Power Couples: The Top 10 Couples in Comic Books Today

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, we are listing out the Top Ten duos in comic books today. In the spirit of the holiday, this list isn’t exclusive to romantic couples; bromance, womance and other creepy forms of couples-ship are represented here.

 

1.) Alana & Marko (Saga)

There couldn’t be any other couple at the top of our list. Alana and Marko are what Romeo and Juliet would have been if they weren’t both giant pussies. Love forged in wartime is especially difficult when the two parties have guns pointed directly at each other. Somehow these two fugitives managed to escape all sorts of danger on their way to having a baby, and temporarily sharing a nice, quiet life. They have problems just like any other couple, and are willing to risk horn and wing to keep their family safe and together. This isn’t just called a fantasy series for the pissing dragons and robot TVs; this is the quintessential relationship, the taboo story between star-crossed lovers with the guts to keep fighting.

2.) Susie & John (Sex Criminals)

While not your traditional super-powered protagonists, Susie and John share quite the special bond. Their ability to freeze time and commit crime after orgasming is a telltale sign that they are in sync as two people can possibly be. This super-weird ability aside, they are two of the most realistic characters in the pages of comic books today. They deal with everyday problems just like the rest of us, but are a model for how two flawed people can come together and find solace in each other’s Quiet.

3.) Superman & Wonder Woman

If any couple here embodies the phrase “Power Couple,” it’s these two juggernauts – hell, the name of their first graphic novel is Superman/Wonder Woman: Power Couple. One an indestructible alien, the other a Princess of the Amazons and Goddess of War, that’s just about as powerful as you can get; all that’s left is for them to release a cover of “Drunk in Love” and it’s official. These two kick ass because their stories are not dependent on each other. Superman is going strong without even a reference of Diana, while Wonder Woman has the new Goddess of War concerned with much bigger problems. Yet, together they are a solid team, focused on one goal in one solid book.

4.) The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl & Tippy Toe

Not every close friendship needs to be between two humans. Equipped with her pink bow tie, Tippy Toe is Squirrel Girl’s best friend. As Doreen Green embarks on a journey through college, Tippy keeps her grounded by reminding her of how proud she should be of who she is, what she does and where she comes from. I can’t say enough how great it would have been to have an encouraging friend like Tippy when I went to college. Tippy is down for Doreen, and even jumps in the middle of a fight between her and Kraven to save her. Only two issues in, and I am considering getting myself a pet squirrel.

5.) Spider-Man & Silk

Holy pheromones, Batman! Since joining the Spidey-group right before Spider-Verse, Silk and our Peter Parker have had an animalistic attraction to each other. Watching them in work must have been twice as insulting for the bad guys they took down, who get the crap beaten out of them, then get to watch Spidey and Silk slobber all over each other while they bicker about who looked better doing it. Silk gets her own series next week, but you can’t keep her and Peter away for long. This relationship is one based off ass-kicking and making sweet spider love; what else do you need?

6.) Batman & Joker

Ah, crazy love. There is definitely some hate love in this relationship. During the Death of the Family storyline, Batman broke Joker’s heart. The yin and yang that the two had was completely thrown for a loop when Batman put an end to Joker’s game when he threatens to reveal the Joker’s secret identity. Oddly enough, it turns out that Joker knew Batman’s secret identity the whole time, but was only interested in the charade the played. It was theater to him – a loving partnership. Now that we’re in the thick of Endgame, we’re seeing a lover scorn. Joker is not taking any prisoners this time, and in reality, just seems to be really butt-hurt that the Batman doesn’t want to play with him.

7.) Tony Stark & Tony Stark

Nobody loves Iron Man quite like Iron Man can. In the relatively fresh Superior Iron Man series, Tony Stark has developed a mobile app based off the Extremis technology, transforming citizens into images of perfection – for an unprecedented fee, of course. This kind of ego stroking is just what makes Tony Stark the Kanye West of the comic book world. Everybody wishes they could find somebody who loves them like Tony Stark loves himself. It’s non-stop hilarity for readers, and hands-down the most self-adoring relationship out there.

8.) Hawkeye & Hawkguy

There’s no romance here… I hope. Kate Bishop and Clint Barton are like a big brother and little sister, and are both Hawkeyes. During the 21 issue run of Hawkeye (and the Hawkeye vs. Deadpool mini-series), they have been freelancing their way across the Marvel Universe as a crime-fighting powerhouse. There’s plenty of bickering and fighting, but even more kicking ass to save each other from sticky situations. With Fraction & Aja’s run ending soon, I hope that Kate Bishop doesn’t fall to the wayside. Then again, that’s something that the Clint Barton I know would never allow.

9.) Carl Grimes & Lydia (The Walking Dead)

If you’ve been following The Walking Dead, then you know it has been a hard knock life for Carl Grimes. Mom? Dead. Sister? Dead. Right eyeball? Dead. Safe to say, he’s been through some shit. This whole time, he hasn’t really ever had a friend who can understand what he’s been through. Sure, there’s Sophia, but aside from losing loved ones, she hasn’t really ever seen the dark side. I mean, Carl’s a guy who talked with Negan for consultation. One day alone in a cell with one of the Whisperers, Lydia, and Carl are smitten. The jury is still out on this one, as there’s a good chance Carl is getting played, but for the moment, Lydia seems to be the best possible thing for Carl right now.

10.) Mark & Maggie (Postal)

We don’t know too much about Mark and Maggie yet. We know she is his waitress and he is a regular in her section. We also know that she feeds into his OCD by stacking his fries just right. Maggie is nice to Mark. Therefore, Mark wants to have sex with Maggie. Even though Maggie, like the rest of the town, has a record, she seems like the type of gal Mark will want on his side when shit hits the fan. Together, they are better. – Adrian

 

 

 

 

The Walking Dead Review – “Four Walls and A Roof” S5E3

Every once in a blue moon, The Walking Dead takes a break from the divergent path it has made from the comic books in order to really bring it back to the source material. While the first three episodes of this season have varied in characters, their likeness to the comic books is completely uncanny. Whether or not it has done Robert Kirkman’s story justice is up for debate. If you’re having a hard time hitting the nail on the head, why not just get a bigger hammer, right? Viewers who have not read the comic books are in for a special treat, but avid readers may not get as much out of this episode as they would have liked.

In some ways, “Four Walls and A Roof” translates the events of the issues it takes its materials from (Volume 11: Fear the Hunters) flawlessly. The writers are able to seamlessly blend the events of the comic books with what has already happened at Terminus – a concept that doesn’t exist in the books – and make it all flow together. Word for word, the entire “Tainted Meat” scene is taken from The Walking Dead #66, and was a horrifying, yet appropriate way to open up the episode. We knew Bob had to go after we saw him legless at the end of “Strangers,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t go out in style, because he said the line we were all waiting for, and went out like a true G.

The Terminians, as the show has branded them, have always been a smart group of people. I mean, how else would they have been able to take back their camp, survive for so long, AND get the upper-hand on Rick’s group? Their downfall, however, would be their ridiculous arrogance. Leaving themselves a trail like Hansel and Gretel to get back to Terminus (is there even anything left there?) is inviting anybody – say, Morgan for example – to follow them. Also, while painting a big bloody “A” on the church when they returned Bob was spooky, a notion to the group that the Terminians still had them trapped, but it gave themselves away too early on.

However, Rick and Co. prove that their arrogance would be their undoing, as a small group trick the Terminians into entering the church under the pretense that all the strong members were leaving the weaker ones at the church to ambush the Terminians, but were rearing back around to surprise them. It was all going well until somebody, once again, decided to bring the baby to the apocalypse party. I swear, Judith better have the cure to the zombie virus because she is a complete crutch at this point. The scene where Rick finally finishes off Gareth and the rest of the Terminians is pretty quick. There’s not nearly as much build-up as I felt there were in the books, and even the poetic justice of Rick hacking away at Gareth with the red machete is a bit cliché. I would like to think that if I am about to commit gruesome revenge murder on somebody who just ate my friend’s leg, that I would have come up with a better punchline than “I already made you a promise.”

While the scene that unfolded in the comic books was not as visually vile as the one on the TV show, I felt an inane sense of horror reading it. The reaction that Rick, Sasha and Michonne get from the others is half-surprise, half-disgust. From the get-go, Maggie, Glenn and Tara have always known Rick’s group to be the “good guys,” which definitely challenges the idea of Rick gutting Gareth like a pig. Could that have been an influence for them to immediately join Abraham’s group in traveling to “Washington DC?” It seems as though Glenn has become the voice of reason in the group, and while Rick is not talking into disconnected telephones anymore, he sure doesn’t seem level-headed. Glenn even has to use his balls of steel to tell Rick to stand down.

With another episode of The Walking Dead in the books, we lose another group member in Bob. Bob’s character has gone through quite the transformation, going from the drunkard that Daryl almost through off a roof to a solid member of the team, and the only one able to crack the ice cold persona that Sasha had. The actor behind the Bob, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., has always been a Hush favorite. His place on the show has always been an auxiliary one, not one of great importance. Hey, at least he lasted longer here than he did on The Wire.

