Walking dead Catch up vol 12-16

 

Author: Robert Kirkman

Illustrator:  Charlie Adlard

Publication dates: 2010 to 2012 (to the lastest volume discussed in this review)

General book description: (Me rambling mostly) The walking dead is a story about what comes after a zombie apocalypse, the people who survive know how to stay alive for the most part. They fight the zombies as best they can but now they need to do something more, surviving is not easy and not only because of the dead. They are starving, they are getting sick, the new goal is to find a place to make their sanctuary and try to work on creating a sustainable system for surviving.

Thoughts:

I stopped reviewing this series because its long and if you want to talk about generalities you can only do so much, so now I grouped a lot of the volumes and will make semi spoiler discussions of them.

Vol 12 Life Among them:

Rick and the rest of the group get invited to Alexandria and when they arrive everything is so different from what they are used to. People living in real houses, getting running water and electricity. 

It is so unreal that a group of people can live so isolated to not be aware of the hardships of the "real" world nowadays.

Some people have issues adapting to the new life, after being so long on the run to be able to accept to feel safe is a lot to take in. But most adjust, pretty quick. Rick is not one of them, he continues to mistrust and fear their good luck. And some of the people in the new community also distrust Rick and his group.

Vol 13: To far gone

The group continues to assimilate themselves to Alexandria, we see a few personal struggles such as:

-Relationships blossoming. We see Michone get close to a man, start to develop and accept feelings. They carry the guilty of the survivors not sure if they deserve to be happy. But they are willing to try.

-Different assignments are given to the adults, everyone in the community must contribute. They all do their part, food and shelter are freely given to all members of the community. 

-This is where we see father Gabriel pull is backstabbing but it carries little weight on the overall plot.

-Maggie struggles with fear so much, she is still not fully recovered from her last mental break down and is panicking thinking Glenn could be in danger. Understandably, people don't just shake it off and get better because it's more convenient to do so, she has not had a break to catch her mental stability.

-Rick, Abraham, Glenn, Michonne prove themselves to be very reliable in their own merits. People in Alexandria are not fit for the new reality they live in. Their shelter life proves to be very bad to prepare them to make the hard decisions.

-Douglas is the leader but he starts to see he might not be what the group needs. Not spoiler, we can all see where this is going. As the main character,  we all know who is going to end up taking the seat.

-There are a few more deaths but as before, none of our main cast of characters. all in all the same pattern, but I am enjoying my time reading the story.

Vol 14: No way out 

So far so good, Alexandria's people are pulling the shots. They scout for supplies and for people but after their one (again very unrealistic) encounter with possible enemies, they are scared. People were so sure of themselves inside the walls, but out there the main danger is other people. 

The issues arise after Rick trying to play the hero kills another member of the community. He gets no hardships for it, it was a very deserved death.

And as usual when everything seems to be settling more problems find them. 

This time not people but walkers. We see very bad decisions taken, but for the most part no one can tell Rick is an asshole. The few who saw him be a selfish bastard, die and others simply stay quiet.

We see an awesome bonding moment, everyone coming together to fight. And again a few more deaths. I am not keeping count of how many times people we are getting close to just die here!

One of the most impactful images so far, happens here. Carl and his accident while this fight is taking place. I was very thankful this is in black and white and that it is not in the tv series that I saw it. I am not even sure if it's in the show but I do not want to see an animated version of it.

Vol 15 We find ourselves

Note: This is going pretty fast, but this fast is how you get through each volume. If you have the compendiums you can easily get through them in a week maybe if you read them back to back. You can get through two a day, they're mostly 130ish pages and are very captivating. I pace myself but sometimes I find myself reading more of them than it was my initial plan. 

Rick is feeling guilty he has a good reason to do so, but oh well you can't change the past. Carl is fighting for his survival. 

The group as a whole takes Rick as their new guide. They work together, they struggle, even among this end of the word scenario people still find time for personal drama. We have couples fight, break up, people trapped in unrequited love, and being shot down (not literal just refused).

Rick is trying to make Alexandria safer, training people to kill the dead.

And then a major struggle, one we saw coming. some of the people in Alexandria are trying to make a stand against Rick and his people, no one likes to feel like the newbie rises to a promotion and the veterans are still in their starting positions. 

It all blows over.

People continue to struggle personally with their relationships. Also, Rick can't seem to stay single for long, in every other volume a woman is throwing herself at him. I just noticed that o maybe it has been only three times but it certainly is interesting. In a way it makes sense, people feel lonely and want to connect with others and the best way to do that is via sex.

Vol 16 A larger world

If you had been reading this story for the first time and had no other means of information (too difficult now with the show and everything) this is one of the most shocking revelations. Finding Jesus. He is a great fighter but most of all the impressiveness comes from what he offers. 

Obviously, there are other people out there, but so far every other group of people encountered are uncivilized. No one wants to talk or make reasonable trading offers, they just see something they want, someone in a better position, and the try to mess them up. 

Hilltop offers them HOPE. Rick has been looking for this the whole time. Now here is the proof he needed it is possible. If other people manage to live in a self-sufficient community or at least a very reasonable one, then so can they. Even better the society can start to flourish once more if they work together.  

Of course, Rick can't go anywhere without displaying his violence and killing abilities is very hard to understand how that earns him points with all the leaders. This earns him points as I said with the leader of Hilltop, now they strike a deal, queue the Saviors!

The first time you hear about the. Rick is full of confidence, they have faced enemies before and they always come on top, he takes the deal with no hesitation. 

Still the story captures you, you get invested and want to continue and see how it will all end. Overall start rating for the volumes:

Note 2: Having this many volumes to cover in a single post probably not the best idea, I'll leave it here. I'll cover a few more at a later date. 

What is the best idea, make posts with short content, or with a lot of text? I feel the longer the post the less inviting it looks.