Comic-Caps: The Walking Dead #19-24

22 Jul

Robert Kirkman – Creator, Writer, Letterer
Charlie Adlard – Penciler, Inker and gray tones
Cliff Rathburn – Gray tones

Previously on The Walking Dead
Upon finding the prison Rick thinks his luck has turned. It hasn’t. Hershel’s and his family join Rick at the prison and most are soon killed by an inmate and during a zombie attack on the Prison 2 of the remaining prisoners stage a coup and with a gun to his head Rick must make the ultimate decision.

Chapter 4: The Heart’s Desire (#19-24)

Issue 19
With a gun to Rick’s head Dexter is demanding everyone leaves the prison or he’ll start shooting when suddenly a group of roamers appear. Apparently Dexter got the guns from Cell-Block A. The same Cell-Block A that is still filled with the undead, well, was filled with.

Everyone takes up defensive positions and start taking out as many roamers as they can. While this is going on Otis who’s been out looking for supplies gets back to the prison to see and hear the battle going on, which unfortunately is attracting the roamers outside the prison and soon finds himself surrounded. Luckily a mysterious women carrying a samurai sword and 2 roamers on a leash appears and saves him.

During the gun battle inside the prison Rick turns to Dexter and puts a bullet in his head. After all the roamers and Dexters revolt are dealt with Rick offers the lady a place to stay in he prison while Andrew who was helping Dexter runs off.

Tyresse tells Rick he saw what he did to Dexter and reassures Rick that he did the right thing but tells him he might want to rethink his ‘You kill, you die’ policy.

Issue 20
A quieter issue of TWD after the last few nail-biting issues. Andrea makes everyone new clothes from the prison wear, Michonne recognises Tyreese as a former Falcons NFL player, Hershel doesn’t trust Axel and Glenn and Maggie have more sex.

Rick gets a group together to clear out the rest of A-Block. After coming across the library Dale and Tyreese split up from Rick, Alex and Allen. As Allen stops for a breather the top half of zombie claws its way out of a dark corner and takes a chunk out of Allens left leg, meanwhile Dale and Tyreese come across a door that reads DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE, when they enter they find a huge generator.

Issue 21
Dale and Tyreese hear Allens scream and head out of the generator room to find Rick and Axel carrying Allen to the courtyard, they set him down and Rick gets an axe and proceeds to chop off Allens leg just below the knee in an attempt to stop the bite from spreading then Hershel jumps in and ties off the arteries to stop him bleeding to death and they get Allen inside to rest.

Carol, upset by the ordeal goes in search of Tyreese but when she gets to the gym she sees Michonne giving him some stress relief meanwhile Glenn and Maggie have yet more sex.

Issue 22
The next morning Carol kicks Tyreese out. Rick tells Lori over breakfast and they head over to see Carol only to find Sofia sitting in the corner in tears and Carol on the bed with her wrists slit.

Rick goes in search of Tyreese only to find him with Michonne and Rick loses it, he tells Tyreese it’s his fault and asks wasn’t losing his daughter enough to show how on edge people are and tells him that if Carol dis it’s all his fault.

Tyreese has enough and punches Rick.

Issue 23
A huge breaks out between Rick and Tyreese. Rick continues to accuses Tyreese of being the one who killed Carol (even though she isn’t dead), Rick goes on to call Tyreese a murderer for killing Chris. Tyreese tells Rick that it was justified because Chris killed his little girl and that killing Chris was the most enjoyment he’s had since all this went down.

Rick continues to call him a murder but Tyreese turns it back on Rick asking what makes Ricks murder justified but not his own. Rick tells him he did it for the good of the group but didn’t want anyone to know what he did because he didn’t want to risk people to start questioning his abilities as a leader as it would be bad for the group.

Tyreese calls him on it and tells Rick he has a blood lust, that he enjoys it, that he enjoyed mutilating Allen. They start fighting again, a punch from Tyreese knocks Rick backwards to the railings and Rick falls backwards all the way to the floor below. Tyreese runs down to check on Rick who responds by punching him and saying Tyreese just tried to kill him, Tyreese tells him he didn’t and that Rick blacked out.

Lori runs down to Ricks aid and helps him up when Andrea appears, in tears. Allen is dead. Rick tells the group that he’ll shoot Allen and turns to Tyreese and says ‘unless you thinking I’d enjoy it too much’. Rick goes to his friend and and shoots him. Hershel tells Rick that he didn’t have to be the one, that he doesn’t have to carry the weight of everyone on his shoulders. Rick drops the gun and collapses to the floor.

Issue 24
Rick wakes up 26 hours later with Carol at his bedside, she thanks Rick for standing up for her and kisses him, he pushes her off. She tells Rick that she won’t tell Lori, Rick tells her she’s damn right because he will.

After Carol leaves Rick gets up and bumps into Dale who wants to have a quick word with Rick. He tells Rick that he’s no longer their leader, which pleases Rick no end, Dale tells Rick they now have a committee to make the decisions that consists of Rick, Dale, Hershel and Tyreese. Rick asks why no women and Dale tells him that that’s the way they wanted it, they and everyone else were happy with the decisions the 4 have been making so they see no need to change it.

Rick asks Dale to help him outside so he can address everyone. Rick tells everyone that the ‘You kill–You die’ credo was probably the most naive thing he’s ever said. The world has changed, we have to fight to survive, to do things that we never would have done before. That we now live amongst the dead, the walls aren’t there to protect them from the walking dead. WE ARE THE WALKING DEAD.

Final Thoughts
Ricks spiral continued as the strain of protecting people and the world he lives in starts to really take its toll on him. But the question to ask is, is Rick really going insane or is he the sane one? Will people start to trust Rick again or is he on his way to getting booted out the Prison?

There wasn’t a lot of side stories in this arc, they found a generator planted some crops and Carol is not in a good place but other than that it was all about Rick. As the next chapter is called The Best Defence I’m hoping things start to pick up a bit and we get a good long story because right now, the group are living a pretty safe life.

Next week I’ll be recapping Robert Kirkmans Invincible comic, carrying on from where we left off with The Facts of Life story arc covering issues 20-24. I’ll be back with more of The Walking Dead the following week where I’ll be recapping Chapter Five: The Best Defence covering issues 25-30.