The Walking Dead S05E03 – Review

Original air date: October 26, 2014

Review (with SPOILERS): Sometimes I just don’t know what to make of The Walking Dead.  For a couple of seasons, my prevailing sentiment was that it was a pretty crappy TV show that did one thing well: horror/gore/tension.  It was almost like TWD was like a tennis player who is pretty mediocre overall, but has a blistering first serve and can be a huge threat on a grass court when their first serve is clicking, but is too poor to do much on any other surface.

But maybe TWD is more like a really good boxer, who has a glass jaw and an annoying tendency to get into brawls where said glass jaw is exposed.  Maybe it’s a decent show with one glaring weakness: an unhealthy fixation on the morality of its central characters and the need to have Rick and Carl be the primary spokespeople for that morality.  Maybe whenever TWD avoids that, it’s a pretty good show?

This episode was pretty light on zombie gore,  which sometimes feels like TWD’s only strength.  But the episode was tight, well-paced and enjoyable. Who knew?  There was also some dreck in the episode, and we’ll talk about that because it’s fun to be snarky, but it didn’t ruin what was otherwise a pretty good episode.

The primary strength of the episode lies in how fast and taut it was in terms of resolving The Hunters storyline.  In the past, TWD would have rolled around until the mid-season break with The Hunters and it would have been awful.  Now, just three episodes into Season 5 we are DONE with Terminus and Gareth.  They didn’t milk it and we are moving on to whatever comes next.  I love that!  One of the great things about post-apocalypse storytelling is seeing the protagonists encounter strange little micro-societies that could never happen in the real world.  It’s an opportunity to see how creative the writers are.  How many ideas do they have?  And how precious are their ideas/characters to them?  I love a story that moves along briskly not only because we get to see more ideas, but it gives me the feeling that the writers have plenty of concepts and they aren’t going to get bogged down anywhere.  Gareth was a great villain.  I liked him immensely more than The Governor.  But in dispatching him so quickly, the writers give the impression of, “Don’t worry.  We’ve got this.  No need to linger on Gareth. Wait till you see what we have lined up NEXT!”  And if what comes NEXT isn’t awesome and incredible?  No biggie, because the action will soon move on again.  Compare that to how precious The Governor was to the creative talent on the show.  They milked The Governor for everything he was worth.  Even the people who loved The Governor were over him by the time he finally died, and everyone who didn’t love him just had to watch an annoying TV non-drama for 2 seasons. Just keep the action moving and it’s all going to be okay.

As for the actual events of the episode, they were pretty much ripped right from the comics.  I think the lines of dialog were identical in many places.  As a reader of the comics, I would have liked to see a little variety, but the basic story is solid, so why fiddle with it?  It was quick and brutal.  It showcased Gareth as a compelling villain, showed how dangerous his group was and how they’d learned everyone’s name, and showed that Rick wasn’t going to leave them around to kill others.  In contrast to when Gareth got that lame “shot-in-the-shoulder-and-falls-off-camera-but-you-know-he-isn’t-dead” in the season premier, there isn’t any doubt that Gareth is dead this time.  Yuck.  As an aside, I have the original art page where the Gareth character from the comics is on his knees begging for Rick not to kill him.  Immortalized on the screen…

The Legend of Korra S04E02 – Review

By: Michael Dante DiMartino (story)

The Story: Korra struggles to appreciate the philosophy of one step at a time.

The Review: Given the major changes in Team Avatar’s lives, at some point we had to go back and see why things ended up as they did. Most important of all is figuring out exactly what Korra’s deal is. The fact that she can stand, run, jump, and bend all four elements is, by any standard, a huge step up from wheelchair confinement, but she’s not the type to be satisfied until she’s a raring 100 percent. She’s almost there, but something’s holding her back.

This flashback episode tells us she’s already gone through several dark hours of the night, first to even wanting to recover, then to pushing herself from wiggling a toe to taking steps. There has been anguish and her usual outrage, but steady progress through it all. A full recovery seemed guaranteed, but she encountered a block when it came to actual battle and picking up the mantle of Avatar once more.

The Walking Dead S05E01 – Review

Original air date: October 12, 2014

Review (with SPOILERS): You won’t find many episodes of The Walking Dead that nicely encapsulate what the series does well (at times), while also reminding you that it is a deeply flawed dramatic series.  It’s a hard episode to review and I found myself liking it less the more I thought about it.  So many rewrites…

I can totally see why half my friends loved this episode, but I see a lot of nits to pick…

The Glass Is Half Full: You won’t find many scenes on basic cable more intense and uncomfortable than the opening scene in the abattoir.  It first built dread with an agonizingly long build-up: ominous knife sharpening, practice swings with the bat, creepy/cold stainless steel everywhere, lots of cuts to bodies on slabs… It’s all kinda preposterous! I mean, that knife was probably sharp already, right?  But, it gives time to ponder the threat to Rick & Co. and to contemplate the mechanics of everything– why the bat? Why are they kneeling?  How’s this slaughtering going to happen?  Long pauses are uncomfortable.

And then they start executing the no-name guys and – ugh – the SOUNDS!  The smack of the bat on a head and the rush of air coming from the severed windpipes.  Yeesh! They really put a lot of effort into making sure that we were uncomfortable as hell.  And then they killed FOUR no-name guys when we kinda got it after just one.  It was awful.  But it was also really effective.  Rick & Co. wanted to leave that room, and so did the everyone else watching this scene.  Tthe creators really committed to that scene, and they were able to invoke a universal feeling of discomfort with their audience.  The bar for causing discomfort just keeps going up.

The zombie scenes were a total romp.  The herds rumble along, eating the no-names and getting vanquished by the heroes and we are entertained.  It’s all good fun.  It should be routine at this point, but they keep finding little innovations like the Flame Zombie or nifty ways to kill them and it keeps working.

The other bonus from this episode is that we weren’t forced to endure monologs from either Rick or Carl.  Perhaps the writers realized that we don’t really want to hear Rick talking about how good people do bad things sometimes or hear Carl talk about anything.  So Carl spent the episode locked in a train car and Rick was literally gagged.  Andrew Lincoln is a fine physical actor, so the less talking and more doing, the better.  Nobody likes monologs and perhaps they’ve figured that out after 4 seasons.  Hopefully we never have to endure a Rick monolog as his companions listen in rapt attention.

