The Walking Dead #68 – Review

by Robert Kirkman (writer), Charlie Adlard (pencils & inks), Cliff Rathburn (gray tones), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: A mysterious new character, Aaron, makes our group a utopian offer.  But can he be trusted?

What’s Good: With this issue, Kirkman begins his next big arc and it looks to be a great one, if only because it uses the series’ age to its advantage.

This entire book hinges on the emotional wear and tear that the group has seen.  They’ve suffered so much death and horror that trusting an outsider, or believing in the possibility of something good, is almost impossible.  Aaron’s reception by the group serves as a chilling reminder of everything Rick and company have gone through.   That said, while their trust issues are merited, Kirkman also does a good job of making Aaron seem just nice enough to highlight how broken and dysfunctional our group has become; justified or not, they’ve become a paranoid and violent bunch.

Perhaps Kirkman’s greatest achievement however, is that in making a “trust issue themed” installment that draws upon the series’ lengthy run, he also fully involves the reader.  While five years of comics means that our characters have suffered a lot, it also means that we have read just as much.  With Kirkman’s distinctively merciless style, full of shocks, sudden deaths, and twisted developments, it’s perhaps even harder for us to trust Aaron than it is for the characters themselves.  Throughout the Walking Dead, we’ve constantly been hit with evil from around the corner, so really, it’s hard not to look at Aaron with a sense of dread, waiting for the shoe to drop as we wonder what awful surprise Kirkman has in store for us this time.  Our suspicion and paranoia, created by Kirkman over 67 issues, is the same anxiety that has come to paralyze Rick.

Finally, Charlie Adlard does a fantastic job this month with his illustrations of Aaron. Adlard manages to draw a “nice guy,” but there definitely is something quietly sinister about his appearance.  His facial expressions are dead on.