The Walking Dead #105

Robert Kirkman is a genius.  Now, I know for most of you, that won’t come as a shock.  But for those of you who have not caught up on the Walking Dead yet, or haven’t even bothered with it, you might not realize why I am so ready to pronounce the man behind the pop culture phenomenon of the Walking Dead a certifiable Einstein.

I’m going to tread a very thin line here:  I know a majority of folks pick this up in trade, so I promise I will try as hard as I possibly can to avoid spoilers.  I’m not going to go into detail on elements of plot, but I will touch upon little minutia of the current paradigm.  So consider that your general warning.

So much of what I love of The Walking Dead is exactly what Kirkman addresses in the letters page of this month’s issue.  The Walking Dead is a comic about what happens when civilization falls apart and the inherent evil in man takes over.  I have to agree with Kirkman on his little philosophical tangent here:  man, on his own, is bad.  In fact, we’ve seen Kirkman’s flagship title argue this in the past:  when Rick and his band of survivors rally the troops and try to recreate civilization, they do okay.  Survivors who try to reestablish order tend to fare better than those who focus on themselves.  If we look at the Governor, we can see this same principle at work.  The Governor was perhaps the single most vile and morally reprehensible characters we’ve seen pop up in this universe yet.  The Governor’s society did not work because his motivation was not to repair the guiding forces of civilization, but rather simply to indulge his own selfish impulses.  Now, go with me on this one, but what is different about Negan?  I mean, he seems to be another power hungry psychopath right?

With this issue we find out just exactly how Negan perceives himself in this post apocalyptic world Rick and the rest of our protagonists inhibit.  To use his own words, Negan and his collective that he has assembled, are saviors.  They are rejuvenating civilization and bringing order back to the world.   Now we’ve seen Negan do some twisted, sick, horrible shit already.  I am talking really twisted (God, I want to spoil this issue for you guys!) here.  So here’s my question: at what point do the ends justify the means? 

Throughout history, great societies have been led by some truly twisted individuals who did some truly repulsive things.  But they accomplished great things as well.  Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, these are guys you would not necessarily want to have a beer with, but men who nonetheless changed the world.  Moved history forward as the Marxists might say.

Negan has obviously crafted something stable in this zombie-infested world.  He leads a society based on rules and order.  And to some degree, it looks like it has paid off.  I’ll let you be the judge, but so far it looks like his camp is not the most unstable place in the world. 

I think there might be an interesting dynamic developing in here.  Maybe, just maybe, Negan, with all his violence and insanity, might be doing something right.  Maybe it takes burning a few Persepolises to build an empire.  I get it; Negan is just absolutely antithetical to our perceptions of good.  But maybe he is what this broken world needs to rebuild.  I mean, have you read about some of the things the Greeks and the Romans did to punish citizens? 

Now, I am no Negan-apologist.  But this certainly is going to make an incredibly enthralling dynamic going forward.  The world of the Walking Dead is not a simple place.  And surely, the implications of a character like Negan are going to be anything but simple.  He has already shaken up Rick and the group’s world.  It is only a matter of time before he does it again.

All that said, issue 105 is a great comic.  Fantastic action, beautiful black and white art, and some of the best character work you will find in the medium.  But what makes this issue special and truly remarkable is the moral questions Negan raises.

I have incredibly high hopes for where Kirkman is talking our favorite survivor epic going forward.  It is absolutely clear that Kirkman is going to wrestle with these moral questions in the upcoming issues, and I for one, cannot wait to be a part of that experience