It’s also encouraging that we aren’t going to linger in Terminus for a whole season the way we loitered at the Farm and the Prison.  One of the cool things about a post-apocalypse story is the opportunity to see lots of different micro-societies, and it would be a shame if we didn’t see more of the countryside.  I’d rather leave Terminus with questions than stay past the story’s freshness date.

The Legend of Korra S04E01 – Review

By: Joshua Hamilton (story)

The Story: Three years later, and there have been big changes for Team Avatar’s haircuts.

The Review: Considering how the Powers That Be royally cornholed this show by failing to advertise it and taking half its season off the air, it’s almost a pleasant surprise to find that we suddenly have a fourth season at all, albeit unexpectedly and completely off the air. I can’t even begin to understand the logic behind these moves, so I won’t even try. All I know is that this definitely puts the pressure on my review output, with so many shows going on at once.

I think, however, Korra deserves long-term examination. I might not have said so a year ago, but the show has found its center and stuck to it since the last season, perhaps driven by desperation to take risks that eventually paid off. The writers immediately take another one at the start of this season by jumping us three years after Korra’s narrow defeat of Zaheer. There’s an instant interest level with such a jump; if nothing else, you’re curious as to how everything turns out as it does.

The Private Eye #8 – Review

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Marcos Martin (art), Muntsa Vicente (colors)

The Story: It’s about time we return to a world with Angry Birds.

The Review: If nothing else, third-world countries prove that humans are an adaptable lot; no matter how awful or bizarre our circumstances, we can not only get used to them, we’ll forget about living any other way. I’m no sociological expert, but I think this has as much to do with our desire to not rock the boat as our resilience. Order, even one maintained by corruption, force, or deception, is often more attractive to us than chaos.

That’s the main struggle DeGuerre has in pushing his agenda. Here he is, insisting that things are all wrong without Internet, yet he can’t explain why, nor why things would be better if Internet came back, except in generalities that sound like ideals the original internet evangelists might have had. “[It] will bring great minds together to topple dictatorships and liberate entire populations,” he claims.

Melanie, ever the skeptic, points out, “You don’t think anyone will ever abuse the peepholes you just drilled into everybody’s private lives? Yeah, you’re a real student of history.” DeGuerre’s only response basically translates to, “Why, you little–!”

WCBR Is Looking For A Few New Writers

Calling all fanboys and fangirls! WCBR is looking for a new writer to join our team! We’re looking for someone who can help contribute by posting at least 3 (or more) reviews per week on our site. Preferably reviews of books from the big two, but we also don’t mind a review of an indie gem that you think the world needs to know about.

Reviews hover around 500 words and we ask that they’re done in a tactful manner and occasionally conform to our format. Potential candidates should have a very good grasp on the English language and strong argumentative writing skills and a compelling voice. Please check out the format of our reviews to get a grasp on the writing style that we’re looking for.

If you’re interested, send us an email of a list of titles in your pull list, explain why you’d be a good fit, and please provide us a review of a book that came out within the last week that we haven’t reviewed. All candidates will be contacted via email.

Cheers,

Ray

United States of Murder Inc. #1 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Michael Avon Oeming (Artist), Taki Soma (colorist)

The Story: What if the mobs never waned in influence? What if they just got bigger?

The Review: This is a fascinating high concept for a crime comic. As much as I have always adored Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal book, there is something inherently awesome in seeing an alternate world in which the mobs never lost their footing in America. This issue succeeds in building up this world in a very organic manner that never steps on the toes of the story that it is trying to tell as we follow Valentine Gallo through his initiation into the ‘family’.

Bendis introduces a lot of characters here who feel new and fresh and yet instantly familiar; the mysterious female accomplice, the joker of a cousin, and the slightly haunted mother. All of these characters felt incredibly real upon reading and helped to sell the believability of this world. The dynamic between Valentine and Jagger Rose is interesting in and of itself as the latter attempts to diffuse any sexual tension from their partnership early on in a hilarious scene. It seems clear that despite being a made man that Valentine is somewhat emotionally and sexually stunted, an early scene shows him in bed with two women looking terribly confused and the relationship established with Jagger shows us that Valentine is not quite the man he tries to carry himself as.

Further muddying Valentine’s self-image is the killer reveal at the end of this issue when our protagonist discovers that his entire existence has been something of a lie, this was a very unexpected twist and puts the character between a rock and a hard place, throwing up questions of identity and loyalty. Bendis and his artists have established a firm foundation for this series moving forward with a likeable, interesting cast and a fantastic, dramatic hook that will keep people coming back for subsequent issues.

WCBR Is Looking For A Few New Writers

Calling all fanboys and fangirls! WCBR is looking for a few new writers to join our team! We’re looking for people who can help contribute by posting at least 3 (or more) reviews per week on our site. We’re especially looking for someone to cover Marvel’s latest ongoing titles!

Reviews hover around 500 words and we ask that they’re done in an informative and engaging manner. Potential candidates should have a very good grasp on the English language and strong argumentative writing skills and a compelling voice. Please check out our reviews to get a grasp on the writing style that we’re looking for.

If you’re interested, send us an email of a list of titles in your pull list, explain why you’d be a good fit, and please provide us a review of a book that came out within last week that we haven’t reviewed. All candidates will be contacted via email.

Cheers,

Ray

The Walking Dead S04E16 – Review

Original air date: March 30, 2014

SPOILER ALERT

That was a largely decent finale for a show that missed badly at the end of Season 3. While I guess I am slightly disappointed that we didn’t get more of the story of Terminus this season, that’s more regret about what the show has stumbled around during this spring than any real misgivings about this episode.  It wasn’t perfect – and we’ll talk about the saggy parts – but it left us with a very nice sense of mystery for next season.  I’m really looking forward to Season 5 and that’s pretty amazing given how mediocre this show has been at times.

Let’s just get the bad parts out of the way first.  It seems fair since I generally liked the episode and it would be appropriate to end on a positive note…

Where this show keeps stepping in dog poop is when it gets into this whole issue of GOOD versus BAD.  It’s just highly insulting to have a show keep punching you in the face with this attitude about how Herschel was GOOD and he DIED.  Rick tried to be GOOD like Herschel, but he realized sometimes you have to be BAD to survive.  The little kid who plays with legos was GOOD and he DIED, whereas Carl is field-stripping weapons and he LIVES.  It’s just so in the face and clumsy that it’s insulting.  Any adult knows that the world is more simple than GOOD/BAD, BLACK/WHITE… Eespecially in an era of television where we have debated the morality of Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Walter White, Jack Bauer, etc.  There was a moment early in the episode when Rick and Gang were walking down the tracks and Carl asks, “Are we going to tell the people in Terminus what we did?  I mean, all of it?”  And my first thought was, “Did what?  When?”  I honestly couldn’t think of anything truly wretched that Rick and Gang had done.

