The Walking Dead #8

If you think the name of this collection "Made to Suffer" is overly-dramatic, then you obviously have not read this book yet. When I read these issues, I was blown away (but that's not entirely a good thing...). If you are on the fence about this series, this story arc will push you off it. Read this review to see where you will fall!
 

The Plot

For those not familiar with the series Walking Dead, it is basically your classic zombie-apocalypse story: a bunch of people struggling to survive hordes of the undead by whatever means necessary.  That being said, the zombies are just a plot device, not the true villains of the story. The Walking Dead plays on "whatever means necessary" more than anything else, focusing on human characters and their fight for survival more than cheap horror antics. The villains are good men and women who have lost their mind because of the insanity of the world they live in, or men and women who have decided to take advantage of their current situation. One such man is the self-proclaimed "Governor" of Woodbury. Our heroes (18 of them in this book) are led by Rick Grimes, a small town cop. By this point in the story, they have holed up inside a prison and are currently at odds with the Governor, who is searching for the prison to raid their supplies. The Governor has convinced the rest of Woodbury that Grimes and his friends are evil, leading an entire army to assault the prison in this book.
 

The Good

• If you like stories where truly anything can happen and nothing is sacred, you will love this story.
• The Governor is a truly threatening villain. His greed for supplies and ability to manipulate the people of Woodbury seem to be a critique on leaders in general.
• A long period of inactivity (but good character development) is interrupted by some action. The series had almost become a soap opera with zombies for a while there...
  
• A very long storyline is brought to a close. I think it is a good idea in a book like this to keep the characters moving.

 

The Bad

• If you don't like when likable characters are killed off, you probably won't like this book :-(
• A few developing storylines which showed potential are cut short.
• Character deaths come quickly and frequently. To the reader, it feels like these people they have come to know are being haphazardly discarded without a second thought.

 

The Verdict

Most of the things I listed under "The Bad" share a theme: this book is basically a killfest. That being said, it is handled pretty well. The pacing is fast and frantic, but I think that was done intentionally to put you in the shoes of Rick as he desperately tries to regain control of the situation. Kirkman summarizes at one point "Mistakes are made and people die". This pretty much sums up this book. Not everyone knows exactly what to do in a life-threatening situation. Some of the characters in this story make good decisions and live, others do not. I'm not going to go into the specifics of what happens but it basically boils down to this: If you are going to get hung up on the fact that a character you liked died, you'll probably hate this story. If you want an interesting look at human nature when faced with the most horrible circumstances.. If you want to see people making hard choices to ensure their survival.. If you want to see the occasional (or very frequent) zombie-kill... read this book. (and the seven that come before it :-) )