Speaking of that timeless show, the guy who really stole the show here was Seth Gilliam (Ellis Carver in The Wire), who plays the timid Father Gabriel. Under the confession-influencing blade of Sasha, Gabriel spills the beans about his cowardice when his congregation came to him at the start of the outbreak. Gabriel’s teary confession was both chilling and sad, making us really feel for him as a character. Gilliam plays the character to a T, really exploring the depths of his acting ability and making him instantly recognizable as the same character in the books. Although not necessary “useful” in the traditional sense of murdering scores of the undead, his spiritually-driven words will ground Rick Grimes, who seems to be teetering off the edge of normalcy.

Aside from the fact that the episode is primarily taken directly from the source material, there are a few Easter Eggs that the show refers to that might be of interest:

Tyreese face…

… is the new Dale Face

• When Father Gabriel voices his disapproval of the church slaughter to Michonne, and explains that he still hears the voices, Michonne coldly says, “Yeah, that won’t stop – hearing the voices.” This could be a reference to Michonne’s comic book character, who, like Rick and his phone, talks to her former lover through her Katana. When she states earlier that she did not miss the sword, perhaps she was trying to move on, but the pull of having it was a bond to more than just her killer, badass self, and more to the loved ones she has lost before joining the group.
• The marquee in the church has a series of Bible passages that relate specifically to the zombie apocalypse, or the second coming of Jesus, or whatever:
  • Romans 6.4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
  • Ezekial 37.7: “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.”
  • Matthew 27.52: And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised”
  • Revelations: 9.6:  “During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.“
  • Luke 24.5: “In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
• Although not exactly in sync with The Walking Dead timeline, Morgan does make a brief appearance in the books about 15-20 issues after the Hunters are dealt with. It doesn’t look like Morgan is in the same frail state of mind we left him in Kings County seasons ago. Will he be good? Bad? Crazy?

Hush Comics gives “Four Walls and A Roof” a B for its solid adaptation of one of the most brutal chapters in this now over a decade-long series. The episode has effectively transformed Rick’s group into cold-hearted killers, where the role of the “good guy” is extremely subjective. The acting in the episode was phenomenal, from Andrew J West as Gareth to Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel. However, I feel like comic book fans got the raw deal here. Where the show largely succeeds is its variation from the source material, and what he got here was a complete reenactment of what we already knew would happen. We would have liked to see a bit more originality and suspense. We do know that next week’s episode “Slabtown” will at least give us that much, as we get to see just what the hell Beth has been up to. #praythestrainaway?

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review – “Strangers” S5E2

I should have known when last week’s episode of The Walking Dead concluded that the happiness I felt would be short lived. In all honesty, I knew the peace and serenity would be short lived for the characters I love so much, maybe I just didn’t want to admit it. At least last night’s episode, “Strangers”, was able to snap me out of my delusions.

First of all, let’s talk about Father Gabriel. Is he good? Is he evil? Like basically every single other person they’ve come across? I’m no fool, I know how this works, and clearly that man has some darkness in his past that he is trying to hide. Something is up with him and it’s very obvious, from the knife carvings on the outside of his oddly intact forest church to how clean his clothes are. I don’t trust him, but I feel bad for him. The man is terrified, regardless of what he was up to before he met our group. Yet, it was still sad to watch him panic.

Am I good? Am I bad? Does it matter since I was on The Wire?

For fans of the comics, the small screen adaptation of the Priest is spot on.  I was impressed with his skiddish-ness, his deer-in-the-headlghts looks, and fear of being “found out.”  So what did Father Gabriel do?  Well technically, he didn’t lie to Rick, answering the three interrogation questions as honestly as he could, but leaving out one major detail.  No, he hasn’t killed anyone; instead SPOILER, he just refused to let anyone in the congregation into the church because he wanted to save himself and all the food.  Is this just as bad as killing them himself?  It could be, but for a man of God, I think he really doesn’t care what others think, because only God can judge him, despite the ominous etching on the church that reads “You will burn for this.”

It is clear, though, that Father Gabriel judges himself.  He is very guilty about his actions, and this comes across flawlessly in this episode.  As fleeting as his character may seem right now, he is still around in the comics series.  He may be a character the audience will have to learn to love.  As a side note, Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel and is another alum of The Wire (Ellis Carver) is a fantastic actor.  This role is a total 180 from what I was used to from him.

“Strangers” was the good old The Walking Dead we all know and love, it was intense, gut-wrenching, and when it ended, all I could think about is how the hell am I going to make it to next week?! Not only that, but it was very aptly titled. The group doesn’t just meet a new stranger, who doesn’t repent to strangers, but in many ways they realize how they are strangers to themselves and each other at this point.

Do we really know any of these people?

The beginning of the episode spent a lot of time on Carol and her “strangerness.”  There are things she has done that parts of the group don’t know she did: David, Karen and Lizzie.  Carol is a stranger to the group, and frankly to herself.  If this was the Carol who was around when her husband was beating her up or when Sophia ran off, she may have been never gotten beat and never lost Sophia.  But it was all that, and her acts of murder, that changed Carol from abused housewife to full-on Linda Hamilton.  Unrecognizable.

Even Carl is a stranger.  He is not the kid who runs out of the house foolishly, but he still has a glimmer of humanity left in him.  He innately wants to help people.  He always is the one to run towards screams in the woods.  Carl is the man Rick was before the apocalypse.  He doesn’t torment walkers anymore, now he investigates.  Carl will continue to change drastically, at least I would guess so.  He is a teenage boy growing up in a very dangerous landscape.  The things that happen to him now will shape what kind of man he will become, and that could go one way, or the other, if he survives.  With that being said, in the comic series, at this exact point Carl is a murderer.  He killed a kid his age.  I doubt they will show this in the series, but it is the definitive moment of the books for Carl, in my opinion.

And then there is Rick.  Between his wife being a whore (yeah, I said it), having to kill his best friend, battling The Governor, losing people he loves, and losing not-his-baby, Rick is the best stranger; he has nearly lost all of his old humanity.  But we still trust his judgement.  And by we, I mean the audience (I assume) and his group.  They even say so by agreeing to go into the church in the first place.  Let’s face it: Rick is a murderer.  But he is loyal to people who don’t screw him over, and for the most part, he keeps them alive.

And now, for some rapid fire thoughts:

• From an outsider’s prospective, who doesn’t have to eat cesspool beanie weenies, it seems obvious that Eugene is a fraud. But I suppose that in a moment of “We almost got slaughtered” that he seems like their only hope, but he is no Obi-Wan for sure.
• Would you get in a cesspool of zombies and water leakage that have been cooking together for about two years?
• Would you eat the food that has been sitting in that cesspool whether it was canned or not?
• Michonne doesn’t miss her sword? Well I do.  She does explain that she found it in the first place, just like she did in the comics.
• Beth! Beth!  Carol and Daryl go after her!  Will they be in the next ep?  And so much for that whole, “we are sticking with Rick from now on” theory.

• The amount of religious symbolism was beautiful.  Father Gabriel has been copying the Bible word for word.  The carvings and quotes around the church are particularly poignant.  Especially “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has Eternal Life” from John 6:54, in reference to Jesus’ promise of heaven on the last day.

• Episodes written by The Walking Dead daddy are always great.  Thank you, Robert Kirkman for being so deliberate with your attention to detail.

At the end of last week’s episode we were shown how the “Termites” were once people, too, if you will, and that at one point all the survivors had their humanity intact, begging the question how much could a person take before they break? When Gareth comforted his poor mother in the train car I thought, “Okay, I might feel some sympathy for this guy. Maybe he’ll grow on me!” But after seeing what institutionalized evil becomes when it’s in the wild, I know that Gareth will only make the Governor look like the fat kid from Stand By Me.

Hey Beth. I’m bringing my last girlfriend with me to come rescue you. Hope that’s ok.

But what about Bob? (Yeah that was an intentional reference to the Bill Murray movie) Ever since Bob was introduced, I have been watching week after week, biting (ha!) my nails, waiting for the terrible inevitable death that awaits him. He’s a moral compass for the group, but more than that, he is their ray of sunshine. Yes, baby Judith gives us all hope simply by surviving, but Bob tries every day to find the beauty in the life he has, which was clear in the game he and Sasha play. When Bob got pulled down by the sewer walker, my heart stopped, but then he rose up and seemingly triumphed. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t sitting there for the rest of the episode waiting for the reveal that he had in fact been bitten.

It is clear that Bob is the new Dale.  Not only for the show but a stand in for the comic book version.  The moral compass never stays around too long. And even though we have no official confirmation he was bitten down in the flood water, if he is in fact replacing the Dale of the comics, he was.  Will we get the famed line, “Tainted Meat!”?  I certainly hope so; it is one of the hallmarks of the entire comics series.

Will our group meet Gareth’s group again? Will there be a battle a la the comics?  Will Gareth’s group die because they are eating someone who is about to turn?  And what the hell happened to Beth?  There are so many questions still looming! How exciting!  Hush Comics gives “Strangers” an A- because it gave viewers exactly what we look for; a major cliffhanger, intense moments of stress, and reminders of why we love these characters so much and we tune in to root for them week after week.

