This is one of the first issues–in fact it’s the only issue–that has kind of disappointed me since I started reading. I mean I wasn’t too crazy on the issue telling the story of the Governor, but I learned to enjoy it. With issue 52 of “The Walking Dead” I was kind of disappointed. With Rick now hopefully on the way to recovery from his stomach wound, he and Carl are now alone and he’s teaching the lad how to drive. We open the issue with a humorous, terrifying, and touching moment between the two where Carl learns how to drive crashing in to three of the walking dead and in comes Michonne to the rescue.
The moment is downright exciting as surely Carl is dead, and Michonne enters to help him out. But then the exploits of Rick with Carl and now Michonne are suddenly short lived. While the issue is great, I was disappointed that we never focused on Michonne learning to destroy her loner anti-social habits in favor of a matriarchal personality that would bond her closely to Carl and allow her to eventually learn how to get close to Rick, a man she never quite grew to like in the prison. Their exploits last only for about eighty percent of the issue where we’re met by Glenn and his wife in a shocking twist ending and now we’re no longer focusing on Michonne? That was it? No focus on the trio?
And how did Glenn find them so inexplicably? Did they commandeer the farm? How did they know where they were? How did they not get attacked by the walking dead on the way? I mean, knowing Kirkman, there’s probably a good reason and answer to all of these questions and I’ll likely eat my words in the next issue, but for now I am agitated that Kirkman who favors Michonne so much, wasn’t willing to focus on what she’s been doing in the last three issues, or at least wait until the next issue to feature the surprise appearance of Glenn and his wife. For the first time ever I was actually glad to see Michonne, as she’s a character I never grew to enjoy reading, and this is how Kirkman shows he favors the character?
I expected more. This introduction of more characters along with the mystery trio sets up the likelihood that Rick may die since he’s slowly becoming a presence in the series that’s unnecessary, but Kirkman definitely could have waited a little longer for this ray of hope. However I do love the big preview of issue 53 with the words “Rescued?” with three new characters on the cover. I wonder if they’re someone completely new, someone from Woodsbury, and if they’re from Woodsbury, what their intent on the group is. It will definitely be a change of pace for the series to introduce some new blood. I look forward to issue 53, that’s a definite.