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Issue 187 Discussion

Discussion in 'The Walking Dead Comic Series' started by Neuropyramidal, Jan 2, 2019.

  1. Neuropyramidal

    Neuropyramidal Well-Known Member

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    Read it last night. Pretty good issue with some character development throughout several simultaneous subplots. Nothing major happened until the last couple frames when Mercer got himself into some trouble.

    I liked Princess' backstory. She became less of a caricature and more of a character.

    I'm not sure where he is going with the Carl/Lydia/Sophia/Josh thing. Is he just developing those characters for the sake of development, or are we leading up to something here? Will something major happen between Lydia and Sophia in Carl's absence? I'm thinking it probably will, but it won't lead to something serious like a death. It will probably lead to Lydia and Sophia ultimately becoming friends.

    And I may have genuinely missed something, but why do we need to send a group to Commonwealth to check on Rick? Is Eugene's radio no longer working? Wouldn't they have set something up so they could keep in contact with some regularity? They are all set up to do so with Eugene and Stephanie's equipment. They may not trust Stephanie but they could tell her to get Rick on the line.
     
  2. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    I liked this issue more than the past few because we got more focus on the Hilltop again (something it doesn't seem like has been focused on for quite a while now) but at the same time I did scratch my head a few times.

    I don't really think enough time has passed for them to really be that alarmed yet back at the communities. It should take about a week to get back and forth from Alexandria to Commonwealth (so that would be two weeks right there to go both ways) and it doesn't seem like they have been at the Commonwealth that long. I'm guessing maybe they have been there about a week at most. Were Magna and Maggie expecting them to leave right away as soon as they showed up? Maybe. Then again maybe more time has passed than the comic has let on about. That said I think they should probably be gone for a bout a month or so before they would resort to sending people after them. I'm guessing this is a way to get the folks from Hilltop to see the place without having to do a 'third' official trip to the Commonwealth.

    Kirkman is really developing the Carl and Lydia relationship to be really unstable. I think it is going to be one of those deals where they are breaking up one week and getting back together the next until one or both of them just decide to break up for good (kind of how traditional unstable teenage relationships go).Them saying that they'll both be each others monster was pretty telling. I'll have to see Kirkman do anything with Lydia outside of Carl scenes before I'll believe it is going to happen. I don't think Lydia has had a single scene so far in the series that didn't involve Carl so right now I'm assuming that won't change and that we won't see her again until Carl gets back to Hilltop. Maybe it will though and he actually is planning on doing something with Lydia and Sophia that doesn't directly involve Carl.

    Princess's backstory was ok (at least we were given an explanation for why she acts that way). I kind of have a feeling though the reason Kirkman decided to put that in there was because he knew a lot of people weren't warming up to the character. To me I think she was just intended to have that 'kooky' personality since Negan was riding off into the sunset as a character without much explanation just like Negan's personality was never really explained.

    I am interested to see how he plans on juggling Commonwealth with Hilltop and Alexandria in the future. When he brought Hilltop and the Kingdom into the comic it really wasn't any big deal because he could still involve all those communities within the same storyline. He can't do that with Commonwealth though and I feel like it has really shown. Hilltop and Alexandria have really been placed in the background ever since about issue 170. I feel like if that continues for too much longer people (who aren't feeling the Commonwealth story) will start dropping the comic.
     
  3. Neuropyramidal

    Neuropyramidal Well-Known Member

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    It does seem odd that they are suddenly sending this search party after Rick and company, but I have a feeling we are meant to believe a bit more time has passed. It seemed like issues 184 to 186 could have happened all in a few days, yet Michonne's eye went from looking horrid and swollen shut [injury occurring same day Rick arrived] in 184 to completely recovered with no residual marks by I believe 186. Plus even though it seemed like the Michonne's remarks at 'pre-trial' could have been the very next day after her injuries, there could have been a several day gap there as well. It could be that including travel time to Commonwealth, Rick has been gone as long as a month.

    But again, why they don't just contact each other by radio, is beyond me.
     
  4. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    Especially considering that wasn't Siddiq the one who told Rick about the radio? I could buy no one bothering with the radio if for instance all the people we saw dealing with it were currently at Commonwealth but we know that isn't the case because Siddiq has been at Alexandria all this time.

    I guess the easiest answer is that Kirkman has an upcoming storyline in mind that involves people from Hilltop going to Ohio. And them just talking by radio wouldn't allow that storyline to begin. Unfortunately that isn't exactly a small and insignificant oversite as that is an oversite that affects the main storyline currently going on. Makes me wonder if Kirkman isn't quite as thorough when he develops these stories as we sometimes think he is.
     
    #4 lastcat3, Jan 2, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2019
  5. Благу

    Благу New Member

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    I think that the Commonwealth is a second-last arc.
     
  6. zombie_basher

    zombie_basher Member

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    Okay guys, please don't view this as complaining, I'm a long time TWD fan, both show and comic, I read every issue and enjoy them for the most part. but...at the same time, anyone think it's also kinda boring right now? Negan and Whisperers was exciting stuff. Character subplots and development are great and all, but where is this all heading I have to wonder? I feel like real story thrust is kind of lacking. In other words, what's the MAIN THREAD we are supposed to be latching onto? It's all just...stuff, happening. Talking and an occasional death and more talking, where is it all going? Again I'm not really complaining, just kind of wondering aloud since we know the comic is a really long term thing and Kirkman is really in it for the long haul. Maybe we need to reach issue 200 to shake things up, but right now the comic feels like it's spinning its wheels in the mud.

    Love to hear other's thoughts on this.
     
  7. Neuropyramidal

    Neuropyramidal Well-Known Member

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    I actually like the current arc. I agree there is no single encompassing exciting arc going on right now, like a Negan War or the Whisperers or Hunters, etc, but we are getting some character development and taking time to see how each individual character is adapting to this new gigantic community. We have been seeing this society from the eyes of several different people. Rick, Michonne, Elodie, Eugene, Magna, Mercer, Dwight, Pamela, and so on. This allows Commonwealth to be fleshed out, from multiple view points. This way, when something big really does go down, it will have more meaning. We will be invested in it more, and perhaps more conflicted and torn about it, because we have viewed it from so many perspectives.

    And giving us those perspectives and depth takes time. So we end up with several issues of talking and character viewpoints and fleshing things out. A slow burn of building tension, which I am enjoying for itself, and do not consider "boring". The fast paced action arcs are entertaining in their way, and this fleshing out and development is interesting it its way. I think we need a balance of both for it to be a meaningful comic taken as a whole. And TWD has always been fairly good at this. I'm enjoying this ride, and excited to see where it takes us.
     
  8. lastcat3

    lastcat3 Well-Known Member

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    And to that end it makes me wonder what the general perception of the series was while the prison arc was going on (for those that were reading it issue by issue back then)?

    Even though things seem slow now there is still about ten times as many things going on now than there was for the first half of the prison arc. The prison was introduced in issue 12 but the governor wasn't introduced until issue 27. Basically for those fifteen issues it was just the characters exploring the grounds and hooking up with each other. I remember a scene that was solely focused on Rick gossiping about who was getting together with who.

    So makes me wonder what people thought of the comic back then. I'M guessing that the atmosphere of the comic would have still been new enough that people would have been a lot more forgiving about stuff like that than they would be now.
     

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