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review – “No Sanctuary” S5E1

As I took notes for the long awaited season 5 opener of The Walking Dead, they included several “What the fucks,” a dash of “Carol is hot/Rick is hot/Maggie is hot,” lots of “Oh my god!” and once, all in caps, “FIRE ZOMBIES!”  Tonight’s episode was a roller coaster of emotion, and I really enjoyed the ride. Suffice to say, “No Sanctuary” lived up to my expectations after last season’s finale.  Now be warned, this is NOT a spoiler free review, so here be spoilers.

First of all, how badass is Carol?  And who would have thought in season 2 that that woman would be the heroine of future seasons?!  Between her Rufio hair, her zombie blood face mask, and the fact that she is responsible for setting Terminus ablaze, I think we can officially say that Carol is the toughest lady in the zombie apocalypse.  Carol is an army of one.

I love you Judith, but I must go rub my self in zombie guts and channel my inner Rambo.

As for “our” group, they are as resourceful as ever.  Rick leading the group through taking apart the box car, the terrible butcher room, and finally through the overrun Terminus has me screaming “Go Rick!” at the TV harder than I have every screamed for any football team on a Sunday.  I was really emphatic when he grabbed that guys machine gun and killed a shit ton of humans and walkers alike.  Go Rick, you murderous beast you!  But along with that note, I think it is interesting that Rick is insistent they kill everyone.  The line between Rick being good and bad morally is getting thinner and thinner.  The parallel between he and his enemies is also evident; just like the people of Terminus, he doesn’t trust anyone, and he doesn’t have any reason to.  “You’re either the butcher or the cattle.”

As for Terminus… those are some crazy cannibals!  But who can blame them after finding out that their people were pillaged?  Well Rick and this group can because they don’t know that, yet.  Yet is the key word here.  There have been plenty of times that The Walking Dead has built something up only for it to be inconsequential in the end (i.e. Andrea and The Governor), but it was clear that the writers are up to a little more here.  The beginning “Then” scene coupled with the final “Then” scene are very telling of what is to come.  For readers of the comic books, the shadowy figure with the flashlight and the creepiest laugh ever resembles major villain Negan.  However, he doesn’t appear for quite some time after the “prison” arc.  It is very possible this whole thing is a tease to lead us in his direction. CORRECTION: So at the time of writing, I had not watched Talking Dead or kept up with Robert Kirkman’s Twitter account.  The “Charles Manson” looking man was the man who had taken over Terminus.  He is NOT Negan.  Womp, womp, woooomp.

Hi. I’m Gareth and I am goddamn ruthless.

Gareth is the ruthless ringleader of his group, and he will stop at nothing to protect his own.  I am very interested to find out how exactly he was able to get Terminus back from the people who took it over.  It is clear that Gareth and his crew aren’t exactly tough (other than the extreme Columbian neckties).  They are barely able to kill the walkers who have taken over their land, and they don’t kill people without their hands tied behind their back.  But they do have a few things going for them: they are smart, they are strategic, and they have a lot of land that they claim as theirs.  It seems like Gareth’s story will become important as the season goes on.  One thing I do wonder, do you think that Gareth and his group were cannibals before they were taken over?  They seem like they were nice people before, particularly because of Mary’s speech to Carol.  Perhaps this is their way of revenge?

One reason I started to question whether the Terminus group used to be cannibals is because of the man who Tyreese is stuck with in the cabin.  He talked about his past life compared to now.  He seems like he used to be a decent person, but he is so jaded now.  However, he did make a good point about Tyreese and Judith.  Why keep a baby in a world where she is a handicap?  It is something I have thought for a long time.  I realize that a) they can’t kill a baby on TV and b) that she represents life, but she really does present more danger than hope.  To go with that, I just don’t understand why Tyreese is so domesticated.  I get that he is still upset about Lizzie, but he isn’t thinking things through, either. This could be attributed to his preoccupation with what Carol did last season; he clearly does not see her as a friend, but acknowledges baby Judith as one.  All of it seems to be clouding his judgement, proof in not tying the man’s hands behind his back and turning his back on the baby was asking for her to get hurt.  His redeeming factor was taking the hammer to the walkers on the outside.  When he came back in he “killed” the Terminus man, but did he?  If the past is any lesson, unless you see the character die, they aren’t really dead.  I personally think that Tyreese let the man go.

And now for rapid fire thoughts on the other characters:

• If Glenn is now the voice of reason, is he the next major player to die?  Dale and Hershel did.  Also, all the comic book foreshadowing of Glenn and a baseball bat is a little nerve wracking.
• Rosita is still too clean.
• The dirtier Maggie gets, the hotter she gets.
• Bob has dual machetes.  Repeat.  Dual Machetes.
• Michonne may not have her katana, but she is still a samurai with her double sided stick thing.
• Eugene is still so full of bullshit.  Perhaps he was the janitor at a college science building?
• The man that Rick saw at the butcher trough was Sam, the same man he met when he and Carol were on the road.  Then Sam’s throat got cut in the trough, thus severing their bond.
• After the battle at Terminus, Carol washed her face mask off very quickly.
• That zombie was totally giving its victim eskimo kisses, now deemed “zombie keeses” in my house.
• Daryl and Carol 4eva.

With Carol helping take down Terminus and Rick being as bad ass as ever, our group was finally reunited, sans Beth.  BETH!  I feel like it will be a bit before we find out her fate.  But our group seems really big now.  It is a matter of time before someone dies, and I feel like it may be that time.  I hate to say it, but this horror show hasn’t killed off one of our own in a while.  It is bound to happen.

They really were fucking with the wrong people.

Our common theme in this episode was fire.  Terminus was on fire.  Zombies were on fire.  And Eugene claims to fight fire with fire.  There was also the smoke the group looked up at in the sky, reminiscent of last season’s smoke from the forest fire.  I know there is some significance here, but can’t place my finger on it.  If you know, tell me in the comments below.

What is hard to believe is that Terminus lasted only one episode, which makes it hard to predict what is to come.  What can be pondered on is with all the loose ends.  There are Terminus people still alive, especially Gareth.  Will those survivors leave their sanctuary?  Is the man in the shack really dead?  Michonne doesn’t have her katana and has risked her life for it before.  Does she plan on going back to get it?  Negan is teased.  Will he play a role later on this year?  Or will his character be developed in the already greenlit season 6?  But most importantly, in the post credit scene, why is Morgan not in his loft, what are those X-Men tree carvings he’s following and why is he dressed like Michonne was when we met her?  Will Morgan find Rick’s group?  And most importantly, is he sane?  Gah!  I can barely stand it. As a reader of the comics, I think I know these answers, but I have been proven wrong so many times, it’s all just speculation.

Hush Comics gives “No Sanctuary” a A for its use of suspense, having intense, non-stop action, and for Carol and Rick taking on the crazy cannibals like bosses.

all pictures belong to AMC Television and are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review “After” S4E9

After such an explosive season 4A finale, the season 4B opener of the The Walking Dead was a little lackluster.  It may be because the producers need to save money and not pay actors, but having an opener being Carl-centric was a bit disappointing.  Let’s face it, most people were concerned with Glenn and Maggie reuniting and Daryl saving the day.  But that is probably why we didn’t get to see any of that at all.  Instead, we got to yell at the idiocy of angsty pre-teen Carl Grimes.  The redeeming part of “After” was Michonne having emotions.

We enter the episode with Michonne returning to the prison after everyone has scattered.  But she is going back for only one reason: to finish Hershel off.  Along the way is one of the big plusses of the episode, the recreation of Michonne’s Walker Pets. Then we get a good ole’ “way too soon” shot of Hershel’s little walker head and Michonne stabbing it.  All the feels.

Enter Rick and Carl walking alone down the open road.  Carl walks ahead because he has tricked himself into thinking he is a badass.  It becomes clear that Carl doesn’t have respect for Rick anymore, but it is unclear why.  Is it because he realizes his dad isn’t invincible?  Is it because he thinks his dad let all their friends die?  Or is it simply that Carl is just a little shit?  It really could be all of the above.  They enter an abandoned restaurant and encounter Big Joe, the guy with the thickest skull this side of Wolverine.  Is it likely that Rick’s axe wouldn’t have killed Joe?  Probably not, but then we wouldn’t have gotten this piece of advice, “Every bullet counts.”  Rick says this to Carl after Carl shoots Joe.  Again Carl tries to show his upper hand by not doing what his father says.  They find a home and argue some more.  Then like a jealous woman, Carl brings up Shane.  Going for the jugular.  It was the moment for me that I realized that I don’t really like Carl, again.  He had half a season of being a tiny little Rambo, but now he just looks and acts like his stunt double, a 30 something woman.  It’s pretty terrible.

Michonne had a bad dream.  It seemed though that all of it really happened, just not in the same sequence as it happened in the dream.  We got a taste of her dressed up and talking like a normal human being.  She had a pretty nice apartment, too.  She has a “lover” and a child.  She also put her Katana in her knife block.  I am really hoping that a knife block featuring a Katana goes on sale at Target tomorrow.  Anyway, her dream got creepy and her boyfriend and his friend got their arms cut off before they were walkers.  But then she woke up!  But I guess waking up from a bad dream in the zombie apocalypse isn’t really waking up from a bad dream.

