Tha walking dead update #2

Author: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn
Genre: Sci-fi, Horror
Publication date: 2010-2014
Description: the world has come to an end as we know it. There is an infestation of zombie, if you get bitten or scratched you will die and become one of the undead. A few groups of people have survived that and now are trying to rebuild from there. Things are not as easy as they would have assumed. The main threat as they soon come to realize is not the walking dead but those who are yet not infected.
Includes volumes 17 to 21.

Thoughts:

I have enjoyed reading this series. It is full of violence, death, betrayal, fighting for survival. It does not have to be very realistic, but in most cases, it carries a lot of logic. I generally read only 2 or 3 volumes a month but I'm sure the whole rest o the series can be finished in a single month. Each volume is a very quick read.

I will next give a few details on what happens in volumes 17 to 21 the most recent volume read. I am nearly finished with the story, so nothing can be said without it being a spoiler, be warned about it. 

Volume 17 Something to fear.

The people in Alexandria come to face the Saviors in the outskirts of their town. The victories are not the piece of cake they wanted and they suffer some losses. We see a semi-important character die in one of the battles. Because of the late encounters in Alexandria Glenn and Maggie decide to move to Hilltop and request to be taken with the next group to visit the other community. 

That seems like a bad idea from the start. I felt as if they were betraying the group when they decide this. 

It proves to be a very bad idea. On the way to Hilltop they run into the Saviors again and this time Negan is among them. They are vastly overwhelmed in numbers and firepower. One of their group is chosen at random to pay for their bad decisions. They are forced to watch Negan beat to death with his bat. 

People, in general, react bad, blaming each other and mainly Rick for "allowing" this to happen. I also dislike the attitude but it is understandable, someone in pain is not always logical and they look to blame and inflict pain onto others to try to alleviate their own. Humankind is very selfish. 

Rick decides to take a wary stance and try to preserve their lives so they will adhere as a group to the Savior's demands. This angers most of the community in Alexandria. 

Volume 18 What comes after

We follow Jesus on his own little mission to find the Savior's hideout. Meanwhile, Negan comes to request his very first donation, he takes "half" of everything they have in Alexandria. Rick allows it but people are angry and upset at him for just taking Negan's orders. They start to lose faith in him as a leader. 

Rick's own son, is among the ones who no longer believes in him. Carl being a stupid and reckless kid decides to take it upon himself to fight Negan. Of course, he does not make a dent at all in his force and is captured. Negan shows his good faith and returns CArl unharmed after keeping him for a few hours. 

Jesus makes another surprising announcement to Rick, he knows of another community who is also under the Savior's thumb. Unlike the leader in Hilltop Jesus says that the Kingdom is ready to fight back. Rick and Ezequiel met. The king is a very peculiar man with a pet tiger. With him, they see an interesting character who is looking to make an alliance with them and betray Negan. With an inside man, they might just be able to defeat Negan. 

Volume 19 March to war

While Rick is off trying to organize the rebel forces from the Kingdom and Hilltop Negan makes another visit to Alexandria. There is a coward man who is trying to get Negan to kill Rick so he can take over the leadership of Alexandria as he has more right to it in his opinion. Petty jealous and backstabbing bastard. 

When Rick and his crew arrive they are scandalized at the death of a member of their community when they have been meeting all their demands. Negan informs Rick he saved him from a treacherous man. 

The first fight ensues as the Saviors are leaving with their bounty. They try to take him down along with his small team. Of course, Negan was expecting an attack or he simply wanted to be prepared. He had a few more people close at hand. Alexandria is defeated but before Negan manages to give final strikes, Ezequiel's people arrive to help out.

Negan manages to escape and now he is also declaring war on them. 

Volume 20 All out war part one

Everyone is preparing to fight, people from Hilltop are called in, the Kingdom and Rick also muster a few warriors from Alexandria. They go directly to the Savior's hideout. Negan also has a secret play. Hilltop's leader sides with Negan and threatens to have the families of those fighting expelled to the harsh outside world unless they give up their fight against the Saviors. A few people do leave. 

But the rest start the fight against Negan and execute their plan. It was a very good one but they do have a few losses and the lat part of the scheme goes a bit wrong. Negan has captured one of them. 

Gregory manages to squirm his way back to Hilltop and provides a very convenient tale of what happened. Maggie doesn't stand his blatant lies and challenges him. She urges the people to stand up and fight once and for all encouraging them to trust Rick. 

Negan's forces get the help they need from the outposts he keeps around the area to watch and take supplies from communities and other survivors. He does not have all of them in his hideout. So he gathers them and then goes to do the same, he attacks Rick's home ground. They get their walls breached and are hard-pressed to stay alive. Maggie and people from Hilltop arrive to save the day. Negan has already left but Alexandra is still trying to salvage their community. Walkers, destruction, and fires threaten to finish them off. 

Volume 21 All out war part two

Eugene is captured by Negan, he discovers them in the little ammunition factory his team has set up. Obviously, he needs to convince him to make ammo for his group. Eugene is threatened and roughed up a bit but in his captivity, Dwight comes to him to reveal he is trying to help Rick and his people out to end Negan. They get overheard and the doctor of the community also joins their little group. They manage to escape.

Meanwhile, the little band of survivors of Alexandria go back to Hilltop to hide and recover. The Saviors follow them and they execute their little evil plan. Rick is believed to be dead now. Negan made sure he was hit with one of the "infected" arrows. 

Negan and Rick face off again. Negan is taken down and Dwight talks some sense into the rest of the Saviors. They put down their weapons and the fight end.

Very anti-climatic and worse off. Rick decides to spare Negan's life. He wants to prove to be better than that. Big JA, I am predicting this will come back to bite them in the ass sometime in the near future. 

With this volume, we reach very close to the complete compendium, only 2 more and we're done. Almost 3 out of 4 found down. I am very excited about wrapping up this series for the first time, the third time is a charm indeed. The third time I started I'm going to actually finish it. The plan is to get it done by the first few weeks of December, we are well on our way to that. I have been considering reading ahead and finish it up in a single month, but I have so many things I wanted to finish by the end of the year I generally run out of time trying to keep up my self imposed schedule. 

We'll see but for sure I will finish it before the year is out!

For now, that is all, see you later.

Stay safe!