| Title | : | The Walking Dead, Vol. 5: The Best Defense (The Walking Dead, #5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 158240612X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781582406121 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Comics |
| Number of Pages | : | 136 |
| Publication | : | First published September 27, 2006 |
The Walking Dead, Vol. 5: The Best Defense (The Walking Dead, #5) Reviews
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Woodbury. The volume that took this series from innovative character driven end of the world saga to innovative character driven horror saga! Kirkman really gets to the darkness and wantonness of humanity as some of Rick's group run into another group of survivors, surviving in a very different way than they are.
The violence is extreme and scarring, yet in truth a necessary way to portray just what people will do and tolerate to survive. Welcome to Woodbury. 9 out of 12, Four Star read.
2019, 2017, 2013 and 2011 read -
3 very conflicted stars
First off I like this series. This is a great look at how humanity either deteriorates or survives in a world where so much of human kind is gone. From a survival aspect this book is fascinating.
On the other hand, I have come to the conclusion that Robert Kirkman hates women. I mean, really. Lori is unbearable and whines about the effort her husband makes to create a better place for them. Carol is a giant fucking mess and Michonne well, fuck. What happened to her was tragic and it's no wonder she hates the Governor.
I will repeat what I said in my last review. I'm glad that the television series did not follow the same path the books did in regard to the female characters. Because on the show, the majority of them are kick ass warriors.
On a side note, this would be me during the apocalypse:
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The Governor is here!!!
This is the fifth volume of the softcover editions of "The Walking Dead", collecting the comic book issues from #25 to #30.
Creative Team:
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Illustrators: Charlie Adlard
Additional gray tones to inking: Cliff Rathburn
Chapter Five
THE BEST DEFENSE
Wait... you’re feeding them? What the hell are you feeding them?
Enter: The Governor...
..., no time to introduce him! Run, everyone! RUN!!!
Rick’s group is finally establishing a secure place in the prison when a falling helicopter in the sky making them to go out to investigate it.
So, Rick, Michonne and Glenn while checking out the helicopter, they reach a fortified town.
Welcome to Woodbury.
The Governor rules the town of Woodbury, he is the one in charge of the safety of all the population in the town of Woodbury.
And due that...
...the lives of Rick’s group would never been the same anymore!
Rick won't be the same anymore!
Michonne won't be the same anymore!
Rick's group would prefer to face a legion of zombies...
...instead rather than The Governor!
Rick's group thought that they had faced the worse of this new dystopian world...
...they hadn't faced anything yet!
And what are you waiting for??? Keep running!!! The Governor is right behind you! -
“Well stranger, we’re feeding them strangers”
I have a new favourite line. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be funny, but it did give me a good laugh. It was such a quick and ironic twist of fortune. Rick let his guard down for one moment; he believed what he saw, and because of this he almost got everyone killed. After this he’ll never trust people again. In this crazy fucked up world you just can’t take people on face value anymore. There’s almost always a monster lurking beneath.
The group met their first ever other group, and despite the clear mental instability in Rick’s camp, these guys are much further gone. The Governor is driven by a desire to dominate all; he wants nothing more than to rape, kill and pillage whilst trying to maintain the appearance of good leadership. This new world has given him the opportunity to fulfil his dark dreams. He’s a terrible opportunist, one that has managed to persuade an entire community to believe him. They fear him, and they respect him. But they love the safety his maniacal presence provides.
He’s got his eyes set on the prison, and this chapter ends with him trying to manipulate his way to it. These guys are so messed up, and it’s still very early days, is there going to be other groups much worse? As humanity is exposed to such horrors for longer and longer periods of time, it’s going to become more degenerate, more evil and more insane. This is so much fun to read! I love the way horror has been explored on mentality. -
Holy shit balls! No one died this time! I'm honestly still in shock. It was definitely gruesome though, with plenty of traumatic content. Normally it's more about who died, and who's left to mourn them, but this one introduced evil of a whole new variety - the Governor. A survivor from a neighboring town, he holds a position of power, and is clearly a deranged sadist. I know from this moment on, I will be looking forward to him dying a very disturbing death. Even if I don't enjoy another page, I will continue reading, simply for that moment. I think this volume was, by far, the best volume. It was really exciting and has renewed my interest in the series. I'm definitely looking forward to Vol. 6!