Back at the home Rick and Carl found, Carl sits in what was once a young man’s room.  A room with many of the same things Carl may have had if the zombies had never happened.  It was a simple little touch to what was an attempt at a coming of age story.  Unfortunately, this was the only good touch.  Rick is passed out on the couch and all Carl does to try to wake him up is scream at him.  He doesn’t even check his pulse!  It’s pretty ridiculous in a show about survival.  Anyway, of course his screaming attracted walkers.  And then Carl didn’t stay in the house.  Yeah, and I wasn’t the only one thinking that either.  I found this gem on Tumblr everywhere after typing in “The Walking Dead.”

And he decides to mess with the walkers.  Remember last time he did that?  Well Dale died.  This time, no one died, but Carl should have.  He leads them away from the house, more than likely because he knows he shouldn’t be out in the first place.  Then he encounters a third walker and barely is able to shoot all three.  They do die on top of him and he has to wriggle his way out.  Then he throws up, wasting the milkless Wheaties he and Rick had argued over the night before.  Instead of being scared though, like a little punk he says, “I win.”  This kids needs an ass whoopin’.  He goes back to the house and yells at an unconscious Rick some more, this time about being such a badass blah, blah, blah and then says he doesn’t need Rick anymore.  Mmm, mmm, mmm, what a little asshole (credit to the secretary in Ferris Bueller).  And moreover, it seemed like not so great acting.  I was not moved.  It may have been the content, but isn’t every 14 year old kid too big for their britches?  Is it that hard to act it well?

Carl decides to go explore some more and finds a lot of pudding in the kitchen of a nearby home.  But then he also finds a walker, wastes lots of bullets and when that one bullet he needed was gone, he tries to scoot away.  Didn’t he think of pistol whipping him?  Well, obviously not.  In a big show of cat and mouse, Carl ends up getting away, although I’m not entirely sure how because there were plenty of chances for his leg to be bit.  But his shoe did get taken away by the walker.  And that was the whoopin’ he got.  And it probably will be the only time that he gets beaten up and his shoe stolen from a bully.  Then he went and ate that puddin’ on top of a roof.  It was a little sweet, a boy and his puddin’.  But then I remembered that Carl is a total A-Hole and it wasn’t that sweet anymore.

Michonne ended up in the woods with her new pets in the midst of a herd.  When she sees a walker who looks eerily like herself she starts to freak out.  Then she copes.  She copes big time.  She literally killed an entire herd by herself.  Well, and her Katana.  And that is how Michonne got her groove back.  A big thanks to my friend Robert for saying that (and the shoe thing earlier) while we watched tonight’s ep.  Michonne then follows the tracks in the mud back to people.  She is ready to be with the living again.

Back at the house, Carl sits with Rick in the dark.  Rick wakes up, and seems like an un-dead man.  But then it turns out he is just continuing his dead-like breathing with his broken ribs and didn’t want to say anything to build suspense.  Then he says “Carl” in his very strange way and passes out.  Carl finally admits he’s scared and then he cries like a little whimp.

Michonne finds clues as to where they are and reunites with Rick and Carl.  Maybe Michonne will be the saving grace Rick needs, because Carl certainly didn’t go out looking for medicine.  It was all about chocolate pudding.

Hush Comics gives tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead a C.  The only redeeming factor was more background on Michonne, her awesome zombie genocide and more emotional depth as to why she is the way she is.  Carl was the center of the episode and if I wasn’t invested in the rest of the group, it would have been a deal breaker.  Carl nor the actor who portrays him are ready for such a tall order of carrying an episode.  It actually mirrors the comic book content pretty well, but the delivery by Chandler Riggs comes off much more like a pubescent tantrum than a boy becoming a man.  This is made compounding disappointing by the fact that it was written by the man, Robert Kirkman, himself.  Robert Kirkman may have been going for a coming of age tale, but all it did was make me dislike Carl more than I already did.  He may be Southern, but he is no Huck Finn.

All photos belong to AMC Television.

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead: Season 4 Mid-Season Recap

Welcome to Spoiler City, population: you.

So many questions and so little time!  Last December, the first half of season 4 of The Walking Dead wrapped up with the raid on the prison.  Oh, did I say not to continue reading if you have not seen season 4 yet?  Take caution, this is only if A) you have seen season 4 or B) you haven’t, but don’t really want to watch 8 hours of quality television.  

Here is what has happened so far:

The displaced people of Woodbury made nice with our group in the prison.  Rick chatted up a lady in the woods and narrowly missed being fed to her husband.  Glenn and Maggie were almost pregnant.  Carl wasn’t allowed to use his gun.  Carol was teaching knife skills to tiny children secretly.  Michonne looked for The Governor on her horse.  Then supplies ran short.  They went on a run.  A helicopter came through the ceiling of a convenience store and an alcohol bottle broke a entire shelving unit.  Then people died.  Survivors at the prison realized that the walkers on the outside of the fence were being fed rats.  Then a survivor died of the flu and starting chowing down.  Then people died.  Rick farmed, and then he quit when he realized his pigs probably caused the flu.  Tyreese got flirty with Karen, the crazy lady from the Woodbury crew.  Then he found her body burnt along with a man’s burnt body outside.  Tyreese raged out.  The group then quarantined the fluers vs. the non-fluers.  Maggie cried that Glenn was a fluer.  Beth got told her she still had a job to do.  Carl and Hershel went the woods to look for elderberries.  Daryl, Bob (a newcomer), Michonne and Tyreese went to look for meds at a vet.  Bob found his medicine: liquor.  Daryl got real mad.  Then they got stuck in a herd of walkers.  Tyreese beat his way out with a hammer.   Rick investigated the burnt bodies.  Carol confessed.  Then they went on a run and Rick kicked Carol out of the group and gave her a station wagon.  Some of the fluers became walkers.  Hershel gave a speech, killed a walker and cried.  Meanwhile, The Governor was sad and alone.  Then he found some girls.  Then he had sex with one next to her kid.  Then they joined a group.  Then he killed their leaders and became the new leader.  They raided the prison.  Hershel died.  The Governor died.  Lots of people died.  And we were all sad.

No, no, no. SAD. SAAAAADD

There we go. Just plain old SAD.

How do the events of the TV show line up with the comic books:

Up to the mid-season finale, The Walking Dead has done a great job of separating the story in all mediums, giving even the most well-read fans their money’s worth when watching. Many of the characters in the comic books are represented in the television show, but a lot of the context that brought them together has changed drastically. However, it’s our theory that, with the show moving so quickly, there will be a lot more content borrowed from the other forms of The Walking Dead.

Here are some of the most noticeable differences, separated by the rag-tag groups that split off at the end of “Too Far Gone:”

Rick and Carl Grimes:

In the show: Rick and Carl have left the prison totally defeated emotionally. Rick spent most of the first half of Season 4 protecting Carl from the dangers of the outside, but during the calamity of the gate collapse, Carl went Rambo on the walkers to earn Rick’s respect. They leave the prison together (without Judith!). Rick is badly wounded.

In other literature: Pretty much exactly the same thing. The only difference is that, along with the loss of Judith, he saw his wife Lori get murdered right in front of him. He then proceeded to go insane, with the phone and the whole shi-bang. Oh yeah, Rick also lost his freaking hand!

Predictions: This will be Koooooaaarrrrlll’s (Carl’s) coming out party. In the books, this was a big moment for Lil Rambo, as he was forced to care for an ill Rick. Couple that with Chandler Briggs’ puberty growth spurt, and you will have one temperamental young man.

Michonne:

In the show: In a fashion that only a bad-ass ninja like her can have, Michonne was busy hacking and slashing every single walker in sight, alone.

In the comics: Most of the comics focused on Rick & Carl. Michonne emerged to save them from an attack, as they drove off together and met back up with the others.

Predictions: Hopefully it will be more of the same, and Michonne will mow down every walker in between herself and the Grimes. They’ll need all the help they can get.  But because the show can get so deep, it would be good to see some introspective stuff from Michonne.  Who was she?  Who is she now?  Why did she cry about the baby? And who were the men who were her zombie slaves?  Maybe now is the time to find out.

Glenn and the bus full of useless strangers:

In the show: Still recovering from whatever gross disease was making people bleed out of their eyeballs, Maggie had put Glenn on the bus. Seemingly, Glenn is in the best spot, but we all know that everybody in the apocalypse is useless.  Plus, the bus was shot at as it sped away.

In the comics: Glenn and Maggie had actually taken off early with Dale and Andrea, making a retreat to Herschel’s old farm (which was not burned down).

Predictions: There’s no doubt in our minds that the bus full of useless people will become zombie fodder. Glenn will be forced to get himself out of a sticky situation again, but there’s no way they let him die.

Tyreese, Sasha, Bob and the little girls training for a role in the remake of The Professional.

In the show: It looked like Tyreese went off on his own, but he could have tried to follow Lizzie and Mika. Meanwhile, Sasha and Bob ran off together in a separate direction.

