Walking Dead #41

Written by Robert Kirkman

Art and cover by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn

Image Comics $2.99 

After a mild and pretty much peaceful(if you don’t count the amputation) issue last month, Walking Dead comes out early this month and arrives with quite a bite.  By reading this issue you get the strong impression that, when the crew at the prison aren’t practicing shooting, they’re essentially waiting around for the war with Woodbury to start.  Though there isn’t much dialog devoted to the subject, Kirkman devotes a bit of his time to showing the tense mood building, which just might erupt next month maybe kind of sort of.  I actually have come to really have a fondness for not knowing when the shit is going to hit the fan, but knowing that, at some point, there’s going to be this kind of gang war in the post apocalyptic world full of zombies.

I figured Carol was up to something stupid when she was acting normal and trying to be friends with Lori again.  And I was right as hell, but it was incredibly entertaining to watch her go down via a pair of rotten teeth.  I’m all in favor of killing off the idiotic characters, not because I really hate them or anything, but because I know that eventually they’re going to fuck it up for the group.  Oddly enough, I really care about the group and want them to be okay, so when Carol goes down, it’s for the better and makes me smile.  What is VERY interesting is Alice’s idea to keep a zombie under surveillance and study them.   I think that her desire to understand them or find a cure could prove to continue to conflict with Rick’s personal craziness and controlling attitudes and it could become a lot of fun to unfold.  The idea of science in a new era without electricity or any of the advances our society has enjoyed over the last 100 years.  One of the most interesting concepts about Walking Dead is the idea of rebuilding in a world that isn’t destroyed, but it’s almost devoid of intelligence.  I hope that these concepts will be touched on sometime in the future.

Or maybe just a whole lot of fighting with some murderous strangers.

World War Hulk: Gamma Files

Written and illustrated by various writers and artists

COVER BY MARKO DJURDJEVIC

Marvel Comics $3.99 

In the Marvel universe-wide crossover of the summer, I’ve been introduced to a whole army of characters that have been around for a whole lot longer than I have been alive.  Though Wikipedia has provided me with a constant onslaught of information on these new(to me) characters, but an entry can often be a long diatribe involving the history of the character’s appearances.  When a character has been around for sixty years, it can be incredibly difficult to sift through all of the history to see how this person related to the Hulk, New York and the current situation.

This alleviates that problem entirely.  A dossier of sorts, Gamma Files has descriptions, abbreviated histories, explainations of their relationship to the Hulk and usually a new piece of art showing the character in action.  There are dozens of characters, from Hercules to The Sentry, all described, explained and shown without having to get online and sift through all of the old stories.

For four dollars, it’s well worth the small investment because you get a reference book to grab every time someone comes into a scene where you don’t know what the hell is going on.