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Not as entertaining as the previous instalments, I feel this is largely setting up a longer storyline with a new ‘big bad’ by laying down the groundwork of hostility and suspicion.
As always, it’s the characters that intrigue more than the zombies, and the belief that nobody should be making themselves comfortable. Things can change in the blink of an eye, and the overall tension that permeates each page helps to increase this feeling of anxiousness. You never know when, or how, a character is going to die.
This is the last comic I have (the first 5 comics I found in a charity shop for 25p each!) but I’m sorely tempted to see this through to the bittersweet end. It’s definitely kept me more enthralled than the tv series, which started to sour after the groups arrival in Woodbury and too much deviation from a solid script in the comics. -
3.5 stars.
My least favourite volume so far. It just wasn't up to the standard of the other volumes. I think the artwork is definitely growing on me though. I really liked it but they removed Tony Moore from doing the covers and that makes me sad. I absolutely adored his covers and I can definitely tell the difference between the old covers and the new ones. The new covers don't seem to be as detailed or eye-catching but I do like them, just not as much as I loved the old ones.
The story in this volume wasn't as exciting. I know a lot of horrible things happened but I was waiting for something really exciting to happen. I also have an issue with the representation of women. I noticed from volume one that women are not represented very kindly and I just kind of went with it in hopes that it would sizzle out. It hasn't. If anything, the women are getting worse. The majority of the women are "hormonal" all the time but the men are macho men who take care of them. There's no powerful woman in this comic but there are numerous powerful men. This volume just really irked me because the women are made out to be batshit crazy hormonal basket cases. It's been months since the zombies took over and the women still feel repressed to me. I really hope that changes because I want bad-ass capable women!!! -
The governor in the comics makes the governor in the show look like a choir boy .... damn he's one fucked up character.
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Be warned: minor spoilers ahead.
All right. Before reading this volume, I went back and reread all of the trades up to this point, in order to recapture the narrative and get back into the spirit of the story for Halloween. A few things I noticed during the read-through:
1. I appreciate the switch to Adlard’s art after the first story arc. While Moore made the characters much more distinguishable from one another, he also lent an exaggerated aspect to their features and expressions that was almost cartoonish. The more realistic drawing from Adlard gives the artwork a gritty feel that’s more in line with the story.
2. Kirkman actually does a very good job in setting things up for future revelations. Much of what goes on in plot and character development is subtly constructed and foreshadowed in previous story arcs. And on that note:
3. I’ve said it before, but it’s definitely not my imagination. The world of the Walking Dead is profoundly misogynistic, populated with complicated male characters that are propped up by submissive, shallow female supporters. However, the jury is still out on whether this is a product of the story Kirkman is telling, or the heteronormative assumptions he makes while telling it.
In this volume, the story moves from a simmering internecine struggle to a more dangerous external conflict, as the sudden appearance of a helicopter leads Rick, Glenn, and Michonne to the doorstep of another survivor camp. This group is led by a man named Philip, who has styled himself The Governor. This new player in the story is quickly established as certifiably insane, as well as the extreme example of securing authority through the “might makes right,” do-anything approach to keeping people safe that Rick has been struggling with up until now. As the three protagonists begin their ordeal in the Governor's hands, the rest of the group back at the prison wait anxiously for their return, with no idea that a new, non-zombie threat is now bearing down on them.
As usual, I’m conflicted. The introduction of an honest-to-goodness, crazy-ass human villain that doesn’t immediately flame out and get shot in the next issue is exactly what the story needed. I appreciated the claustrophobic tension that suffused the last volume, especially considering that finding and keeping a sanctuary broke the formula that had previously been established. That sort of conflict can only keep up for so long before getting tiresome, though, and a clash with another survivor ideologue is the next logical step. As over-the-top as the Governor is, I needed a shock to the system. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past few arcs on what the end of the world has done to our heroes, so I appreciate the reminder that yes, by the way, it really is the end of the world. Dead people are trying to eat everyone that’s left, and that can make people justify doing some really screwed up things in the name of survival. I consequently ate this volume up. The story is exciting, the pace is perfect, and I’m primed for the fallout that’s sure to come in the following volumes.