The Walking Dead S04E15 – Review

Original air date: March 23, 2014

Review (with SPOILERS): Geez! What a flat episode…  There wasn’t much great, but there wasn’t much to really hate on either.  I almost feel like I could end the review right now, by giving the episode a “B.”

Probably the best thing about this episode was the sense of forward momentum.  It reminded me of a car that is stuck in the mud that begins to inch forward before launching itself back onto the road.  Mind you, we didn’t get the full LAUNCH in this episode, but a story that had been swirling for weeks/months with everyone separated is finally headed in the right direction.  Things just started to snap together when Glen saw the touching notes Maggie had written in zombie goop.  Next thing you know, Glen’s group is united with Maggie’s group and they’re wandering into Terminus.  Ditto for Darryl’s band of rednecks as they are clearly right behind Rick/Carl/Michonne on the road to Terminus.  All roads lead to Rome– or Terminus.

This is important because the story has been a little stuck.  While I’m not exactly eager to see this entire band back in a fixed set for a half-season, the Terminus story has lingered a week or two longer than necessary.  Let’s just get there already!  It’s time to move onto whatever is next and this episode was a nice step in that direction.

Also interesting was the whole dynamic between Darryl and Joe the Redneck.  That’s mostly because both Norman Reedus and (especially) Joe Kober are both pretty charismatic actors.  They both have a presence about them where you just want to see what they’re doing next.  So, even if Joe rattled on a little more than was necessary about their stupid “CLAIMED!” system and the nature of man, it was at least entertaining.  That “claimed” system was a little stupid.  It wasn’t a very good way to show Darryl’s rejection or their methods; just because he won’t “claim” a place to sleep.  Or at the end when he “claimed” the roadside radishes?  I mean, was that the dumb guy who picked them up and forgot to say “claimed!” just the dumbest of the group?  Suddenly, Darryl is the fastest one to the magic word?  Or was it some joke where one of the guys ran ahead and peed on the radishes and they all let Darryl “claim” them?  But, here I am analyzing that silliness more than when I actually watched the episode.  It was only marginally dumb, so I’ll stop and move on since I generally enjoyed Darryl and the Rednecks.

There was a lot of “meh” in this episode too.  Probably the biggest downer was listening to Eugene talk.  This show just has a thing about getting actors to fake ridiculous southern accents.  We’ve already had the terrible accents from Shane and the Governor and the strange accents from Maggie and Rick, now we have this preposterous crap coming out of Eugene’s mouth.  I just don’t understand the fixation on forcing actors to affect these accents.  I mean, a southern accent isn’t important to the Eugene character in the comics and I doubt it is important to the TV version.  So why not just let the actor speak normally?  Furthermore, why would anyone believe that a guy who sounds like that (and looks like that) would have the solution to the zombie problem?

The Hard Goodbye

It’s been a bit more than a year since I started writing reviews for this site. Doing so, I learned quite a lot, making it so I truly began to analyze what makes a book good or not. While I may have still a long way to go to truly count myself as an expert in the field, participating in the grand project that is this site made me advance considerably. Trying new things, looking at elements differently and just appreciating the good stuff is just part of what I learned here. So far, it has been fantastic in many aspects, but alas nothing is perfect.

I am writing this because, as of this moment, I will no longer write for this site. Whether it is permanent or simply temporary is still something that only the future will tell, but for the near-future, no new reviews shall be written from my part here.

The reason is not at all directed from interference or anything closely tied to such predicaments. The staff here is a joyous one, with a willingness to help and a appreciation for sequential art that rivals mine.

The reason, basically, is due to a certain lack of balance from my part. I am, generally, a man of ambition that is unfortunately unable to control his very basic desires, leaving a certain lack of vision for the future. This had the result of me taking too many books at once, for too long a period. Since everything is purely on a voluntary basis, this is essentially my fault.

However, with the previous week peaking at 15 reviews and the future looking a bit too much for me to handle, this left me with a choice: continue like this and try to balance things out despite having a job and other obligations, or leave room to make things a bit smoother. I chose the latter, with me needing to have a bit more control over a lot of stuff going on.

This might seem a tad unprofessional, me leaving the site as I simply picked up a great number of series, with some of which my co-workers aren’t even reading in the first place. However, for me to be able to progress and to have a better handle on a great many responsibilities, I decided to simply put my reviews on the side for an unspecified period of time.

As such, I am sorry for those who liked to read my reviews. I am also sorry to those who wanted to read the reviews that I did on series they liked. It is a regrettable decision, yet one that I felt I had to take.

The continued excellence of Noah Sharma, Dean Stell and Minhquan Nguyen will continue, yet not without me for some time.

Thanks a lot for everything!

-Hugo Robberts Larivière

The Walking Dead S04E14 – Review

Original air date: March 16, 2014

The Review (with SPOILERS): For a show that is generally bumbling when it tries to have BIG moments, The Walking Dead has had a few that stick with me.  The biggest was probably that moment when little Sophia came shambling out of that barn back in Season 2.  It was unexpected until that instant before she appeared, we got to see her and appreciate what happened… And then Rick shot her.  Thank goodness Rick didn’t talk, because that would have ruined that very cinematic scene.  I still remember it vividly all this time later.

So, in an episode that had a lot of other iffy stuff, the creators again pulled out a really special moment when Carol had to shoot crazy Lizzie in the back of the head.  It wasn’t quite Fredo going out in the boat, but it was effective, especially after all the build up over the season and this episode.  We’ve seen Carol trying to take care of these girls, trying to teach them how to live in the apocalypse, striving to protect them…  And then to see one of them murder the other and have to kill the crazy one.  Yeesh…  It was rough and Melissa McBride really powerhoused it through the episode as Carol.  Again, a lot of these moments work so much better when the actor has less to say.  Any decent person knows what she’s feeling. She found these girls, wanted to protect them because all life is precious in the apocalypse… Especially children; and then to realize that something is wrong with one of those girls and only you think you can fix her… Bbut you ignored the signs and not only did she not get better, she killed the other kid, the normal one.  Ugh!  That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow.  Given that Carol is the one who “does what needs to be done” (as show when she killed Karen and what’s-his-hame). It is a bitter irony that the time she didn’t act decisively, it came back on her in a big way.

