The Walking Dead (With Spoilers)

[Ragdoll]

Rick, Andrea, and Michonne in the wild? I can not wait for these upcoming issues.

[GuyOne]

Rick, Andrea, and Michonne in the wild? I can not wait for these upcoming issues.

144 is supposed to be a huge issue. Those four are heading right into a showdown once Alpha finds out where Rick went.

[Scott Taylor]

It was very clever to have Rick, Michonne and Andrea head out to kick ass at the same time as Alpha decided to infiltrate Alexandria to gather more information. There can't be a good end to this scenario.

[Joker]

Can we talk about that last page?

Were those actual zombies, or just a massive group of Whisperers. Wasn't enough detail to tell. Maybe that was intentional? I'm going to assume Whisperers, because if they could control the zombies that well to corral them, would they still dress as the dead? The quiet talking, it seems like they're still afraid of the zombies, not a group able to herd and control them, but maybe the costumes factor into that.

Either way, that was a hell of a way to end an issue. I can't wait to see where this goes.

[Stevo]

Either way, that was a hell of a way to end an issue. I can't wait to see where this goes.

I assume they are Whisperers too... and it sure was some way to end the issue. Loved it!

[Ragdoll]

I am pretty sure they are all zombies. In the Letter Hacks, they called it "by far the largest concentration of walkers we've ever seen". Also, no way they have resources for that many humans. And the Whispers don't seem that uncivilized that they would only allow a privileged few to hang with the community and keep the rest as slaves. The horde is just a zombie equivalent of having a nuclear bomb, especially if you have the know-how to coral and control that many of them.

[Jinjonator]

Also, it seems highly unlikely that they'd be able to get such a massive quantity of people on board with the whole "let's all wear the faces of the dead" thing.

Really excited for the next issue now though.

[Joker]

I'd have to look back, but I do recall mention of the whisperer community being rather large. I think that's why I felt uncertain about them being zombies or whisperers. There's also the fact that there wasn't enough detail to tell definitely, which was used as the bait and switch upon their introduction.

I guess we'll find out in two weeks.

[Scott Taylor]

For all we know, it could be a combination of walkers and whisperers. The whisperers use the walkers as livestock, basically, to serve as cover or as offensive weapons. They do "herd" the dead, but their purpose isn't to get rid of them, its to use them.

What I don't get is Alpha. She keeps making these big threats, but seems unwilling to really follow through with anything so far. She kind of seems nutty. And I don't mean because she dresses in zombie skins - thats actually kind of normal given the society they are in now. Having trouble understanding what exactly the whisperers are after.

[Turn the Page]

It's clearly a giant ass horde of zombies. Even if they could somehow force that many people to get on board with the whole dead skin mask thing, there's no was that many living humans could survive being packed that tightly together for very long. Not to mention feeding them or supplying them with water.

[Joker]

A) I don't think anyone is being forced to be a whisperer. After all, they've only asked to be left alone up to this point. They're not on a mission of assimilation.

B) Why would you assume they live like that? It's simply grouping the troops to show your power. There aren't any fences in that picture. I don't think zombies just stay grouped in one place. In fact, we've seen the opposite in the book.

Again, I don't see enough detail to discern wether this is a group of zombies, or a group of people wearing zombie skins. I'm eager to find out what it is. I believe it was left vague on purpose.

[Ragdoll]

A) I don't think anyone is being forced to be a whisperer.

I'm pretty sure Carl is being forced to be a Whisper now, and so is that girl he wants to save. Alpha made it clear that if that girl said "I want to go with Carl", it would not be tolerated. She is suffering sexual abuse in the group and explicitly said she did not want to be with them, but has no choice.

[Joker]

Good point. I'm not sure Carl is being forced to be a whisperer, though.

I don't see Rick behaving any better than Alpha in this instance, and Rick isn't forcing anyone to stay in the communities that we've seen.

Which is to say, both are keeping their children close, and one is clearly the villain because: rape. Which is an unfortunate easy shorthand for villain, and a tired fucking trope I wish Kirkman had avoided.

I guess my point is that we still don't really know much about The Whisperers or how their group works, but I may be forgetting things.

[Scott Taylor]

I don't think you are forgetting things. The Whisperers seem to be intended to be a completely new type of culture for this world, based on some kind of tribal model that has rejected most of the moral code of what we normally think of as human civilization.

[Zartan's Brother]

Which is to say, both are keeping their children close, and one is clearly the villain because: rape. Which is an unfortunate easy shorthand for villain, and a tired fucking trope I wish Kirkman had avoided.

Let's call a spade a spade: none of Kirkman's antagonists in this book have been especially morally complex villains. Shane, Thomas, The Governor, the Hunters, Doc Pete, Negan... I think the two most "gray" antagonists so far have been Dexter and Dwight, and the former bit it pretty quickly.