Review: The Walking Dead: Compendium Two

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2012 (contents: 2008-12)
Acquired August 2013
Read September 2013

The Walking Dead: Compendium Two

Creator, Writer: Robert Kirkman
Penciler, Inker: Charlie Adlard
Gray Tones: Cliff Rathburn
Letterer: Rus Wooton

So help me, I think I'm actually coming to like The Walking Dead. Not that I like Rick Grimes-- well, actually I don't mind Rick as a character, I just don't get why all the characters think he should be the "leader" because he is demonstrably, factually bad at it. C'mon, Rick, whine a little bit more about how tough it is being the patriarch. I'm starting to realize this book is about Rick's, and even moreso Carl's, descent into complete and utter monstrousness. And I'm okay with that.

But when the survivors get into that D.C.-area gated community, the book suddenly becomes a very interesting examination of how you enforce societal rule. How do you make someone stop from beating his wife after the apocalypse? There's not always easy answers, though I feel like the book often pull back from that point, with people being killed off when it makes the writing a little more convenient and less problematic. But when it goes there, when Rick holds a gun to another man's head, it's gold.

If I was writing this, I'd end it with them settling down here, and if I was smart, I'd quit reading it now. But I'm neither, so I'll be there for Compendium Three in 2016.