I was also really glad that they just went ahead and dealt with the whole “Who killed Karen thing?” thing.  I’m not sure what the point of that whole exercise was with the exiling and the Tyreese rage and all that… So, let’s just put that behind us and move on.

The Walking Dead S04E13 – Review

Original air date: March 9, 2013

The Review (with SPOILERS): Other than the first episode back, The Walking Dead has been entirely acceptable.  Within episodes, it has blips into the good and dips into the bad, but it has mostly been just fine.  I like sports analogies and TWD right now reminds me of a team that opened the season with a bunch of losses and has taken a very conservative approach just to steady the ship.  They’re not trying to hit home runs or make a spectacular pass, they’re just getting on base right now.

This episode was interesting in how it bounced back and forth between Darryl & Beth and Sasha/Bob/Maggie.  We’ve seen the show jump from segment to segment among the diaspora from the prison, but this was different.  This was alternating short scenes.  It was quick and snappy and gave this episode the feeling of more forward momentum than the story alone dictated.

The title for the episode was “Alone,” but I think it just as well could have been “Why can’t I have anything nice?”  I think I now understand why we had to watch Darryl retread his journey from nihilistic “white trash” (his words) to a nice guy who sees that there are still decent people in the world.  They had to show us that story again just so they could set-up what happened at the end of this episode when Darryl meets the rednecks who bothered Rick a few episodes ago (showing that my theory of them being hallucinations was dead wrong).  However, they are shoveling the story on us pretty thick here. Darryl and Beth find this nice mortician’s home, it has food, it’s clean, Darryl is carrying Beth around like a new bride, he likes her singing and he almost admitted that sweet, pure Beth had made him believe in humanity again.  They were totally going to kiss…  Then the white doggie of hope gets eaten by raging zombies, ruining any hope of sanctuary for Darryl and Beth.

Darryl is engaged in claustrophobic combat with the walkers, while Beth escapes and is eventually kidnapped by the mortician who you thought might be a nice guy based on his dusting skills.  God, does the works SUCK!  Then Darryl chases after Beth, before sitting down at a literal CROSSROADS with the reappearance of the redneck guys that Rick encountered in a previous episode… So the whole point of last episode was to make damn sure that the densest member of the audience understood where Darryl was as a character so they could appear to make him a bad guy again; or at least show Darryl struggle NOT to be the guy he used to be.  I’d rather see Darryl move onto something new since we’ve already seen Darryl tempted by Merle, but it seems like the creators enjoy this story a lot.

The Walking Dead S04E11 – Review

Original air date: February 23, 2014

The Review (with SPOILERS): Not bad…  This wasn’t a great episode by any stretch, but with TWD, it’s nice to see mere competence rather than this weird oscillation between good and terrible.

Once again, we didn’t get to see all of our characters this week with the action being split between Rick/Carl/Michonne and Glen/Tara/New People.  At some point, the storytelling technique needs to stop because they have too many storylines going on at once.  I say they have one more week to see how Darryl/Beth and Tyreese/Carol/Girls are doing, and then they need to tighten things up a little bit.

• Third wheel: A big problem for TWD writers is how horribly Rick and Carl interact.  They have NO chemistry.  It’s almost like when they read for the roles, they picked an 8 year old and then stuck with him.  Obviously, for people who follow TWD lore, the Rick/Carl dynamic is pretty important, so a TV-solution must be found.  They can’t just keep flinging Carl and Rick into these two-hander scenes and expect the results to improve.  Enter Michonne.  She proved last season in “Clear” that she could fix this troublesome dynamic and she fills that same role here.  Part of the problem with Carl is that he just sounds like a stupid kid when he’s talking about anything important.  So, why not play him off Michonne and her whole “missing her son” thing?  You have to love children to be interested in their stories of barfing when their friend brought soy milk to school, because honestly, it’s kind of a crummy story.  If you love the little kid, you sit there and humor them and know that telling stupid stories is part of growing up.  If you don’t love that child,  you have to be very kind to listen to the story, much less make the television viewers watch it instead of switching channels to whatever Darryl is doing.  Putting Michonne in the same room with Carl allows us to see him more as kid and less of this proto-MAN that the show has been obsessing over.
• Michonne’s family: So, she had a little kid named Andre.  I can’t say that I’m too affected by this because I’m not that interested in the pasts of these characters.  The cool thing about apocalypse fiction– and probably why we love it so much, is that amidst all the horror and carnage, you get a chance to be someone new.  It’s like a reset button for everyone.  So, past = boring.  But, if Michonne’s lost son is the motivation to keeping her around Carl, then Bravo! Carl isn’t going anywhere, so we need him to be as tolerable as possible and that only happens when Michonne is in the room.

Rachel Rising #23 – Review

By: Terry Moore (writer/artist/letters)

The Story: Rachel and Jet try to save Aunt Johnny while preparing for the showdown with Lillith.

Review (with SPOILERS): This was an interesting issue of Rachel Rising because we very quickly find ourselves heading toward a climax with a showdown between Lillith and Rachel.  It’s odd because the series was being very, very methodical during the “Act 2” phase of the story.  It just seemed like things were taking forever to come to a boil, then WHAM…..Rachel and Jet are plowing through the snow in a VW bus toward a showdown with Lillith.  In some ways, it made me wonder if Rachel Rising might only be a ~30 issue series because suddenly I feel like the end might be upon us before we know it.

In some ways, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.  I’ve enjoyed Rachel Rising, but I’m also eager to see the conclusion.  I’m also eager to see whatever story is percolating in the mind of Terry Moore after Rachel Rising gets finished.

On the other hand, there are some other elements of the story that are still much farther from resolution such as the struggle to reanimate Aunt Johnny and whatever creepy necrophilia Dr. Siemen is into.  How horrible for Johnny!  I mean, she is a lesbian in life and now her dead body is going to be violated by creepy Dr. Siemen.  Yuck, yuck, double yuck.

