst the characters Kirkman also dials in enough action and suspense to have even the most faded horror fan bouncing up and down in glee.

Charlie Adlard and the boys drop art that perfectly matches the script they are visualising in simplistic yet stylish panels. Everything flows throughout the book from full page panels, to panels in interesting boxes, to standard comic pages. I cannot fault the art in Book Thirteen; Adlard has this puppy begging for its dinner.

Just when you think this novel might be wearing out its welcome along comes a story arc, and in the case of Book Thirteen two story arcs, that get you back in the groove wanting to know more about what just might be out there in the extended world of Rick Grimes. Can't praise this edition enough, it had me hook, line, and sinker so naturally a full recommendation. Have been hand passing earlier editions of The Walking Dead dead to the crew and just on the quiet think we might be spreading the virus, there's some folk rocking the back catalogue at the moment. So hey catch you next book review, I might have another read of this one.

ScaryMinds Rates this read as ...