Last issue, Jesus made the mistake of confiding in one of his Hilltop allies named Kal, who immediately hightailed it to rat them out to Negan.  Despite Kal’s head start, Jesus must try and stop him.

Eugene is surprisingly resistant to using his new ammunition making setup to take on Negan and his men, naively thinking that the bullets would only be used on walkers.  (Duh, everyone knows you don’t use guns on walkers because the noise only draws more walkers!)  Rick then gathers up the usual crew and takes them to The Kingdom to meet King Ezekiel.  (See issue #108)  After a tense first impression, Ezekiel takes a liking to one of Rick’s crew and opens up, revealing his past before all of… “this.”  It’s actually quite sweet and endearing!  And pretty interesting, honestly.  But we all know, just as things appear to be going well, things go horribly, horribly wrong, so we’ll just have to see where this goes.

Y’know, The Walking Dead tends to suffer from varying between really slow issues that add to the overall story, but on their own aren’t all that engaging to AW HELL!!! craziness.  This issue was sort of unusual.  It was slower in pace, but it was really enjoyable at the same time.  Ezekiel’s story was really charming as was his connection to an ongoing cast member.  There was a spark of action between Jesus and Negan’s men, but overall, yeah it was a slower issue, but it was satisfying in a way most slow issues of this series aren’t.

The teaser for issue #111 is rather disturbing.  The header reads “Don’t Miss Next Issue!” meaning something huge is going to happen, over the image of a grinning Negan, holding a hunting knife and covered in blood.  So someone’s dying.  It better not be the tiger!!!  It.  Better.  NOT!!!

I know some people are still upset that Glenn’s death still hasn’t been avenged, and I can understand that.  It does seem odd that everyone has sort of gone back to normal.  But I think there is going to be a big payoff soon… at least there better be!  But taken for its own merits, this issue delivers.  Charlie Adlard’s art is as dependable as ever.  At this point, I can’t imagine anyone else taking over.  It just wouldn’t be the same.  I like that interesting new cast members are being introduced at a point when most books would be eschewing any sort of character development or new elements and racing toward the big blow out fight scene.  That said, when Negan goes down, it needs to be slow and painful!

 

THE WALKING DEAD #110
Written by Robert Kirkman
Art and Cover by Charlie Adlard