The Walking Dead, S04E10 – Review

Original air date: February 16, 2014

The Review (with SPOILERS): This show is so damn bizarre.  Last week it comes back from winter hiatus and craps the bed.  Then this week, we get what is not only one of the best episodes of the series, but an episode that would be right at home with some of the finer programs on TV currently.  This was a really, really good episode.  The high points were very high and the lows were pretty minor.  When readers complain in the comment thread about the poor grades I give this show, they often say, “What do you want from this show?”  Well, I want more of THIS.  Last week was crap, this week was excellent!

The first thing that made this episode stand apart was just some novelty to the storytelling.  After starting out with the story of Darryl and Beth, we came back from commercial break to the tale of Tyreese and the girls.  Only, the story of Tyreese happened BEFORE the story of Darryl/Beth.  As soon as I saw it, I thought, “Wow, non-linear storytelling on The Walking Dead?  I’ll be damned…”  We have have seen non-linear storytelling on TWD before (see – S04E04 also directed by Tricia Block), but it is not common.  The theme continued with the stories of Maggie/Bob/Sasha and finally with Glen.  We actually picked up with Glen right in the aftermath of the Governor’s attack on the prison.  One of the things I’ve found so frustrating about TWD is the sheer repetitiveness of the episodes.  Everything is strictly linear and it gets a little old.  I don’t want non-linear storytelling all the time, but it’s nice to see them mix it up a little bit and try something new.  Not everything has to be a straight path from A to B.

There were other clever storytelling items in this episode.  The ambiguity about whether or not Maggie had killed a Zombie Glen was wonderful.  Before the commercial, we just saw her crying.  At first it looked like tears of sadness, like she had just killed her zombified husband.  Then it seemed to shift to tears of joy, Glen wasn’t on the bus, so he must have survived.  But, they never showed us the body.  They just sent us to commercial not really knowing what happened, but actually having a scene to interpret and discuss.  Holy crap!  This was so much more refined than Carl screaming at Rick, “I’d be okay if you died.”  Then we come back from commercial break to see Glen’s head with what looks like a stab wound in his forehead.  His eyes opened up and we realized he was really alive, but for a split second, we all thought that was dead, zombie Glen; “killed” by his beloved wife.  Isn’t it amazing how quickly your brain can churn through a complex situation in a tenth of a second?  Amazing thing, the human brain…  Very, very clever.  The fact that the whole scene with Maggie was so ambiguous was very out-of-character for TWD.  Usually, in a scene like this, someone like Rick shows up to tell us viewers exactly what is going on.  It was nice to have a chance to use my imagination a little with TWD.  Later, during Glen’s scene, we had a similar opportunity as he laid there on his cot.  There was no talking.  No Rick telling him to “Get up and fight to carry on!  Maggie would want you to carry on!” No Herschel or Dale giving old-man advice… Just Glen laying there with his thoughts with the viewer left to figure it out.

The Walking Dead S04E09 – Review

Original air date: February 9, 2014

The Story: After the fall of the Prison, the remnants of Rick’s party scatter and try to survive…

The Review (with SPOILERS): Funny how the human mind works.  We are incredibly adept at forgetting bad things like how horrible babies are.  I’ve even heard scientists hypothesize that it is an evolutionary trait that we forget some of the pain, agony, sleepless nights and dirty diapers lest every child be an only child – and the species die out for lack of offspring.

The run-up to The Walking Dead’s 2014 Spring Season was a little like waiting for that second baby to arrive. We’re excited, we hope for the best and we hope that all those bad things don’t happen again, because if we really dwell on the past 3.5 seasons we can still remember the pain.  

It really is time to stop hoping for better.  There was probably some plausible reason for hope.  Perhaps new Season 4 showrunner Scott Gimple would have clear highway now that he’d flushed Glen Mazzara’s Season 3 floater.  But, Gimple & Co. have eschewed that clear highway in favor of the familiar ditch.  As they say in BSG, it has happened before and it will happen again.

This was just more of the same for The Walking Dead.  The zombie scenes with Carl were really well done, especially the prolonged scene in the house.  I loved how the camera lingered on the stack of books as Carl and the zombie struggled from room to room, only for those books to come back into play at a key moment.  The prior zombie scene of Carl luring the walkers away, heavily hinting that he would trip and fall, when he never did…  There is nothing careless or accidental within the seconds of these horror scenes.  The talent on this show are true masters of horror and suspense.  They just know how to dance the dance and make us really uncomfortable.  Even when you KNOW that Michonne is not going to be eaten by zombies, you cringe a little every time one walks past her.  They just know how to dial the tension up to about an 8, and leave it there for 5 seconds longer than one would normally be comfortable with.  It’s all the camera angles, amount of zoom, sound, cuts… Simply Brilliant.

Discovering The Metabarons

by Alejandro Jodorowsky (Writer), Juan Gimenez (Artist)

We all have some series that we try to push to other people. A particular book or line from an author, a company or even a genre that makes you really understand why you love the medium of literature, be it novels, comics and anything in-between. Some would say Watchmen, some Habibi, some Maus among countless other powerful pieces of work and art that certainly deserves to be mentioned in reverence.

Of course, as many readers know, there are always hidden gems in the market, books that people would not necessarily know the existence of. It is with that particular knowledge that I was once referred to a particular French comic, one that has been translated in English in order to make sure its brilliance would be known. The title, in French, is La Caste des Méta-Barons, but the title in the American market is simply The Metabarons.

Released as a spin-off to the generally acclaimed and popular The Incal, The Metabarons tells the very story of the family in which the titular Metabaron is a part of. The character, in itself, had been a successful and certainly intriguing part of the crazy kind of philosophical science-fiction that was The Incal, yet it seemed that Alejandro Jodorowsky had a lot more to tell about the mysterious character. In fact, he had more than 500 pages of material to flesh out the story of the Castaka family that would become the Metabarons, the ultimate warriors in all of the universe.

Told in a way that balance space opera, heavy science-fiction, a certain small dose of fantasy with the airs of epic poesy, this tale is one that does not give any half-measure in terms of scopes, ideas and themes. Never shying away from rather controversial matters in its approach, the tale adds incest, elitism, genocide and many other heavy themes in its story, yet does so always with a purpose, never just for shock.

The narration, told through a dialogue between two serving robots, is presented with the curiosity of one as to who exactly their master is and what he is doing right now. Their exchange, while something annoying, serves a purpose, making sure the story is told in a concise way, as the robots are facsimile for the readers as well as for a larger purpose in the story. With each chapters focusing either on different characters and different themes, the story never stay in the same place too long, moving along with an almost perfect pacing as the mad imagination of Jodorowsky makes itself clear.

