Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman


Rating: ★ 1/2

** Zombie Warning: If you haven't read the first volume beware because I may drop (not intentionally) some spoilers. You have been warned!**

Coming off the high from reading the first volume, I found this volume troublesome but explainable in terms of plot and dialogue among the characters. Most of the scenes from the previous volume dealt mainly of Rick trying to find his family, escaping Atlanta, and being the leader which meant that there was less dialogue and more action scenes as they shoot and kill Zombies on every page.

We didn't get to see the struggles these survivors face as food is becoming scarce and figuring out a place to live where they can be safe from Zombies until now. They had to leave camp to figure out if there are other survivors alive and if they know of a place that might provide sanctuary for them. Remember Shane? Yea he's dead. Apparently Shane had always wanted to be with Rick's wife aka Lori which unfortunately Rick was the lucky man who put a ring on it and had children. Except when they left Kentucky, Lori moved on with her life and at the heat of a passionate moment she slept with Shane.

Shane believed that Rick was officially dead or it was merely impossible for him to survive and find his family so for the short time that Shane was with Lori it seem like paradise except faith screwed with him. Now that Rick was back, Shane's plans were all ruined and in his crazy demented head he made the connection that if he kills Rick then all his troubles are over. Again fate screwed him over and Rick's son Carl shot and killed him. But wait the plot thickens... Lori had sex with Shane and of course didn't use protection so Lori is pregnant. What a great time to have a child, in the middle of an apocalypse where it's difficult to find an Doctor, medicine, and proper food to nourish a baby. 

On top of that drama, Rick can't understand the math of Lori's pregnancy or chooses to ignore the real truth for fear it will shred what's left of his sanity and tries to be supportive during all this nonsense. As Rick's family is trying to cope through all this, the survivors find a lovely community of empty houses and believe they found their paradise. It's already Christmas time so the land is completely cover in snow. The survivors believe that now they can settle down in this neighborhood and not fear about Zombies except that one of the signs says "All Dead Do Not Enter". 

They didn't see the sign until the next day and by then it was too late. A horde of Zombies comes out and try to kill the gang and actually kills some. Luckily for our main character, Rick was able to get out and protect his family. For the rest of the story it deals mostly that same formula of them trying to find a place and hopefully in the next volume they can finally settle down somewhere. We meet new characters throughout this volume and we get to see the impact on how Zombies have killed family and friends and how difficult it is to survive in this chaos.

Compare to the previous volume it was all action and violence that kept us entertained and wanting us to pick up the next volume and now in this book we get to see the effects this Zombie apocalypse has on our characters and the darkness of this new world as each day becomes difficult to find the silver lining when our characters loved ones are monsters. 

At times we feel like these characters are clueless and it shows in the dialogue and I do not know if the writers are doing that on purpose in order for the readers to be distracted as a new story arc will begin soon or at the time they were clueless in what direction should they head for these characters. All I know is I will be reading the next volume and I hope it keeps me entertained to continue with this series.

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