Broken Frontier

In what may be the most shocking moment since the arrival of the dead, Rick Grimes learns his wife is harboring a deep dark secret about Shane.

Robert Kirkman has been steadily climbing the ranks as a writer to be reckoned with. In fact, since creating a slew of projects at Image, Kirkman has now gone on to add a plethora of titles at Marvel Comics as well. He’s certainly proving himself as a top caliber writer in the field, and in my opinion his Walking Dead series is the cream of the crop.

Every issue is chock full of drama and much of that is focused on the characters. This current issue is no exception, since Rick Grimes and co. continues to cope with a world horribly changed after the onslaught of a zombie apocalypse. The trouble now is that the gang fears an attack from Woodbury, and with a dwindling source of ammo something must be done. So it is decided that a small group will go out and search for a National Guard station to replenish their guns and ammo, and surprisingly Rick stays behind. He’s just not in the best of shape, and worse yet his wife is about to tell him about a deep dark secret she’s been harboring ever since the zombie attacks began.

What more can be said about the quality of writing in this series? Every issue is fueled with top notch dialogue and sound plotting, and writer Kirkman intrinsically understands the mythology that he’s crafted for this series. In this issue alone, he chose to focus on yet another threat that must be dealt with and he throws a monkey wrench into the mix to throw the readers off guard. Emotions certainly abound with nearly every character and the momentum built through the plotting here between Rick and his wife impacts greatly. I can’t wait to see how this unfolds next issue and I am sure it’s going to be a humdinger.

Again, oodles and oodles of praise must be given to artist Charlie Adlard. He’s as solid here as he’s ever been in previous issues, and I just can’t see any other artist but him chronicling this series. There were several panels that showcased his abilities to a great degree and one of his key strengths has always been his penchant to build suspense through character interaction. This issue was probably one of the best examples of emotions, subtle nuances, and utter dread surrounding all the characters and much of his artwork fit like a well worn glove.

For me though, the events building in this issue are nothing out of the ordinary since the inception of the series. Robert Kirkman truly knows how to manipulate the story beats throughout, and he has strong backup from artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn. There never seems to be a dull moment in the series, and now the suspense is building due to the deep dark secret Rick’s wife is harboring. I can’t wait to hear what this secret is, but tune in next issue to find out.