Thanks to the writer, there is no shortage of action, amazing concepts and brilliant turns in terms of plot and character development, with spaceship battles, psychic training, politics, the fate of the universe and many other things are thrown in the general plot without any disregard for the cohesion of the whole. While not all of the ideas and addition to this gigantic universe are all fleshed-out, the focus on the Metabarons and their legends more than makes up for it, resulting in a tale that focus on the themes and ideas rather than a certain lack of grandiloquence and a desire to relate to smaller ideas.

It is, of course, the themes that makes all of this story worth it, even more so than the fascinating universe on display. The way each Metabaron has to deal with parenthood, the relationship between fathers and sons, duty, the code of honor that unites the Metabarons, mercy and love makes this story superbly tight in its evolution, delving deeply into each of these aspects as each characters discovers the possibility offered to them. There is a certain air of tragedy and fatality attached to each characters, with the burden of their duty and destiny weighting upon each actions and decisions they take, making everything colossal in terms of importance, putting an emphasis on the epic part of their journey.

In terms of setting, the juxtaposition of technology, nature and the unknown, as represented by the heavy amount of machine, ships amongst the fabricated ecology and the low amount of forests and other such things makes for a hauntingly beautiful and poetic representation of the best and worst of what humanity might give birth to. There is a certain division between realism and high science-fiction that never gets in the way, balanced by the alien-looking creatures, the robots with feelings and the psychic powers put on the page.

Still as it may, the beauty of this book is also due to Juan Gimenez, who puts all of his talents in each and every single page, with the characters, the universe and its colossal scope being represented very well. Putting an emphasis on the characters despite the very large environment they are in, there is a very particular balance in terms of tone and visual effects, making the action count in terms of impact due to their importance in a well-defined environment. Designing a ton of machinery and a ton of spaceships, the space opera part of the book is also impossibly beautiful, with fans of more cosmic stuff and science-fiction having a high potential to be pleased with the way the depths of space and all of its mysteries look.

Still, Gimenez is also able to play very well with the medium most of the time, changing the shape, size and direction of panels in order to make the most of them. The way he is able to simulate some space battles in a certain part of this saga is nothing short of wonderful, using various effects of motion to create speed and acrobatics for the vessels that manage to be brilliant and beautiful in terms of techniques and results. The way he is able to accommodate the size of each panels to make sure each elements can have the right amount of precise details is also quite commendable, with panels of every size, from gigantic to small being present throughout the whole story.

The colorization is also very rich, with Juan Gimenez bringing a lot through a ton of very clear contrasts. The depths of space, the surface of many planets, the fights, the technology and the low amount of nature makes for some very rich elements for other aspects of the many pages to work with, with a lot of preeminent colors in the common backgrounds that make all of the colors memorable. There is a certain balance between rough and subtle in the approach to every little details that makes it rather rich-looking, enhancing the visuals that much more.

In conclusion, while there are many series that are very worthwhile, I believe that The Metabarons is a true gem, one that every amateur of space opera and grand ideas should very much seek. For a work of such quality, there is only one grade possible. It will be my first one and possibly the only time I give such a grade, but this book is worth it. Do yourself a favor and go check it out.

Grade: E (for Epic, the highest grade possible on this site)

-Hugo Robberts Larivière

The Return of the Friendly Neighborhood Hero

Considering the very nature of the Internet and its general relation with super hero comics, it would be kind of hard not to know what this column is all about.

Still, if one has been strong enough to resist the appeal of spoilers, I highly suggest that this person should just turn back before it’s too late (although the very title of this page might very well give it away in the first place).

Simply put, what many have foretold will come true in a few months. Peter Parker will be back in control in April, with a new Amazing Spider-Man #1, handled by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

One of the very hero responsible for the huge popularity of Marvel back in the 60’s will once more be on the forefront of the many publications released every month. For many, this will most assuredly be welcomed by fanfares, cries of joy or a very self-assured ”I thought so”. After all, it would have been rather bizarre of Marvel not to take advantage of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie to let new readers flow into the ongoing stories of Peter Parker, arguably one of the most popular character in comics.

Superman: God’s End – Review

by Gerardo Preciado (Writer), Daniel Bayliss (Artist)

Each character has a certain vision that becomes iconic, a certain angle that seems to define their very being more than any other version. For example, Daredevil is a character that has certainly been marked by Frank Miller, with the mythos around him being more or less influenced by the 80’s run; just as the Fantastic Four will always have a certain touch of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in them… However, like pretty much everything, subjectivity will always go on and some people will always prefer a certain vision of a character more than any others.

I am a huge fan of Superman and I can confess that I hold a special place for Joe Casey’s and Grant Morrison’s version of the character. While not exactly the same version, both had an invincible hope within themselves and a penchant for inventiveness and creativity in saving people’s lives. Their version of Superman was a being of hope that wanted what was best for us and someone that never grew disillusioned, despite everything he saw. To say he was a powerful symbol in such stories would be an understatement.

However, it seems that there is a certain constant going on these days with people enjoying a grimmer or “darker” version of the iconic superhero. Man of Steel, Earth 2, Injustice and other similar stories all go in a specific direction that allows for an opposite view of this beloved character, with some succeeding while others failing. Much like any character, an exploration and a certain penchant for difference can create wonderful or disastrous results, depending on the angle and who is writing.

Rachel Rising #22 – Review

By: Terry Moore (writer/artist/letters)

The Story: Rachel becomes more aware of her past life.

Review (with SPOILERS): This was another slightly ho-hum issue of Rachel Rising.  I have a feeling this story will read dramatically better in trade because while this issue accomplished some important work in terms of progressing the overall plot, it isn’t that enticing as a single-issue read.

This middle portion of the Rachel Rising series has been all about the pieces clicking into place.  Issue-by-issue we are growing to understand a little more about who/what/when/where/why/how.  It’s an exciting development because once this housekeeping is complete, we can get on with the main climax of the story – and that is something that all Rachel Rising fans have been looking forward to for awhile.

The Star Wars/Marvel Conundrum

Due to the recent news about Star Wars and its future publications in term of sequential art, I began to think quite a lot about the possible implications, good or bad, about the whole deal.