In the comics:  Tyreese was the one who was beheaded by Michonne’s sword in the comics. He was also MIchonne’s lover.  Sasha was not in the comics.  Bob stayed at Woodbury and we have seen him since.  The little girls seem to be the equivalent of Ben and Billy from the comics, a pair of brother’s who were a little odd.

Predictions: Tyreese has a leadership quality about him that has yet to be banked on.  Now that he is separate from the group, he may channel his inner Rick, especially if he is with the girls.  He may try to take on a father role to them.  Bob seems like he has a lot of development left in the show. We think it is possible he will be the cause of a lot more pain for our survivors.  Sasha doesn’t seem long for the world.  If Tyreese is to have any development, his overbearing sister will have to die.  We also believe that the little girl named Lizzie, the one who is a little more cuckoo will come clean about being the real murderer of Karen.  And maybe she will kill her younger sister.

Beth and Daryl:

In the show: Daryl and Beth escaped the carnage together. It’s almost too convenient for Beth, who has been after Daryl’s loins for over a full season now.

In the comics: Not applicable. Neither are in the comics.

Predictions: Daryl keeps everybody safe – well, everybody who looks to him for protection (RIP Merle), but something tells me that Daryl pushes her away; she will react similarly to the way Carol did in the comics. Carol, after being rejected by Rick when she offered to be shared by him and Lori (awwwwkward) and being cheated on by Tyreese,  jumped into the loving arms of a zombie. Besides, AMC has already announced that there will be Daryl-centric episode happening. Between Daryl and us, there’s no reason to let Beth become a third-wheel.

Carol:

In the show: Speaking of Carol… she is such a different person in the show vs. the comics and even a different version of herself than when we met her.  Last time we saw her, she had packed up her station wagon with a lot of gas cans and was on her way to find a different group after she admitted to killing and burning the bodies of Karen and David. Also, she felt like it needed to be done and didn’t feel very remorseful.

In the comics: Well, Carol never escaped prison, or even made it to the stand-off.  As said earlier, she asked to join the marriage of Lori and Rick and when she was rejected, walked right up to a walker and made out with it, subsequently, getting her face eaten off in front of the group.

Predictions: Carol will be at the Alexandria Safe Zone (rumored to be called “The Sanctuary” in the show).  It is the next place we go in the comic series and only makes sense that will be our next stop.  But with the way Carol left, not to mention the fact Melissa McBride has been making the late night circuit, we know that wan’t the last of Carol Peletier.

Burning Questions:

Question 1: Is Judith alive?

Hush Comics as a whole are torn on this issue, but we feel that Judith has nothing to offer to the story, and she (similar to Lori) was removed from the situation in a way that allowed The Walking Dead to stay on television.

Question 2: Who is the next core character to die?

According to an article from Comicbooks.com, the next character to die will be “somebody who hasn’t died yet in the comics.” Now, this narrows it down to: Maggie, Rick, Carl and Michonne. The most believable of that list is Maggie. Knowing TWD, I think there’s a play on words. I think that this implies that somebody who isn’t in the comics at all. And this list is much more interesting: Beth, Sasha, Daryl (yeah right!) and the two little girls.

Question 3: Where do we go from here?

Well, that’s the big question. This time, there’s no RV to the rescue and no Greene farm to go back to. Right now, we have several main characters all on the road, and all alone. Maybe they’ll head to Nebraska? The logical answer is that they will find a remote village, maybe by the name of Alexandria. However, I kind of hope that they take their time. The real fear in the apocalypse is the open road.

Question 4: Who else will join the ranks of the Survivors?

Abraham, Eugene and Rosita will definitely be making their debut this season. The trio were an integral part of the group in the comics, so I expect them to be great additions to the show.

 

Want to know more?  Check it out this video AMC released.  It gives the audience some scenes that make us speculate even more.  And don’t forget to watch The Walking Dead tonight on AMC!

All credit for pictures and videos are credited to AMC Television.

Written by Adrian Puryear and Sherif Elkhatib

The Walking Dead Review “Too Far Gone” S4E8

“Too Far Gone” .  Battles were fought.  Some won and some lost.

If you don’t want to know the specifics of those winners and losers, then for the love of whatever God you pray to, don’t read ahead.  In fact, if you haven’t seen the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead don’t go on the internet.  Just don’t internet.

The episode starts with The Governor giving his big campaign-style speech about how they all need to take the prison.  He becomes a voiceover for himself as he abducts Hershel and Michonne from the prison gates.  He explains to his groups that their territory isn’t safe, the prison is and that the people who currently live in the prison killed his daughter and the town of Woodbury.  Once Tara, his lover’s sister, says she’s “in” the others join in.  What sheep.  How can so many groups of people be sheep in this world? I suppose it is one of the points of this series.  Meanwhile, his lover, Lilly, is the only one who questions his actions and motives.  He has already admitted that he kidnapped two people from the prison.  Yet, he believes his sweet-talking works on her, but it will prove him fatal.

The Governor holds Michonne and Hershel in an RV as his personal inmates. He talks to them and Hershel tries to convince him that they can all live in the prison.  The Governor tells them they won’t get hurt, but they can’t all live together. At one point, Hershel calls Philip “Governor” and he is very quick to order Hershel not to call him that.  It seems so odd that he is promising them they won’t be hurt when we all know they are bargaining chips yet he doesn’t want to be called by the name he deserves to go by.  The two golden nuggets of this scene were The Governor telling Hershel, “You’re a good man; a better man than Rick” and Michonne telling The Governor, “I’m gonna kill you.”  Oh, Michonne.  What a clairvoyant.

The Governor has the group packing up for war as he leaves behind Lilly and Meghan. Lilly wants to just move somewhere by water since it seems safer.  The evil mastermind says his goodbyes to Meghan, who is making make believe peanut butter sandwiches out of red mud.  The Governor picks her up in his arms as if she is his own.  He believes that her legacy for the world will be to be alive.  We know that children who can’t protect themselves can’t stay alive.  The Governor does not know this yet.

Back at the prison, Maggie and a healing Glenn have cute couple banter.  Their anniversary is coming up.  Sometime.  Daryl and Rick discuss Carol’s ousting.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the entire talk, just Daryl’s mediocre reaction to it.  When Rick says he was worried about Tyreese’s reaction to Carol, Daryl threatens too late he would have taken care of it.  Daryl and Carol forever.  Sasha thanks Bob for helping save her life by treating her with meds.  He still feeling bad about life, probably the alcohol incident.  He was staring at and holding a shoe box.  What is in that box?  We will have to wait until February to find out.  Tyreese approaches Rick and Daryl before they approach him.  He found another rat that had been ripped apart, but by a human.  Right as Rick is about to tell Tyreese the “truth” about Carol (there is much debate in the Hush household about whether Carol really killed Karen) the prison gets hit by something big enough to rattle the concrete.  Rick and the rest run outside and are encountered with The Governor and his crew with the tank.  The Governor wants to talk and Rick tells him there is now a counsel.  When Rick is presented with the bargaining chips of Michonne and Hershel, who are brought out on there knees, it becomes clear that one if not both of them will be killed.  Comic book readers immediately know what is going to happen.  Clearly Rick in the TV series has not read the comics because he says, and I quote, “I don’t make decisions anymore.”  Uh, what?  Obviously there is a counsel for the poor decisions that were made but this seems a little more urgent than just throwing your hands up and saying, “Nope.  Uh-uh.”  But of course The Governor lets him know what is what and responds, “You’re making decisions today.”  Gulp.

The Governor music bangs loudly. Alisha stands behind Hershel and proves what a sheep she is.  Rick hugs Carl and walks down to the gate to have the chat.  As they start, Daryl begins to hand out the weapons to the group and conduct a plan for escape.  As Rick tries to negotiate, we see that the prison watchtower is ablaze from the tank.  The Governor and Rick go back and forth about who owns the prison, whether they can live together, that there doesn’t need to be violence.  Yada yada.  Negotiations cannot be made.  Did anyone else notice that Michonne has a band-aid on her forehead from getting pistol whipped?  Hershel must have found it in the RV.  What a sweetie.

Lilly sits by the river in a lawn chair.  She sees a walker on the other side and he adeptly makes it through the water considering he is lifeless.  “Mommy, can you please help me dig?’ Meghan calls out.  It is then that I knew Meghan was a goner.  If anyone digs in this world, it is for graves.  Meghan is still playing in the red mud and finds a sign that reads “WARNING: FLASH FLOOD AREA”  Just as she is able to read the sign, a hand reaches out of the mud from below her, in true zombie horror movie fashion.  The buried walker rises from the dead and takes a big bite from the little blonde-haired girl.  Take note blondies, dye your hair before the apocalypse because your future is bleak.

Back at the stand-off, some walkers approach The Governor’s group.  He shoots them, though not adeptly, but they die evenutally.  Carl and Daryl aim for fire in the background and Carl talks big game.  Daryl calms him down.  Two of the little girls from Carol’s Knifefighting Academy carry baby Judith in a baby seat.  Lizzie tells the other girls that they should all have guns.  I would not want her on my island if it was just us.  But in an crisis, she is kind of smart.  Back at the non-negotiation, Rick tells The Governor that without the fences, the prison is worthless.  “We can all live in the prison, or none of us can.”  This was all The Governor needed.  He jumps down from the tank, grabs Michonne’s kitana, and puts it up to Hershel’s neck.  

