Comic Book Review: The Walking Dead, #25-30 (The Best Defense)

"The Walking Dead is an American monthly black and white comic published by Image Comics beginning in 2003. The comic was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward) and chronicles the travels of a group of people trying to survive in a world stricken by a zombie apocalypse.

"The Walking Dead is centered around Rick, a small-town police officer from Cynthiana, Kentucky, his family, and a number of other survivors who have banded together in order to survive after the world is overrun with zombies. As the series progresses, the characters become more developed, and their personalities shift under the stress of a zombie apocalypse. Fighting growing despair — and sometimes each other — the group searches for a secure location which they can finally call home."

In a very pleasant change of course, Kirkman takes The Walking Dead in a new direction. After a slow start to the graphic novel, almost halfway through actually, it begins picking up pace when the group of survivors spot a helicopter on the horizon, which then crashes off in the distance. Rick takes two others, in their newly found riot gear, in a jump-started car from the jail parking lot to search for the crash site. He promises to have the team back by sundown, and the rest of the group must eventually worry and deal with his not returning in time.

While the survivors grow impatient, Rick, Michonne, and Glenn come across other survivors, who, while living comfortably in blocked off sections of a nearby city, have taken it upon themselves to find new, sadistic forms of entertainment to keep themselves occupied in an otherwise dead world. Led by 'The Govenor', the sheep-like city is not quite what it would seem on the outside. This new Rome houses a much darker and much more dangerous threat to our heroes than the living dead massing outside of the barricaded walls. There are definitely many resemblances in this story arc to George Romero's Land of the Dead that was released the previous year, 2005. "This is a major turning point for the overall story of The Walking Dead, setting the stage for years to come." The human condition is now key, and at prime focal point in the series, and looks to remain for a while.

Best quote: "The thing you have to realize is that they're just us--they're no different. The want what they want, they take what they want and after they get what they want--they're only content for the briefest span of time. Then they want more."