The Walking Dead, Vol. 18 by Robert Kirkman

We spend some considerable time with Negan and he comes across as completely unhinged, but as that’s always in the presence of others it cleverly establishes that much of his public personality is an act. “The rules keep us alive” chant his followers just before a horrifying ceremony designed to instil compliance. He’s not an uneducated brute who’s seized his opportunity, although fear is certainly a part of his arsenal, but is a man without conscience when it comes to his personal desires and ensuring he remains top dog. There have been some monsters in the series before, but Negan (gloating on the cover) is a whole new form of tyrant. In some ways it’s Kirkman returning to a plot introduced earlier in the series via the community of Woodbury (starting in This Sorrowful Life), but he’s now a more experienced writer and better able to present the sadism and tension. It might not come across in quite the same fashion to anyone who’s not followed the cast and their troubles for a while, but this is a superb volume. Carl Grimes has a large role, but he’s young and doesn’t always understand a situation comprehensively, and the tension Kirkman generates from that is immense. The opening pages of What Comes After explain it’s all a ploy, but take no comfort in that because Robert Kirkman has a few more nasty surprises on the way. They’d provide the necessary tribute to be left in peace. After a horrendous loss Rick Grimes concluded that Negan and his gang couldn’t be overwhelmed or taken by stealth, so he persuaded the rest of the community that their best hope of continued survival lay in compliance.

A decision was reached in Something to Fear that’s uncharacteristic for The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 18 by Robert Kirkman