Essentially, the running theme of Walking Dead since issue #100 is "Negan is a real jerk-face!" That theme is even more prevalent in issue #105 as Robert Kirkman shines a spotlight on the series' new villain and his own community of survivors. "Cult" or "prison state" might be a better word than "community." In peeling back the curtain on Negan, Kirkman allows readers to loathe him and be fascinated by him all the more.
Carl's sneak attack on Negan's minions last month ended in his capture. But the ever jovial Negan is content to give Carl the full tour of his domain in this issue. There's little in the way of real action in issue #105 -- no zombie scenes or shoot-outs between rival groups of survivors. And yet, Kirkman easily holds the reader's attention throughout. There's a palpable tension as we wonder what fate Negan has in mind for his young enemy. But even at his most sinister, Negan remains strangely charismatic. It's not difficult to understand how he managed to build such a lofty position for himself, complete with multiple wives and the total devotion of an entire town.
This issue excels in an area where Kirkman's work often suffers -- the dialogue. Kirkman has a tendency to make his dialogue be overly wordy or conversational. But there's a greater sense of efficiency and purpose to the many conversations in this issue. Negan has an extremely distinct voice, even ignoring his love of F-bombs. Rather than being tedious, the dialogue-heavy scenes breeze right by.
Charlie Adlard delivers a number of compelling pages despite the lack of action-oriented material. One splash page in particular will linger as one of the most haunting images of the entire series. My only gripe about the visuals this month is that the line weight seems to vary at random. Some panels lack the thinner lines and finer details seen in others. Even so, in terms of both visuals and scripting, this is one of the strongest issues of The Walking Dead in recent memory.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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