Few long-running series have kept me engaged in its story and characters as long as Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead did. Each month I eagerly ripped into those fresh pages, desperate to know if Carl Grimes would finally get the kind of story-line he deserved. I ate up those pages like a zombie seeking brains. Even when the storytelling appeared to be on the decline, with repetitive writing and tired tropes, I never gave up hope that the series would find its way.
Well, that’s over.
In July 2019, The Walking Dead comic ended. Abruptly, and without warning. The series put out an issue as usual, and no one expected it to be the end — there were even leaks of fake cover art for future issues. But the contents were anything but usual: Carl, who in the last issue was a young sprout, was suddenly old. Like, older-than-his-dad old. And with that mammoth time skip, the plot threads were swept into a tidy bow and thick letters ran across the last page spelling out THE END.
I’m sorry? The WHAT?
Let me catch you up on what had been happening. Spoilers, obviously: Rick, the main character, died. After a long-winded back and forth between Rick’s group of survivors and their latest threat of a potentially-evil group, Rick was shot by an angsty teen. He was killed in a rather understated way, and it’s one of the most dynamic plot twists of the series. Rick’s death could only mean one thing, as I naively thought, Rick’s son Carl (my favourite character) was going to step up and lead the story!
Oh, what might have been.
If you want a bit of background on my love for Carl Grimes, you might take a peek at my review for The Walking Dead TV show, where this obsession began. Here in the comics series his development trucked along slowly but surely, and this sudden thrust into the lead spot was just what he needed for his character to flourish… so I thought. Robert Kirkman had other plans.
The loss of Rick Grimes was sure to have a huge emotional impact on his son, and nothing gets me excited to open a new issue more then fresh Carl content. My boy has been short-changed his entire TWD career. From the beginning he was a core part of the group, but in recent years he faded into the background. Now, FINALLY, we were going to move on with his character. He would be forced to take the leadership position. He would leave Lydia, ick, and their weird relationship behind. He would have to make the hard decisions that his father had, but how would he differ? Would the impact of Negan’s mentorship be realised?
That all happened, but we didn’t get to see it.
What a RIP OFF. Listen. I have a lot of feelings, and not all of them are negative. Upon immediately finishing the issue, all at once saying goodbye to my favourite characters (some of who were completely absent in any way but name only) and reading Kirkman’s weird apology/explanation letter… I was sad, and frustrated, and kinda relieved.
But now I’m just annoyed.
Carl deserved better. After his ridiculous death on the TV show, I’m grateful Kirkman didn’t do anything that stupid. I’m grateful Carl got to live on, have a life, a family, a purpose. But ending his story right when it was about to truly begin? That’s not it fam. AND HE NEVER EVEN REUNITED WITH NEGAN. The best relationship in the whole series, other than Rick and Carl, is the strange mentorship that Negan has with Carl. And it gets simply a brief mention.
Each of the main cast members get their little send off. They’ve rebuilt society and all that. Zombies are still roaming, but they’ve become rare. Everyone is living their happy little post-apocalypse life. There’s some touching moments in there, particularly with Maggie and Glenn’s son, Hershel — who was just a toddler when we last knew him. He is one messed up kid. And it’s heart-breaking. The glimpse of his character cut straight to my heart, proving further that there was still story in this world worth telling.
I think that’s the most annoying this about this finale: it’s good. It’s great, even. The characters get an emotional send-off, with a happy ending that’s not totally ‘happily ever after’, but as close as The Walking Dead could ever get.
This ending felt rushed into. Like, “I don’t really want to write this series anymore so lets end it right now.” This exact ending could have happened in another hundred issues, after giving us some good Carl content.
But, alas.
I don’t think I’m going to miss the series as a whole. The comics are mostly brilliant, so maybe it’s for the best that it can’t get any worse. I’ll still have to suffer through the off-the-rails TV show, after all. But I’ll miss Carl. I’m going to miss him a whole lot.
Rest in peace, The Walking Dead. It’s been fun.
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