Aw! Good for Rick! How many dads can say that they got to cut an old dude’s leg off the same day their daughter was born? Just another day in the zombie apocalypse! But seriously, everything seems to be going very swimmingly for our favorite group of post-Apocalyptic survivors. They even have a brand new member among their previously thinning ranks in the form of Judith “someone-forgot-to-remind-Rick-and-Lori-that-it’s-no-longer-the-fifties” Grimes! A proud big brother now, Carl displays an incredible amount of insight in saying his new baby sister is lucky in that she will grow up having no recollection of how the world used to be before the Turn. Living in a prison with hordes of the undead shambling around outside its perimeter will be the norm for little Judith. She may not even be all that afraid of zombies and may even consider them just another basic part of the world she was born in to. In a sense, this is indeed lucky, but it’s also kind of sad. I think the reality sets in for Rick and Lori that in only a generation no one will be alive on the planet who will be able to recall what life was like before society fell to pieces. Judith is part of a brave new world, but I’m sure Rick and Lori would’ve been plenty happy if she was just another part of the old one. There is another implication in Carl’s words as well. By saying how lucky Judith is in that she won’t be afraid all the time, he is being fairly transparent that he is indeed quite scared all the time himself. But that fear seems to be breeding a sort of wisdom in Carl. That’s what happens when young children grow up in a nightmare. They start talking like wizened adults and grow up way too fast. It is quite honestly a very grim trade, but it’s all a part of survival in this new world.

Speaking of survival, Carl’s absence from shooting practice is colored by a sense of ill foreboding. They have all become way too comfortable in their prison fortress. They had to fight like hell to get it, but if they are not vigilant, it could cost them everything. As Dale so soberingly put it, the prison cost him a leg . . . and nearly his life. Too much comfort and coddling in the zombie apocalypse can yield fruit of the most bitter variety. It’s so easy to just forget how precarious everything is and how dangerous the zombies still are. It’s easy to think your young son will not need to fire his gun after all. It’s easy to think the prison walls will hold fast indefinitely. It’s easy to think all the good luck and happy times will continue. But all too often the easy path in the zombie apocalypse is the one that leads to a decidedly unlucky demise. But as Dale so wisely muses, he wonders how long all of that good fortune can last before the next blow lands that once again leaves them blindsided. As the television series iteration of Rick Grimes so hauntingly puts it, “Luck runs out.”

I normally reserve a 10/10 rating for only the most elite issues of this series. So usually that means the only issues to get that rating are the ones that have something major happen in them. But I gave this issue a perfect 10 to pay homage to Kirkman’s phenomenal storytelling pacing. The reason why this comic series has enjoyed and continues to enjoy such a prosperous run is that Kirkman simply refuses to rush the narrative. He allows the characters time to simply BE and not always have to be DOING something. A more paranoid storyteller would cater to the instant gratification mindset of his audience and have major action sequences in every monthly installment. But he always tells his story at the pace he wants to tell it at. And we keep buying those issues because we believe in the narrative he is relating. A slower issue like this one may leave readers who wait an entire month for the next one to come out a bit cold. But view this issue in the context of the larger narrative, and its pacing is flawless. Kirkman always has his eye on the bigger picture, and that means that sometimes we impatient fans must learn to wait and trust in the unfolding narrative. For it is the slower moments that make the bigger ones much more meaningful. If all we had were big issues with huge action pieces, a lot of impatient fans may be happy. But I can tell you if that were indeed the case, this series would not have made it past issue 50, and The Walking Dead would simply be another niche zombie comic collecting dust in the bargain bin. more