Star Wars, like a lot of franchises, is something that is held dearly for many. With a rich history in multiple medias, the beloved saga found a place in many fans heart with its mix of fantasy and science fiction and its general approach to storytelling. Jedi’s, Sith’s, the force and many more terms such as these are now commonly known by a very large percentage of the general population on the planet, something that many franchises could very well be jealous of.

However, with such an impressive following comes many things, such as much more difficult to please fans and the much more fanatic. Much like Marvel, DC and other such continuities, there are always some subjects that are hard to talk about when speaking about (don’t ever say the word midi-chlorian to a fan, seriously).

A subject that has been kind of moot, though, is if Dark Horse did a good job with the franchise or not. While they did produce some stinkers once in a while, like any company, they did give fans plenty of excellent material, like John Ostrander’s Star Wars Legacy or John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars: Knights of the old republic. Giving plenty of different material taking the lore to exciting new places, Dark Horse did quite a lot with the franchise in the 22 years it had it in its possession.

However, it seems that the company’s time with the franchise is over. With the recent purchase from Disney of everything Star Wars related, it only made sense that they would eventually try to reach for not just movies but comics as well in their new handle on the franchise. In 2015, Marvel, a company also owned by Disney, will publish Star Wars comics instead.

While this may seem like a tragedy for aficionados of Dark Horse and their general handle on this franchise, not everything is all that bad, nor is it that good either. Sure, the fact that Marvel will publish those comics can lead to rather exaggerated fears, such as a crossover between Star Wars and the X-Men (something close to that did happen, though) or Boba Fett appearing in a Deadpool title. While such ideas may appear silly and simply too stupid to ever be thought-of, there is always the slight possibility that Marvel could go for utter silliness and milk everything for what it’s worth.

The Best and Worst in Comics of 2013

Welcome to WCBR’s year end comic book industry report card. In essence, this report card is a list of offerings the the team enjoyed (and shook their heads at) for the entire year 2013. There will probably be a lot to debate about– who got snubbed, or who really deserved it… So don’t forget to let us know below if we’re out of our minds, or if you can see where we’re coming from. Thank you all again for your continued support, and we hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! -Ray

The Best On-Going Series

Saga – If comic book writers were unionized, they would have broken Brian K. Vaughn’s fingers for making everyone else look bad.  There isn’t another series that has as many richly realized characters as Saga. -Dean

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye – There were a good deal of candidates for this position, but I have to say that this series more than surprised and delighted me on many occasions, which is something truly remarkable for a series that could have been a mere cash-grab. Great characters, great art and a superb handle on storytelling, this series has it all. –Hugo

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man -Strange as it may be to think that a low tier Marvel title would be taking this spot in a year full of excellent comics, Superior Foes is everything that a great comic need be. Compelling characters make even simple heist stories endlessly engaging, clever use of the form makes it a pleasure to read and reread, and the book is funny – really funny. Nick Spencer’s unique humor is simply delightful and gives the book the spark it needs to not only survive, but flourish, filling in those beloved gaps in Marvel’s world. Marvel is probably kicking itself for making this one of its rare $3.00 comics. –Noah

The Worst On-Going Series

GI Joe and Matt Fraction’s Fantastic Four– I’m reading most of my comics digitally, so I’m not subjected to anything I don’t want to read.  If it sucks, I just stop buying it.  That being said, my biggest disappointment is IDW’s GI Joe books.  The plotlines are always somewhere between “acceptable” and “really good”, but the art is just a disaster.  It’s impossible to enjoy comics when the art is this poor.  A close second would be Matt Fraction’s Fantastic Four.  It’s amazing how quickly we went from the stupendous highs of Jonathan Hickman’s epic run to a series that nobody talks about anymore, because it is boring and the art is mediocre. -Dean

Morbius The Living Vampire – I reviewed the first issue and then stopped, but I did read the whole thing afterward. With a rather uninteresting direction, some bland characters and some middle-of-the-road art, this series committed one of the capital sin in terms of entertainment: it was boring. -Hugo

Teen Titans – Once the crown jewel of DC’s offerings, the Teen Titans have fallen onto a bit of a rough patch. Though the start of this year provided a brief resurgence for the title, in the end it only served to make the return to confused mediocrity more bitter. Though I think the man gets more hate than he should, especially for the wrong things, it is a wonder that DC hasn’t taken Scott Lobdell off this title. His plots can be compelling, but he’s yet to find a strong antagonist for the Titans and the character work is just generic. The Titans are the breeding ground for the next generation of DC heroes, but I doubt there are many fans of Lobdell’s take on Beast Boy or Wonder Girl, much less Skitter – yeah, remember her? As if that wasn’t enough, this is the only place in the New 52 to get a monthly dose of Tim Drake. Especially with the boom of nostalgia that’s come over our culture, that’s a huge waste. But at least Tim has Batman: Eternal to look forward to, the rest live at DC’s mercy. Come on, Scott, you can do better. -Noah

The Best New Series

East of West – With incredible world-building and some astounding art, this new series by Hickman, Dragotta and Martin was clearly off to a great start this year and went on to become something I always look forward to. -Hugo

Lazarus – I love, love, LOVE the plausibly dystopian near-future that Greg Rucka and Michael Lark have created.  Everything about this world fits and the pieces all click together.  It’s so nice to read a story that doesn’t feel like the creators are making it up as they go along. -Dean

Batman Beyond Universe – Though it remains a digital-first comic, the print edition of Batman Beyond Universe is more than able to go toe-to-toe with the big hitters at DC. It may not have the freshness of Wonder Woman or the gravitas of Batman, but with people still complaining about the New 52, Universe is there to provide a taste of old-fashioned DC goodness. On their own, Batman Beyond and Justice League Beyond each would have been strong contenders for this category, but together they bring an unstoppable consistency to the stands every month. Beautiful art, strong writing, and an essential knowledge of when to end a story have made these series two of the unsung heroes in the world of capes. It’s two great comics for the price of one! If you have any love for the DCAU classic, you owe it to yourself to check this out. -Noah

The Worst New Series

Guardians of the Galaxy – I am aware that there are worse comics out there, but this one is a huge personal disappointment. I absolutely loved the last volume and this one is simply way too simple in comparison. With no direction, bad characterization and a focus on Earth instead of the whole universe, it soon became a mess for me. The art may be rather great at times, but it doesn’t save the title for me. -Hugo

