The Walking Dead, Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us
February 2013: Vol. 2 of The Walking Dead -- 'Miles Behind Us' -- picks up right where we left off in Vol. 1: Shane is dead at the hands of little Carl, and Rick is pretty shaken up. But now that he's effectively the leader of their pathetic band of survivors, he pulls it together long enough to order the troops to muster out. First thing in the morning, they hit the road in search of a more safe and permanent shelter. But Kirkman's world doesn't seem to contain such a thing. Rick's group is lured not once, but twice, into situations that at first promise safety, but turn out instead to pack a nasty aftertaste. First, a seemingly quiet and abandoned suburban subdivision feels like it could be a place they could settle down, but then turns out to be packed with zombies, and then the owner of an out of the way farm refuses to let the group stay at his home and almost kills Rick while he's having a temper tantrum. Oh, and he's also a nutter who keeps zombies in his barn in hopes that he might rehabilitate them someday. NO BIG DEAL. Both incidents end in tragedy, but after all of that, they still haven't learned the lesson. 'Miles Behind Us' ends with the survivors getting really excited when they stumble over a prison -- yeah, that's going to end real well, guys.
Vol. 2 picks up the pace slightly, and the characters by virtue of having actually things to do instead of just moping around, are less annoying. New characters join the group both permanently and temporarily, and several plot points that had been brewing since Vol. 1 begin to rear their heads, including some hook-ups and a pregnancy. Kirkman does a better job in this volume of fleshing out his characters, although the dialogue still leaves something to be desired. Something that is entirely missing -- and sorely missed -- is a little levity. The crush of all these awful events is not only daunting for us to read about, but without something to contrast it to, it starts to feel an awful lot like a ridiculously contrived tragedy. Some humor or hope or something different would be welcome every once in a while, especially if I've got sixteen more of these suckers to go.
January 2011: Yep, still horrifyingly depressing.