Rick calls upon Tara aka “you in the ponytail” and asks if this is what she really wants.  Mitch chimes in saying they want what he (Rick) has.  Considering his brother was just stabbed in the back, he is such a dick.  Rick tells the group about having the people of Woodbury as their leaders in the prison and that they can be one of them now.  “We can still come back.  We’re not too far gone. I know we all can change.”

Hershel smiles at Rick ever so slightly, motioning that all those talks and pieces of advice had finally worked for the shows hero.  The Governor does not like Rick’s speech.  He snarls “LIAR” and slices Hershel’s neck with the kitana.  Is this a direct reference to the labels we saw in the last episode?  It would be great writing if it was.

The slow motion reactions of the group to Hershel’s death are palpable.  Maggie and Beth scream with no sound.  Choosing this effect worked so well for the emotion of the scene.  Rick screams, draws and fires his gun.  Michonne quickly rolls behind the cars of The Governor’s group to get out of the way of the gun fire.  Both groups are aiming for anybody they can.  Hershel isn’t fully dead, which is hard to watch him wiggle on the ground with half his neck detached.  Michonne gets out of her restraints.  The Governor takes her sword and begins to literally hack Hershel’s head off his neck.  For a split second, it seems that he is maybe stopping a zombie head from coming to life, but it is really just The Governor being a sick and twisted fuck head.  Ces’t la vie.

As the Governor gets done practicing his slicing skills, he looks up to see Lilly carrying a deceased Meghan.  He runs towards them.  Tara hides behind a truck and is panicking.  Alisha, her lover, tries to calm her down, but Tara brings up probably the most valid point ever said in The Walking Dead, “He chopped a guy’s head off with a sword!”  That sums following people for the sake of it pretty damn well.  The Governor takes Meghan’s lifeless body from her mother’s arms and shoots her in the head before she reanimates.  He has no emotion on his face.  He comes back to the group and commands them to all go for the prison and “Kill them all!” an iconic panel for comic fans.

From the time Hershel is so brutally murdered to the time The Governor orders the raid on the prison is only 3 minutes of screen time.  All this happens in 3 minutes.  Just soak that in for a minute.

The tank takes down the gates the prison, and really, who else thinks this is really dumb?  The Governor was able to convince them to go to the prison to take it as theres.  By running the gates down, the Prison has no use.  And then.. oh Jesus, and then, they start blowing holes in the prison walls with the tank.  Uh, what?  The one command of “Kill them all” was really enough to make a fairly peaceful group of Winnebago dwellers go all Full Metal Jacket?  Well I guess for the sake of time left in the episode it was.  But holes in the prison walls is not really a safe habitat for the RVers now.  The RVers shoot there way in as The Governor rears the back.  Beth and Maggie stop shooting and run to the bus.  Maggie instructs Beth to get everyone on the bus while she gets Glenn because “we all got jobs to do.”  Oh now they are gonna make me cry, pulling out Hershel’s advice not moments after he died.

When The Governor finally makes it to the gates of the prison, Rick attacks him and starts punching him in the face.  A lot.  It’s awesome.  They engage in fist-a-cuffs for a while and neither of them are in good shape.  Random people from both sides are shot.  Maggie and Glenn get to the bus and find Beth missing.  Beth was going to find Judith, so Maggie leaves to look for Beth.  Daryl is surrounded.  On one side, he has crazy Neo-Governors shooting at him and on the other side he has walkers.  But did anyone really think Daryl would go down like that?  Nope.  He uses one of the walkers as a body shield to be able to approach the real killers and throw a good ole grenade their way.  Bob gets hit by a bullet in the shoulder and just then, the bus takes off.  Sasha says, “We’ll figure it out.”  Clearly, she has missed a bus or two before.  Tyreese is ganged up on by Alisha, who apparently is cool with guys getting their heads chopped off.  He jumps in the garden and BAM, Lizzie and her kid sister are holding guns.

They shot Alisha.  The clearly graduated from Knife School.  They run off and Tyreese tells them to go the other way.

The Governor is now on top of Rick strangling him.  He is inches away from death when:

FUCK YES Michonne!  She skewered him.  She fucking skewered him.  Best female character on TV right now.  And she just watches him writhe in pain.

Rick gets up and goes to look for Carl.  Daryl throws a grenade in Mitch’s tank.  Shit blows up.  Daryl shoots Mitch with an arrow.  Beth runs to Daryl.  She couldn’t find the kids, but Daryl tells her they need to go. Rick yelps for Carl and is then approached by walkers. Carl takes them out and he and his father hug.  They go to look for Judith and instead find a bloodied baby seat.  A little too bloodied to be from somebody picking her up out of the seat, but not too bloodied to have been a plate full of zombie finger food..  It does not look good for Lil Asskicker.  A walker approaches and Carl shoots it too much and then he finally cries. And not just any cry, but a sad, sad cry. Like a Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games cry.  He and Rick walk away.

As The Governor fights for life, Lilly approaches him and shoots him in the head just as he shot her daughter.  A hoard of walkers enter the prison, one stepping on the white chess piece.  The King is dead.

Rick and Carl are in the hills beyond the prison.  Rick tells his son, “Don’t look back.”

Wowza!  What an episode!  What a way to end!  So many cliffhangers.  The Governor is dead, but the rest of the group is in shambles.  At episode end, Glenn is with the bus, Daryl and Beth are together, Tyreese is alone, Sasha is with Bob, Maggie is alone and Rick and Carl are off in the woods.  Will they all come back together?  Will one of them stumble on Carol?  Will they join up with some of the RVers who feel badly?  The trailers hinted at some more comic book convergence, with Rick sick in the house alone with Carl. Another crazy thing is that Chandler Riggs is a growing boy. All the events in the books that occurred with him as a timid eight-year-old are now taking place with him as a pubescent young man with a deadly trigger finger. And where the hell is Carol?? We have to wait until February.  Oh, man.

Hush Comics gives “Too Far Gone” an A.  It was the best episode of the season thus far, but only because it was so full of action.  We finally have a dead Governor, but Hershel gone.  No more for our one-legged Summer Santa with the wisdom of a farmer.  Until February, fellow Dead Heads.

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead Review “Live Bait” S4E6

Last week we got to see a side of Herschel that Chuck Norris would be proud of. This week’s The Walking Dead continues with the individual character study and it does not disappoint. Welcome back, Governor! We open on the tail end of Phillip Blake’s bat-shit crazy assassination of his army.  He is tormented. He is defeated and alone. We see him burn Woodbury. He wanders the badlands like a Grateful Dead fan. He looks like a cross between McGuber and Forest Gump on his cross-country jog.  David Morrissey plays the nomadic drifter to perfection, although the 80’s Kurt Russell look doesn’t quite fit him. It is clearly No Shave November. As he walks, we hear a conversation as a voiceover. He is talking to a woman, and the voice sounds eerily like Carol, but we find out later that it may not be. He tells the voice, “I barely got out alive.”  All of this plays out over, The Last Pale Light in the West, by Ben Nichols.

Dodge-A-Walker of the year champion goes to The Governor.

He is in a daze; he appears to not be aware of his surroundings. He comically sidesteps a walker, and it falls to ground. He had the grace of a Summer League Rucker player and continues on his sleepwalker roam until he sees a little girl in the window of a building.

This week’s episode is titled, “Live Bait.”

The Governor walks into the ransacked building and is greeted by a Smith and Wesson and a baseball bat. Completely alert and threatening are two women standing in a doorway, one with a gun aimed at his head, the other in a Jackie Robinson stance. There is a silent exchange; he hands over his bag and weapon. He is allowed to enter their home. We are introduced to Tara, Megan, Lilly and their father. For the true Fanboys these names will have meaning from The Rise of the Governor novel by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.  Finally, we have comic book, novel and TV crossover all wrapped up into one neat little rotting flesh package. The immediate reaction in the room as we watched was one of shock. The Rise of The Governor is essential to The Walking Dead folklore and we recommend that you pick it up or download it from iBooks.  There are three books in the Governor story arc and they are crucial for understanding Wizard Magazine’s villain of the year 2010. Even more compelling is the fact that he tells them that his name is Brian Heriot, a name that was on a barn he passed while on the road. The use of the name Brian is very significant in the novel and could be seen as forewarning for future events. He is allowed to stay by promising by “pounding it up,” with Tara. We are sure the Obamas would be proud.

The girl’s dad is elderly and on oxygen. Miraculously, his tank is still full. Before the turn he drove for the Gorbelli food company and his truck is parked in the front of the building. This has been their primary food source.

They feed The Governor Spaghettios, and he throws them out in disgust. I guess Herschel’s Spaghetti Tuesday gets one less vote.

After a talk with the father about a game of Backgammon he goes upstairs to retrieve the game, he finds an immobile zombie in a tub, he puts #BathSaltZombie down and takes a gun that was by its side.