Uncanny X-Men – After the huge success of All-New X-Men, I was jazzed for Cyclops to get his due in the latest relaunch of Marvel’s biggest title. I waited months, hoping it would show up this week, but when it arrived it was not the hit I was expecting. Far from the novel-esque complexity that made All-New special, Bendis meandered around the New Xavier School, spending lots of time to underdevelop his characters. Chris Bachalo and Frazer Irving gave the book a stiff but refreshing visual identity, but it often felt like it looked cool just for the sake of looking cool. Thankfully the series has started to recover, post-“Battle of the Atom”, and the past two issues have been fabulous, but when it comes down to it, 2013 was a rough year for the strangest heroes of all. -Noah

Best Mini Series

Fashion Beast – If you didn’t read this, make sure to track it down.  Alan Moore shows that even his discarded ideas from 30 years ago pack more of a wallop than most contemporary works do.  You won’t find a better work on the concept of appearance/image versus reality. -Dean

Six-Gun Gorilla – This was a weird, but utterly awesome little story. With a sci-fi/western/social vibe around it, Spurrier, Stokely and May went all the way to provide something unique and memorable with this one. -Hugo

Worst Mini Series

X-Men: Battle of the Atom – Some people liked it and I can understand why, but this 10 chapter story didn’t do much for me. With an uneven and mostly slow pacing and a conclusion that felt awfully forced, this was something that wanted to become big but went small in every way that counts. It’s not horrible, but it was a disappointment. -Hugo

Best Story

The Wake: Part 1 – This was really splendid.  Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy laid out a classic underwater monster story.  The tale was tense and gripping and the art was mouth-watering.  Part I ended on a tremendous high and I can’t wait for Part II to hit this coming year. -Dean

Daredevil: End of Days – This might not have ranked in the best mini-series section for me, but I have to say the story behind Mapone and the whole research Ben Urich went through was something I really liked to read. It was big, mysterious and it was Bendis and Mack in their best writing environment. -Hugo

Nightwing: Movin’ Out (Anthony Zucco’s Song) – While I was as excited as anyone to see Dick Grayson back in the Nightwing suit, his series was a little bit hit-or-miss at the start of the New 52, often too caught up in whatever crossover was brewing over in Scott Snyder’s Batman. How appropriate then, that Nightwing really came into its own once Dick left Gotham City behind him. Kyle Higgins was playing with fire when he revealed that Tony Zucco, the man who killed Dick’s parents, was still alive, but he’s handled the transition to Chicago with such grace that it hardly matters. Higgins has given DC’s Chicago a real sense of identity and returned the title to the kind of character-driven stories that drove fans to Nightwing in the first place. He also crafted a great villain reboot for the Prankster and made us care for a character who’s effectively Joe Chill-lite.
Any fan of Dick Grayson is bound to be pretty worried these days, but for the moment we still have Chicago, and thank goodness for that.

Leaving Megalopolis – Review

by Gail Simone (Writer), Jim Calafiore (Artist), Jason Wright (Colorist)

The Story: A bunch of survivors meets and form a group in order to get out of Megalopolis and its heavy number of psychotic super heroes.

The Review: We all have some authors and artists upon which we show good faith. They might not always produce the best materials, but they once impressed us in a way that leaves a mark, making us wish they could somewhat reach that level again. Which authors fit that bill is something that is relative to every individuals, but Gail Simone is certainly one of mine.

With a track record filled with titles like Secret Six and Bird of Prey (the first volume, mind you), I had no reasons to be reticent when she announced a rather grim story with one of her previous collaborators, Jim Calafiore. With the help of Kickstarter, she made this project of hers a reality, with the book being sent to those that had backed it in hope that it could reach the level she can attain once in a while. Does the story falter, or is worthwhile, though?

In many ways, this story frustrates a bit, not because it is inherently bad, but because it either doesn’t go far enough or just goes a bit too deep. It is an uneven read that certainly has its share of strengths, yet it doesn’t really make for a very nice introduction to this whole world Simone has in her head.

One of the better, but also one of the more rushed aspects of this book are the characters. There is a certain evolution to these people that is actually rather interesting to follow through the story, with some of them behaving in ways that feel a bit stereotypical at first, only to end up being a bit more complex than how it first started. The main group, composed of two men and three women, is rather eclectic, but also rather improbable protagonists on their own. While the manner in which they unite is a bit incredulous and becomes more a practical ”get the cast together as soon as possible” rather than the result of natural progression of events.

The Walking Dead, S04E08 – Review

Original air date: December 1, 2013

[SPOILER ALERT]

Let’s approach this episode from a “glass half-full” perspective first.  There was a lot wrong with the episode as it relates to the entirety of Season 4– and we’ll talk about that a little bit, but for now let’s keep it positive.

Back when TWD first started on TV, you could hear fans of the comic hyperventilating, “Wait until they get to the prison…” anytime there was a complaint about anything in Season 1 or Season 2.  There was also a lot of collective “what-the-hell-are-they-doing” when the show visited the Centers for Disease Control and Herschel’s Farm before finally showing the prison at the very end of Season 2.  We comic fans remember the prison fondly because there were some great comic moments that happened there.  I won’t spoil them, because most of them didn’t appear in the TV show.

The thing that we forget about the prison is that it overstayed its welcome in the comics too.  They first arrived at the prison in issue #13 (October 2004) and didn’t leave until issue #48 (April 2008).  That’s 3.5 years in one setting and the comic fans did complain at the time.  Terms like “stuck” and “mired” were getting tossed around.

So, is it any real surprise that the TV show made some similar mistakes in terms of lingering on the prison?  In all ways, the TV show has been a pale imitation of the comic, so you wouldn’t really expect anything more from the show.  Perhaps the concept of two flawed men of the apocalypse leading their warring tribes into battle is just too sexy for fiction writers?  They just lose their minds and get lost in the moment.

But, the prison is gone now.  We have reason to look forward and be optimistic.  At the very least, the status quo is gone.  Rick’s gang is scattered hither and yon in the wake of The Governor’s attack and it will be entertaining to see how/if they survive and reconvene.  Let’s do a quick group inventory: (a) Darryl & Beth, (b) Rick & Carl, (c) The Bus of Redshirts and Glen, (d) Sasha, Bob, and Maggie, and (e) Tyreese & Carol’s daughters.  I didn’t catch Michonne’s direction, but I’m thinking she’s on her own again.  Basically, the gang is split up all over the place.  Furthermore, Carol is still out there somewhere and I’ll bet that we haven’t seen the last of Lilly and Fist-Bump Tara.