The Walking Dead, Volume 27: The Whisperer War

***Spoilers below for previous books in the series***

After Negan chopped off Alpha's head in the previous volume, he returns to understandably skeptical Rick and Dwight. The Whisperers plan their next attack, the Kingdom/Hilltop/Alexandria plan their defense, and the Sanctuary plans...something? Plus, the most devastating loss of the whole series! (JK)

We can see how the 3 years of relative peace between fighting the Saviors and the Whisperers created cracks in the bonds between the different groups. They all got complacent and have forgotten how much they need each other in this world. Negan is basically a main character now and I am here.for.it. Will he be able to redeem himself??? Is he planning something nefarious??? I don't know! I show more can't wait to find out!
This was great and is my favorite volume of the series in a long time! show less

This is not a bad volume in the series, but it feels like the creators tried to cram too much into a single volume with epic battles and a cast of dozens viewed through the wrong end of a telescope as the pages switch to a tiny sixteen-panel grid format. And for all the rushing, they don't even come close to an ending, as this volume is revealed to just be a prelude to the next.

The Walking Dead has shifted quite a bit. People have divided themselves into functional communities and they are even trading with each other and holding fairs. Rick is still in charge at Alexandria, though all of a sudden he's griping about being an old man and losing touch. Things settled into a sort of normalcy and so of course, this couldn't be allowed to continue - enter The Whisperers who are a group like none our merry band of survivors has ever had to face.

In A Call to Arms, the infamous Negan escaped his prison and decided that his version of proving that he had turned over a new leaf would be to infiltrate the Whisperers. Quite unsurprisingly, this the prelude to disaster and ends up being the spark that begins a new war. show more Because of his injury, Rick is forced to sit on the sidelines and so he puts Dwight in charge of their forces. Vincent is sent out to the other communities to ask for help in defending Alexandria. Of the communities that are trading with Alexandria, only The Hilltop and The Kingdom agree to participate in the war. Of the two who send forces, only The Hilltop seems to do so without any problems in their community. With Ezekiel dead, many members of the Kingdom see no reason to rush to Alexandria's aid, particularly knowing that Rick believes that he can just install Michonne as their leader. There's plenty of resentment towards Michonne, because people rightly believe that she abandoned their community and broke Ezekiel's heart. At the end of the day, the only reason The Kingdom agrees to participate is because they fear that if Alexandria falls, so will The Kingdom.

Rick may be seen as a saviour by many but this also comes with a lot of resentment. I think that at this point, Rick has so bought into his own hype he cannot see the ways in which people bristle under his leadership. When Rick passes a law in Alexandria, he expects every community to follow it even if it doesn't apply to their situation. The perfect example is his rule on death penalty and his response to learning that Maggie had ordered an execution. The problem with being a supreme leader is that there's always going to be a resentment and you cannot rule people unless they agree to be ruled.

The only person Rick bothers to check in with is Andrea and she's the only one he shows weakness around. At first it seems humbling to think that Rick Grimes could actually have some doubts about his leadership abilities or the decisions he makes but it's really about his physicality and fear that he may just be usurped by someone else. Andrea is forced to spend them majority of her time in this volume acting like a fluffer and constantly boosting Rick's ego. When Rick asks if he did the right thing when he decided to leave Negan to roam free and to fight on the front lines, rather than continuing in her objections to Negan being alive at all, Andrea simply says that she trusts Rick and is therefore fine with his decision. What the ever loving hell? Is Andrea ever going to think for herself again? At one time, Andrea didn't even want Negan imprisoned and now she's fine with him being paroled when he played a large part in why they are in this mess. Yes, the fault still largely lies with Carl; however, Negan's actions escalated the situation into war.

Carl really isn't much better though his excuse is that he's younger than Rick. If we look back at how this whole thing got set in motion, we can trace it right back to Carl not having the sense of a concussed penguin because he found himself attracted to a Lydia, the Aphpa's daughter. Sure, common sense flies out the window when teenage hormones are involved but there should be limits. Now that Carl is forced to deal with the consequences of his rash decisions, he still wants to play wrong and strong. Michonne heads to The Hilltop to ask Maggie to chip in some forces to fight against the Whisperers, and of course, Carl is offended that he's not asked to come along and even goes as far to suggest that if he chooses to go, there's nothing anyone can do to stop him. At this point, I really want to see Carl fed to the zombies. Michonne has to placate Carl by pointing out that The Hilltop won't have a lot of strong warriors left behind and that she's leaving Carl there to help deal with any problems that arise. Yes, Michonne pretty much had to stick a dummy in Carl's mouth.

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One of the stronger Walking Dead TPB's in a bit, Kirkman is still playing with Negan's character and the possibility of his redemption, though the truth is I find the character exhausting: vulgar, vulgar, violent, vulgar vulgar violent. This volume wraps up Lucille and hints the might be more to Negan in some flashback to come - the question is whether anyone will care (in the real world of readers, not in Alexandria). This volume sets the stage for a cataclysmic follow-up in 28.

I enjoyed this one. Not quite as much as previous ones, but it got the job done.

Unfortunately, I find many of the newer characters a little interchangeable. This series has a large cast and the art, while quite good, doesn't (at least for me) do enough to make some of the characters distinctive, so I find there's time when I'm reading a character exchange, and I'm lost for a bit until I puzzle out who they are.

The second complaint was that this one felt rushed. There was a LOT of action here, but with some pages with 16 panels, sometimes rocketing from one plotline to another to another, I just wanted it to slow down a bit and show us the consequences of all this stuff. Even an interesting Negan plotline seemed to get short shrift.

Hey, show more they can't all be classics, right? And this is leading to an even greater calamity, but still... show less

This was a pretty great volume that came out of nearly nowhere.

The Whisperers are on the march, and we get to see Rick and Dwight's plans in action.

Here are the fun military tactics once more, though they don't quite approach the brilliance of Negan's use of biological warfare. Negan is fighting beside Dwight, and suffers an interesting loss over the course of the comics. Reading [b: Here's Negan|35486085|The Walking Dead Here's Negan!|Robert Kirkman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497988129s/35486085.jpg|56884254] did add a bit more depth to those scenes, and his character has only continued to grow on me as he always does. Carl and Lydia also have some interesting moments throughout, and Eugene's plot is a nice callback to when show more he was first introduced in the series.

The action is great, the pace of the comic appropriately unrelenting, and the artwork fantastic as always. I'm curious to see where things will go, now that things are heating up among the Saviors and in the Kingdom both. Further, I might even venture to say it looks like our heroes are in a tighter bind than they've ever yet been.

Who will make it out alive? show less

3.5
There was an excess of chatter in this one, but once the action started, it was quite a ride. It was good to get a glimpse at Negan's back story, though he's still a crazy git who's not to be trusted. I'm foreseeing a pretty bad end coming for this storyline.
There were some good spreads in this volume, but my favorite piece was an extra large panel of Maggie and Hershel after the battle at Hilltop. Fantastic.