Lilly explains to Phillip that her father has Stage 4 lung cancer and he needs oxygen to live. He is nearly out and is dire need. She asks Phillip if he could go on the equivalent of a Taco Bell run and grab some tanks at the near-by retirement home.

He accepts. This benevolent Governor is puzzling.  Why is he doing this for these strangers? What will this ultimately benefit? Doesn’t he have a Michonne to torture and a Rick to kill?

The clinic is filled with zombies in wheelchairs, id-bracelets, and hospital gowns. Ironically they don’t look much different from what you would expect in a hospice. Once again he avoids them like some grotesque game of tag. Terrell Davis had nothing on this guy! Go Broncos!!!

He dodges and closes doors behind him; he has obviously found a way to manage avoiding them with little effort.  He is fearless, but his heroics seem misplaced. Why isn’t he killing zombies? After stirring up the Bingo room he can’t get all of the oxygen tanks out and brings back what he can carry.

He returns to the apartment with two full tanks and goes to his room. Lilly takes care of him and it is clear that they are forming a relationship.

The blonde haired, blued eyed girl seems to be the metaphor for innocence, or salvation in our world. It’s either that or an omen for really bad shit to happen. Megan is a cute little girl who resembles Penny, Sophia and especially Teddy Bear Walker from the very first episode of The Walking Dead Series. She thought the governor was her dad; that’s why she watched him from the building, which ultimately led him to this group of women. Megan’s real father left for a couple of beers and a Powerball ticket before the turn, and we’re guessing he didn’t win.

The Governor has alone time with Megan in the bathroom, but not that kind. She asks what happened to his eye, and he speaks freely to her, more so than any of the others. He says that he was trying to help people and got hurt as a result.

They Pinky Swear to keep the secret about his eye and she “crossed her heart and hoped to die,” but left out the “stick a needle in her eye” part because she probably didn’t want to seem insensitive.

He tells her that he is a pirate with a smile on his face. He laughs, almost in a jovial way and shows the first bit of emotion since the episode began. This tender moment shows us another side of Phillip Blake. He is the governor no more, at least not now.

He is working backwards. He teaches Megan to play chess, now clean-shaven; it seems as if Megan has brought him back to life. As he is explaining the basics it is apparent that he is talking about the events at Woodbury.

The Governor teaches us about the game, too.

“You can lose a lot of soldiers and still win the game,” It’s the king; it’s the guy you want to capture. Megan takes a marker and puts an eye patch on the white king piece. “We start with the pawns.”

AMC does love their White Kings…. when will Don Draper get one?

So who do you think is creepier with kids, Carol or Phillip? Phillip is bonding. He gives a jealous look to Lilly when she comes to get Megan as their dad is dying. This brief moment is strange enough to fill our thoughts will all kinds of devious acts that The Governor could be plotting.

As their dad dies and turns, in his reanimated state he grabs for Tara and Phillip smashes his face into the bed with his own oxygen tank. Splat!

Did anyone else notice that Lilly is like a less hot Maggie?

The next scene we find Phillip burying dad in the back. Megan is now fearful of the Governor and hides behind the couch when he comes back inside. Tara pounds him up for saving her life, but he is not concerned with her. Alone he burns the picture of his old family, they are now dead to him, he has found a new family, or has given up on the idea.  He threatens to leave them, but they stay together, taking to the road in the Gorbelli truck like a National Lampoon’s Vacation sequel set in hell.

Tara apologies to Phillip for lying to him about her occupation before the turn.  She asks if Phillip is lying to her, and he says no. His con-game is working; he has earned their trust and can manipulate the situation to suit his needs.

Megan is still afraid of Phillip. This is clearly upsetting him; he has to make things right with his pseudo-daughter.

They travel through the day and stop to rest.  In the back of the truck Lilly allows him to cuddle with her. They kiss, oddly, and seemingly make love. Yuk!

The next morning the truck breaks down and they end up walking. There is a small herd of walkers around the bend in the road, they swarm in hunger as Tara falls and injures her leg. Megan freezes and Phillip calls out to her, she runs to him, and he carries her away from the herd. We made note that he called to her instead of just picking her up because we feel like he wanted her loyalty. This is the long con.

While running they fall into one of his walker traps (Remember those huge pits he was using to build a zombie army?).  He immediately springs into action with the walkers in the pit and pulls a walker’s throat out in a completely badass move. Fatality!

Um. Ouch.

He grabs a femur and uses that to pry the jaw off another walker.  This primal survival tactic seemed to be for Megan’s benefit. Remember, he got really good at avoiding the dead without using force. As he fights Spartacus style in the pit we hear gun fire in the distance. Martinez shows up with his machine gun at the end of the episode and now things should get really interesting. Upon Martinez arrival, he will have to maintain his Brian Heriot persona with Tara and Lilly. He will ultimately have to kill anyone who threatens his identity bluff or continue the deception indefinitely.  

Hush Comics gives “Live Bait” a B+. This episode pulled us deeper into The Walking Dead mythology but left us with more questions. There were epic kills and border-line restraining order behavior with minors. My vote for Governor goes to Brian Heriot.

Stay tuned next week when we recap Dead Weight, and don’t forget to visit our website! This week we have a special message from comic book legend Todd McFarlane!

written by John Soweto

The Walking Dead Review “Internment” S4E5

The Walking Dead “Internment” Review 

Naw man, it’s cool. I’ll just walk. Thanks anyway…

We open with Rick on his return trip to the prison. He is still struggling with his decision to banish Carol. He stares at the watch she gave him as he races down a deserted stretch of road, the camera focusing on his bandaged hand.

The epidemic is spreading. Herschel, Sasha and Glenn desperately fight to keep Henry alive by inserting a breathing device down his throat and squeezing air into his lungs.  These three have become the triage medics in the quarantined cell-block.  Herschel, played by Scott Wilson, was absolutely incredible this episode. He takes a commanding role in delegating responsibilities while maintaining a high sense of morality. He refuses to kill recently turned people in plain sight of the remaining survivors.  He inconsequently provided some much needed insight about the world that is now inhabited by the dead.  He does all of this and still finds time to give Lizzy a reading assignment; Lord knows that no child should be left behind in the Zombie Apocalypse. Tom Sawyer. This is an appropriate novel considering the circumstances and future events. Most lit-majors and bookworms may recall that Tom Sawyer didn’t get a Bible in Sunday school because of his deviant ways. This will come into play later in our episode.

Herschel reassures Maggie about Glenn’s worsening condition, restores faith to the infected while keeping them in their cells, and gives Glenn a much needed pep-talk. If not for Herschel’s temperance and hope we get the sense that all would be lost. Glenn, played by Steven Yeun plays a crucial part in this episode as well. His relationship with Herschel is built to a level that we haven’t seen before.   They are doing their best to keep the diseased from passing the point of no return with limited supplies, and time. Herschel appears to be the only adult in quarantine not showing symptoms of illness. The other is Lizzy.

Maggie is face to fence with hundreds of walkers. They are dangerously close to bringing down one side of the outer railing. She is cracking skulls and reinforcing the chained links with lumber.  She is over-whelmed, but calm. We get the sense now that anyone in our core group of survivors can make it on their own, including Carl. We’ll get to that later.

Rick returns. He explains why he voted Carol off the island and we are hit with a new twist. Maggie’s reaction seems odd. Instead of passing judgment, voicing an opinion, or showing some anger she asks if Carol “said she did it,” in reference to the murders of Karen and David. There was a moment of contemplation and confusion. This could be nothing, or it could mean that Carol was covering for someone else. The plot thickens.

Rick makes Carl his first priority upon his homecoming.  He forbids Carl from coming outside to help with the much needed tasks of walker defense and curing the sick, but Carl says, “You can’t keep me from it,” meaning the death and chaos of this world. Rick says that it is “his job to try.”  Carl seems defeated, but we know that eventually he will be needed.  There are only so many people who are not infected left in the prison. With Tyrese, Michonne, Daryl and Bob still gone, there are limited options.

“A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.” This quote from Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley: In Search of America seems to drive Herschel. It gives him the push he needs to ensure that lives aren’t lost in quarantine.  Herschel admits that he thinks that there is still a plan and a reason for everything that is happening. His faith has been shaken, but not broken.

The fence is failing. Rick and Maggie are working hard at keeping it up. Rick falls after a walker grabs his leg and Maggie chops its arm off. For those of you who read the comics, you are well aware that Rick lost his right hand in issue 28. We are once again teased in the series with the foreshadowing of Rick losing an appendage. We think that Rick will lose his hand by the end of this season.

The situation in quarantine goes to shit. Several people have died, Glenn and Sasha have fallen seriously ill, walkers are now lumbering around free, chaos ensues and Mr. “Stay in your cells” goes to work.  Maggie leaves fence detail to help inside, and Rick is left with hundreds of the dead meters away from breaking their defenses. Rick, left with no choice, recruits Carl to help with the walkers. The fence comes tumbling down and Carl and Rick are exposed to the herd coming through the breach. They quickly decide to take arms and eradicate the on-coming threat. Fanboys, Carl finally gets his M-16! 

