Advanced Review: The Walking Dead #94

Our good friends at Image have once again graced us with an advanced look at one of the best books on the shelves each and every month — The Walking Dead! 

Issue 94 brings us part two of the” A Larger World” storyline, in which a man named Jesus has offered to extend a hand of peace and trade to Rick and his community. But can Rick really trust someone who trounced two of his best fighters all in the name of peace? Maybe, maybe not, but this one man will surely change the outcome of the lives they have been leading thus far.

Kirkman has been on a slow burn lately, setting the pieces of his creation in exact placement for something big to happen. And the character of Jesus will be the catalyst for either misery or happiness! Andrea has quite the ominous speech in this issue about who has survived, so ominous in fact that you cringe as she is speaking — wishing she had never opened her mouth. Moments such as this is exactly why this book has been so good for so long. Kirkman can dredge up emotions in readers so effortlessly that you forget you are reading a comic book. Carl’s complete emotional numbness for human life is so jarring that it almost seems he is no longer human himself. One can only ponder the amount of emotional damage this young boy is riddled with, and fear what he could do to “protect” the ones around him. Fear, contempt — and especially with this issue — trust all come into play making you ponder, as Rick does, the ability to have faith in another persons motives. In a world that has done away with rules and most courtesies, can you openly trust someone you don’t know, or for that matter, someone you thought you knew? 

With Rick, Andrea, Michonne, Glen (and a surprise guest) escorting Jesus to the “Hilltop,” there is no one left at the community to stop Abraham from executing his own plans – plans that will remove Rick from a seat of power and leave Abraham as the new “leader.” With issue 100 looming off in the distance, one can only ponder the possibilities Kirkman has up his sleeve. Will Abraham take this opportunity to overthrow his “friend” or will Jesus do it for him? Will the community actually befriend another town and create a barter system that will benefit everyone? Whatever it is, Kirkman will surely leave us agape with shock as he always does! And with only four original characters left from issue one, I fear the worst!

As Sean Connery once said, “Jesus was a carpenter!” but he never knew this Jesus — and he is badass!