Monday, November 08, 2010

The Walking Dead - Vol 10: What We Become


You can bet your sweet-ass that there are SPOILERS ahead...

Kirkman always does a good job of setting the tone for these volumes with his titles, but this one in particular is perfect for almost, if not, all the characters in the series who are still with us. After butting heads with Abraham, Rick has a heart-to-heart on the road with him where they realize that they aren't too far away from one another. They've both seen horrible things, and done horrible things because of it. They've had to become something that their former selves would not even recognize.
Each character has some kind of change in this book, which is fantastic because we're moving into a new story arc here. Maggie, grieving the death of her entire family, faces death and comes back wanting to live even more. The twins are starting to show signs of becoming sociopaths, Dale doesn't trust Rick at all, and the most heartbreaking of all for me, was when we met back up with Morgan, the man that Rick holed up with in the very first book, whom didn't want to come with Atlanta with Rick. Now we finally find out what happened to him and his son and... it's pretty heart-breaking.

On the road back we get to see the herd that Abraham warned about in the last book. While running away from it our heroes stop over in a house where we see what another family man had become once shit hit the fan and it could just be one of the more disturbing moment of the series. Although in this particular volume there is another bump in the road-trip where we get a whole other level of disturbing when we see what Rick will do to keep his son from being sodomized by a group of skinheads.

This series is not for the faint of heart - and while I absolutely love it - I think by the time I get through the next two volumes I'll be ready for a break from it for a bit. It's intense and takes a toll on the emotions. Think I'll watch something light tonight to cleanse the palette.

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