****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The horrific story of survival in the zombie apocalypse continues with loads of bloodshed and the premise of a hopeless future. The undead continue to roam this ravaged world, and the few remaining survivors represent a greater threat to mankind than the zombies themselves. This latest chapter in The Walking Dead saga continues its exploration of how desperate people respond to desperate situations; it's hard-hitting and no one is safe.Like the two preceding compendiums, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: Compendium Three, which collects Issues #97-144, is an exceptional companion piece to the phenomenal TV series on AMC. With over one-thousand pages of raw, uncensored material that showcases Charlie Adlard's often beautiful and grisly artwork, this weighty tome is cumbersome and not what you would consider light reading—literally. Thicker than the previous installments by a good margin, this compendium is not so much a book as it is a blunt weapon. Actually, it’s so heavy you could easily kill a walker with it!The Walking Dead: Compendium Three ushers in a new era of pain and torment for protagonist Rick Grimes. Just when things are beginning to seem optimistic, events occur that change everything, affecting each character on a deeper level. The world as Rick knows it is completely turned on its head, reorganized, and reestablished. Ideologies clash when new grand foes surface in the form of The Saviors, led by Negan—an over-the-top baddie who you’ll love to hate—and the Whisperers, led by Alpha, who've abandoned all vestige of civilization and learned to live amongst the undead. Rick's dream of rebuilding civilization is tested as he, Carl, Andrea, Maggie, Michonne, and the residents of Alexandria come into contact with other communities that have developed their own methods of survival. The struggle is felt, the turmoil is believable, and the aggressive relationship between Rick and Negan is far more compelling than that of Rick and the Governor. The Walking Dead at its nucleus is a story about what happens when the human heart comes into conflict with another human heart (which is vaguely more Faulknerian than the human heart conflicting with a zombified heart). Or, at least that’s where the story is most effective.Interestingly enough, what began way back in Issue #2 as a small band of hunter-gatherers scavenging food and supplies from the ruins of civilization has gradually evolved into a city-state system with fortified and independent communities—the Alexandria Safe-Zone, the Hilltop Colony, Ezekial’s Kingdom, and The Saviors—engaging in interdependent trade, agricultural fairs, and apprenticeship programs. However, conflict between factions ensues when Negan and The Saviors (in classic mobster fashion) demand tribute from the other communities in exchange for protection…conflict that quickly escalates from small tribal skirmishes to all-out war. Rick soon realizes that the path to victory necessitates more than just a well-trained army and heavy weaponry, but political savvy as well.Some readers might take issue with Negan’s colorful language. Negan’s cursing is so excessive that you’d swear this comic was penned by ill-mannered teens. Negan drops more f-bombs than the collective cast of Goodfellas. As a general rule, expletives should be used to emphasize a point, not replace every word in a sentence.Atmospheric and suspenseful, The Walking Dead: Compendium Three contains a fine blend of skull-cracking violence, exhilarating triumph, and shocking tragedy. Philosophically speaking, no new ground is covered—the recurring theme of man’s struggle to maintain humanity in the face of such horror continues—however, there are some game-changing moments in here that will tear your heart out, impale it on a stake, and beat it with a baseball bat laced with barbed-wire.
