No one was safe

SPOILER ALERT!! If you haven’t read The Walking Dead #48 yet, you’re better off just checking out Mary Marvel’s rack. I wouldn’t want to ruin anything for you.

Holy frak. Robert Kirkman was not kidding when he named the latest storyline in The Walking Dead “No One Is Safe.” I don’t remember the last time the direction of a book was altered so drastically in such a short period of time. DC might kill off Batman and Marvel might retcon the Peter/MJ marriage, but we all know when those stories have run their course, everything will be back to the way it always has been. But the same can’t be said for The Walking Dead.

The only status quo in TWD is that there is no status quo.

The Walking Dead #46 featuring the beheading of Tyrese, the second male lead in the series.

The Walking Dead #47 including the death of avuncular convict Axel.

But that was all small potatoes compared to what happened in The Walking Dead #48. This issue had a body count that would put Rambo to shame. Patricia, Billy, Alice, Herschel, Lori and even the frakking baby were all slaughtered by The Governor and his men. At least the woman who shot Lori and the baby realized the insanity of her actions and put a bullet through the back of The Governor’s head before all of his people were swarmed by zombies and likely devoured. Only Rick and Carl were able to escape the prison alive, with nothing but a backpack full of canned goods to survive in the world.

In a single six issue story arc, Robert Kirkman reduced the cast of his book from 16 characters down to two. The prison is unsalvagable, and Rick is alone with his son in a world filled with the undead, with no shelter, no transportation, no protection, and very little food. The blurb for issue #49 sums it up better than I possibly could:

Everything is different now.