The sight of Rick and Carl mowing down the herd warms the heart. It gives you that same fuzzy feeling you get when you see a father-son potato sack race. It was a beautiful union of gun fire and exploding heads! Carl clearly owned at C.O.D. before the turn. It’s such a spectacle that Rick has to take a moment to pause and absorb all of his son’s badassery.

Dafuq?

Meanwhile, Herschel is alone in quarantine with several walkers, Lizzy wandering around like a lost kid in a department store, and he is still trying to avoid killing the dead in front of the others. What a guy! He eventually saves the day with Maggie’s help. They take out the residual walkers and stabilize Glenn. Carl and Rick make short work of the zombie mob and Rick clearly has a new respect for his son. All of the key players in this episode unveiled a character trait that almost guarantees them another day in this world.  Hell, even Lizzy put her life on the line to save Glenn. Daryl and the others finally make it back after things calmed and the medication they brought is distributed.

Father-Son Potato Sack Champions

We finally get a quiet moment with Herschel. He takes a seat and opens up a Bible. The Tom Sawyer reference comes full circle. After all the trial and tribulation he is able to find his faith again. This moment is powerful and done to perfection. Before we fade to black Herschel sheds some much needed tears. We believe that these tears did not come from exhaustion or remorse for the infected people or the turned. We believe that he was crying because he still believes that the walkers are just sick people and that he just committed murder. Remember the barn full of zombies?  Hopefully we will get more insight into this theory as the season continues.

 

As the zombie clean up around the fence continues we get a perimeter shot of the prison. Carl and Rick walk out of focus and our view widens.  Just yards from the gate a shadowy figure is revealed.  Holy shit! It’s the Governor! Somebody tell Michonne that she sucks at tracking. We knew that he would eventually show up because David Morrissey is still in the credits this season. We can’t wait for what follows. More gut-wrenching than the Governor’s re-appearance is the talk that Rick and Daryl will have to have about Carol. Could the best tag team since Gumby and Pokey really be over??

Why ruin it by asking about Carol?

Hush Comics gives “Internment” an A for great character display, especially on the part of Herschel. Lizzy is still bat-shit crazy, Maggie reminded us that she is still a BA, and Rick finally realized what a Big Asskicker he has raised. Come back for next week’s return of The Governor and our recap of “Live Bait.”

I… HATE…. SPAGHETTI!

written by John Soweto and Sherif Elkhatib

All images credited to AMC Television

The Walking Dead Review “Isolation” S4E3

So after thinking it over the past couple weeks, as all our Walking Dead favorites begin coughing, and then bleed out of their eyeballs and die, that maybe we should all pay better attention to our health and hygiene. Around flu season, especially, people! Every time I see a coworker cough on their hand then shake with it, or a passer-by sneeze into thin air, I want to pull out my kitana (which I carry with me everywhere, for obvious reasons) and chop off their diseased heads. Thanks for listening, and take your vitamins. I also wanted to talk about this big SPOILER right now, because there are some things said before the reveal that mean something totally different now that we know: Carol killed Karen and David, Rick found out, and Carol don’t give no shits about it. Holy crap. “Isolated” begins with Glenn and Maggie giving each other deep looks as the group begins digging graves for all the deceased in the previous episode, proving there’s still romance in the post-apocalyptic world. We get a good picture of how screwed everybody knows they are. Disease is an enemy you can’t really fight, and I think the group realizes this.

Tyreese, however, doesn’t care about disease. He only wants revenge for whoever burned the bodies. It’s sad to see him reel from this; when Rick and Daryl try to console him, though, he lashes out at them, punching Rick pretty damn hard in the face. It’s a scene that is supposed to pay homage to the prison fight scene, which is ironically about Tyreese hurting Carol by him cheating on Carol with Michonne. In the comics, it felt like an emotional climax that sadly had two good friends come to blows. However, in this instant, it felt nothing more than the portrayal of an angry black man, who lost his temper and got beaten up by a white cop. It felt completely out of character and I didn’t understand the need for the violence at the time. I might be a little out of pocket for thinking that way, but it is always an issue when it comes to race in television; even the best shows aren’t immune to criticism, however subtle it may be. Either way, it was the means to an end, as we realize that Farmer Rick is dead, and the Sheriff is back in town; it’s a hell of a way to open up the episode.

Police brutality doesn’t die with the apocalypse, unfortunately.

We come back to Tyreese furiously digging graves for Karen and David. Bob politely tries to convince him that he needs to get some attention for the ass-whoopin that Rick put on him (albeit in a more polite way).  In a “brothas gotta stick together” moment, Bob helps Tyreese dig. We also find out that everybody is sick: Sasha, Dr. Submarine and Glenn (noooooo). Herschel comes up with a plan to snatch some supplies from a nearby Veterinarian College, and boldly decides that he should lead the way. That is, until Daryl hilariously reminds Herschel that he has a peg leg, and Herschel defeatedly offers to draw a map for them. Daryl, even though he’s always willing to step aside for Rick to lead, takes care of business when he needs to. Rick apologizes to Tyreese for going all LAPD on him. Tyreese is surprisingly cool with it, but is stern in demanding that Rick finds out who did it. Tyreese begins to get angry with Rick when he feels like Rick isn’t doing enough to look for the killer, saying “I’m starting to get that murder is OK in this place now.” It reminds me of the the rules that Rick set up in the comics. IF YOU KILL, YOU DIE. I’m starting to think that this will be his first plan of action upon returning to power. However, seeing as they’ve already killed dozens of people already, I’m not too sure about that. Daryl gets ready to go on the trip to the vet with Michonne and Bad Luck Bob when he decides that Tyreese would be a great addition to the team. Daryl says that he feels that whoever killed Karen and David will “have a bolt put in ’em.” I wonder how Daryl would feel about it if he knew his own sweetheart was the one that did it. Like a walker’s corpse, the truth floats to the surface sooner or later. In a great piece of symbolism, the painting in the hall has the words “Smooth Seas Do Not Make Good Sailors” written on it as Herschel tries to decide what to do with himself. As an obvious leader of the group, Herschel must feel pretty damn useless in this situation. He makes it harder on himself by gathering natural remedies in the forest so that others may feel better. He’s a truly good man and I suppose that is what scares me. As the moral compass of the group and then-Summer Santa of the group, Dale was the next target destined to be mowed down. I wonder how much longer the group, and the audience, will have the pleasure of Herschel’s company. Herschel gives an Emmy-worthy speech to Rick and Maggie later that was one of the best of the series.

On the other hand, Carol’s “do what needs to be done” attitude, has her shove Lizzie into the sick room and lock the door behind her. This makes her just as strong, if not stronger than Herschel, but on the other end of the spectrum. Tyreese has an extremely sad moment with Sasha, as brother realizes that sister might die, and that going out with Daryl is the only way to really help the situation. Bob, not forgetting the shitstorm he caused in the premiere, asked Daryl if he should really be coming along. Daryl responds by having him read the label of a mediation that I do not dare repeat. It’s a pretty funny moment that finally shows Bob’s usefulness. Back at the yard, Carol is filling up water when Tyreese creepily stands behind her and waits for her to turn around and scare the crap out of her – what horrible post-apocalyptic etiquette! You’d get cut doin’ some shit like that around me. Tyreese kindly asks Carol to look in after Sasha (nooo!) because of how much Carol cares about the others. After Carol apologizes for what happened to Karen, Tyreese’s lips begin to quiver and he hurries away. This makes her feel like a total jerk and she responds by throwing the entire water supply on the ground. Smooth move, Carol.

Next, we have the grandest scale of walkers ever. As Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese and Bob run into a herd of almost 10,000 walkers (which we learned from a video on AMC.com that they are actually 100 actors digitally changed into 10,000)! When they get stuck, spinning out Zach’s Dodge Charger’s (RIP) tires over a mountain of corpses, they take off on foot. With Michonne and Daryl fighting their way through the crowd, Bob begins screaming at Tyreese, who is looking like a kid that was forced to go to Home Depot. He just won’t get out of the car. As walkers overrun him, Bob is forced to leave with the others. In a great nod to his comic book gym slaughter, Tyreese somehow makes it out of the carnage and back to the group. How about that zombie distraction device that Carol built? Pretty cool! But what follows is not cool at all. While cleaning the cistern out, Carol is overrun by walkers. She manages to kill a few, but looks horrible doing it. I think Melissa McBride might need a stunt double for any actual zombie killing that is done.  Rick confronts Carol about  Karen and David, and she calmly admits to killing them and then walks away. What does this mean for her relationship with Rick? Will he tell the others? Will she keep killing? And is it really immoral?

It’s like a Grateful Dead concert out here!

Lots of changes will happen in the upcoming episode, and I’m really worried about Sasha (not Glenn, there’s no way he’s not gonna make it) and Bob. Things will only get worse before they get better, and it will be just in time for the Governor to reappear. Hush Comics gives “Isolation” a B. Very little action and a severely out of place brawl between Tyreese and Rick hurt this otherwise thoughtful and character defining episode.

written by Sherif Elkhatib

All images credited to AMC Television