Allen getting bitten is actually a very important event in The Walking Dead comic because it is through that ordeal that the group considers the possibility of amputating the part of a body where someone is bitten in a last ditch resort to save them. Will it work with Allen? Was it the right thing to do? I think so despite everybody being so hard on Rick for simply having the balls to cut the leg off. Even Tyreese (who has done his own fair share of ugly things) seems to reach a threshold, turning away from the gory sight as Rick does what he always does. He does what must be done only all too often to get blamed for doing it.

I often find myself rather defensive of Rick Grimes simply because I do believe that nine times out of ten he makes the right (though often extremely difficult) choice. Was cutting off Allen’s foot an extreme response? For sure. But leaving the infected food in place would’ve meant definite death for Allen, a father of two boys who need him. He gave Allen a chance to live, and yeah, he probably could have hacked the foot off a little less sloppily. But time was not of the essence, and they had already spent a lot of time getting Allen out of the prison. I think a key reason why people are so appalled over what Rick did is not because they necessarily think it was the wrong course of action. The issue is that they are witnessing their once relatively mild-mannered leader do increasingly brash and drastic actions without batting an eye. In about a week’s time, he has killed two men and hacked off a companion’s foot. And yes, I can make a pretty convincing case why all of those actions were called for given the circumstances. But Rick has made a lot of these rash actions in a very short amount of time, and there is perhaps a danger in him getting a little too used to them. However, the weight of what Rick must do always seems to hang over his head. Therefore, I see that fact as a strong bulwark against the possibility of him losing his sanity.

In an issue with a lot of gore and sex (Glenn is a cuddler!), the high point of it was the innocent yet surprisingly insightful exchange between Carl and Sophia. Carl asks little Sophia (who is easily the most innocent one of the group) if she is afraid of the zombies. Sophia’s response that she does not really fear them all that much anymore because they look sad is a moment of pure brilliance. It’s the little human moments like these that elevates The Walking Dead above every other zombie story. The Walking Dead is in my opinion the greatest zombie story ever told because it is a HUMAN story first. A zombie story would look beyond the prison fence and see only a horde of flesh-eating fiends. A human story, however, looks beyond that same fence through the eyes of a little girl who sees the zombies as tragic reflections of the human beings they once were. If zombies could think, would they not be sad? If they could really be aware of what they are now as opposed to who they used to be, they quite definitely would be distraught indeed. more