Written by Guest Contributor: Jordan North For a Tyreese special, there isn’t actually too much Tyreese in this issue, at least he’s not the main focus much anyway. However, that didn’t stop this from being one of the more enjoyable issues of The Walking Dead that I’ve read in a while.
Call me a purist. Call it nostalgia, but revisiting these characters from the past was as much fun as it was bitter and sad. Seeing Glenn wise-cracking again, Tyreese and his hammer; and Lori… well... I actually didn’t miss her that much, but it was also cool to get to go back and see old things form a different perspective. A bit near the beginning where we finally see the start of Lori and Shane’s relationship was particularly illuminating and ugly (something about the handholding during their moment of infidelity made me want to pop them both. No respect for our man Rick). What they did together was really shitty, but in light of circumstances you can’t really put all the blame on them. OH! And getting to watch Tyreese use his hammer for the first time is sure to send any fan bursting with fanboy delight. Seeing bits of lore explored like that, things we never thought we’d get an intimate look at, was a lot of fun.
After an intro that really does feel like a Tyreese special he kind of drops off for a bit and the book focuses on Rick and the group soon after Shane’s death. And while there were some cool segments in there, since it’s been so long since I’ve read that far back in these books the whole thing felt like I was just treading over old territory a bit with some panels leaving me sure I’d seen them before (maybe I had?). There was cool stuff to take in here too though. Seeing Dale again and watching him unofficially crown Rick as leader was nice, and a snippet where Rick tells Dale to sit on the fact that tomorrow is Christmas, “I don’t want to have to explain to my son that on top of all this shit… Santa can’t find him.” was great. Mad emotion. Good writing.
The special wasn’t flawless. On top of not focusing much on the character it was supposed to be dedicated to it had this weird jumping effect where instead of one cohesive story it felt like we were watching a slide-show jumping from scene to scene. This really messed with the level of immersion for me. Also, and maybe this is all in my head but it seemed like in places the art wasn’t on par with the main book. These gripes aside seeing some old faces back in action and getting a “behind the scenes” look at some legendary TWD moments is more than enough to earn the price of admission.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Robert Kirkman Artist: Charlie Adlard Publisher: Image and Skybound Price: $2.99 Release Date: 10/9/13