I had stopped reading The Walking Dead comic book many years ago, just before the introduction of Negan. While I was still impressed with the quality, the darkness of the story became a little much to bear month to month. I've seen many people say the same about the TV series as they dip in and dip out. Regardless, The Walking Dead has been a best selling comic for Image and was moving towards its 200th issue.
And then, to everyone's shock, Robert Kirkman ended his series without warning with issue #193.
I was so shocked that I bought a copy just to see how it all ended.
WARNING - MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW
It is almost impossible to review this issue without giving away the current storyline and what has happened to the characters since. I will keep as much of the contents of the final issue as secret as possible for those who haven't read it.
I will say that The Walking Dead #193 is a great final issue because it give us the thing long-time fans need the most: closure.
Even with an abrupt ending, fans of any long-time series need a chance to say goodbye to the characters on the journey. I know many people who do not like the epilogue at the end of the Harry Potter series, but I think it is one of the finest, most necessary parts of the story. You want to know what happens to these people with whom you have spent the last few years of your life with and you hope that everything is okay.
The final issue picks up many years after the previous one. Carl Grimes is an adult and now married to Sophia. They have a little girl, Andrea, who they named after Carl's stepmother. Things have been very peaceful for the last few years. It sounds like there have not been any major human conflicts and inside of their "safe zone" there haven't been any walking dead.
That is until the first page of this issue. Carl finds a zombie on his farm and kills it. This becomes a problem, because it belongs to Hershel, Maggie and Glen's son, who uses zombies as part of his travelling stage show. This sets Carl at odds with the law. Throughout the course of the story, Carl comes in contact with most of the surviving characters and we get a sense of what this new world is like.
Safety and stability finally seems to have taken hold in the "safe zone" which appears to be ever expanding. In fact, their Commonwealth has grown so large that they are about to create a new continental railroad with the "western front." Civilization seems to be back in the world, along with a sense of law and order prevailing over the wilder days.
One of the things that makes this issue work so well is that it highlights the fact that The Walking Dead has essentially been a Western in its entire run. Men and women on the frontier of civilization who have to face wild and scary enemies both from within and without. Without the safety net of civilization, they had to become rough and violent, but they were filled with a strong urge towards independence and learned to trust their own moral compass. When civilization eventually came to pacify the Wild West, it was both happy and sad. Happy in that it became a place to raise a family and children in security. But it was sad in that there was something of that fighting spirit that went soft and went away.
In The Walking Dead Carl can see this very thing happening. Worse yet, those who are growing up in this time have no idea what their civilization cost them. Rick's presence throughout the book is felt. If you were a person living at this time, you can see how someone would look backwards and want to tell Rick's story from the beginning of civilization's fall and how he was instrumental in building the new one. Too often those of us who live under the blanket of freedom that our country gives us do not truly appreciate the sacrifice that was needed to make my ordinary life possible. It made me think of that powerful line from Saving Private Ryan, "Earn this."
The story also reminds us about how powerful storytelling is and how it connects us to our history. Carl laments that his daughter can be dismissive of the history that brought them here. But he is overjoyed that she can live in a world where she doesn't have to live in constant terror and danger. The only thing that can bridge that gap are the stories that Carl tells.
Kirkman nailed this point completely and artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Ranthburn drive it home with those final poignant pages.
I also couldn't help thinking about Christ during this story. Rick Grimes is hailed as a hero who saved everyone. In that way he is most definitely a Christ-figure, though obviously not a perfect one. Carl can see that those for whom Rick is a real person to whom they owe their lives, that they are seeing the world with the correct eyes. I can't help but feel the same way about Our Lord. When I was 17, I made a retreat where it really hit home for me what it cost Him to love me. I owe everything to Him. Once I was able to see Him in this light, the world looked completely different.
Carl is us. We have been given so much and because we are still here, we have a duty to bridge the gap between those who gave us this world and those who will carry it forward. With that deep and primal theme, along with a strong sense of closing the loop on our survivors, I would say that The Walking Dead #193 is one of the best comic book finale's I have ever read.
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