Here’s the thing, though: did we really need another refresher course on how women are not welcome in this version of the zombie apocalypse? Maybe it’s because I reread everything, but the no-girls-allowed mood was already firmly entrenched. At this point it’s really starting to grate, and I wish Kirkman would stop harping on it and just fucking move on, already. I like that the theme of deconstructing nuclear families and monogamous relationships has appeared, but as foreshadowed, it comes from the female character that apparently can’t function without a man. More problematic, though, is that the reasoning for this development actually makes sense and is dramatically interesting, but is immediately met with “we don’t do that in Kentucky,” etc. I’m not sure if that was a reference to polyamory or homosexuality, but considering how Andrew and Dexter turned out and what happened to them, I wouldn't be surprised if homosexuality is unwelcome in this zombie apocalypse, too. We can forget about Andrea being a solid female protagonist, too, now that she's voiced her committment to doing whatever Dale tells her to do.
And, of course, Michonne. Oh, Michonne. To be fair, our sole remaining strong female character was effectively subjugated right as she was introduced in the last volume, when she immediately glommed onto a male protagonist for no other apparent reason than that they are both black. But yes, the brutal, prolonged rape and torture of Michonne for daring to physically attack the man that had, without provocation, maimed one of her companions was particularly hard to read. Not just because it’s hard to stomach on its own, but because Kirkman has decided to frame it in the perspective of what it does to the men around her. The Governor’s so crazy, he rapes people for fun! What a scary and interesting character! And oh, poor Glenn! Look how traumatized he is by having to hear Michonne being raped! Meanwhile, we get one line of dialogue from the victim herself concerning what she plans to do to her tormentor (which I’m convinced will happen, and will be as bad as she implies), but otherwise, no actual focus on what such horrific treatment is actually doing to her or what she is thinking. Other than some artistically drawn panels of her tied spread-eagle, of course, and renderings of her beaten face and cries of pain for dramatic effect. That says all we need to know, right? Sigh.
I usually don’t have patience for people that go searching for reasons to get offended, but Jesus, WE GET IT, ROBERT KIRKMAN. MEN ARE IN CHARGE. I think my problem with all of this is that Kirkman is taking pains to write what he feels might actually happen in a zombie apocalypse, which implies that somewhere deep down, he imagines violent patriarchy to be the natural order of things that would immediately be reestablished without social norms to hold it back. Admittedly, that’s an argument that can’t be dismissed offhand, considering that institutionalized rape and the relegation of women to submissive wards meant to be owned, guarded, shepherded, and/or used can be found this very moment in various parts of the real world (and even in our own “civilized” country). It’s still unpleasant, though, and I have yet to see the purpose for constantly reasserting it in every single story arc, especially since it’s largely done through and abetted by the female characters that I’m supposed to like and sympathize with.
But I’m still giving this one a four. Yeah, I know. Insensitive, privileged white male. The story is still fantastic, though, and I liked this volume much better than the previous few. It’s a really good zombie melodrama, and at this point in the series it’s still a great read for fans of the genre. Just, you know... trigger warning. Don't read this series with any illusions about it being more socially enlightened than any other comic book aimed at young men. Also, I’m realizing that most of the protagonists are pretty hard to like at this point, and I’m torn between finding that odd and recognizing it as interesting, as the reality of the world they are in continues to take its emotional toll on them. -
And this was a dark one! 2.5 Stars. CW: violence, gore, death, rape
I think that this series is a lot darker than I anticipated and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Kirkman's treatment of women in this series is disturbing and it's particularly difficult on Black women which I'm not enjoying. This volume explores what's going to happen to the characters once they realize that there is a possibility that other "colonies" that exist. Of course, things don't go as planned and Rick and two other characters get caught up in a hell of a mess. This is where the book gets extremely dark and honestly if it wasn't for the project I'm working on, I'm not sure I would continue. I'm interested in seeing how our crew is going to handle this new discovery/group. -
Holy shit!!!! This is my favorite volume so far out of the five I've read! I'm so happy because I really hated the 4th volume and I almost wanted to stop reading but I told myself not to and I kept reading out of curiosity and this fifth volume is amazing! Two words: The Governor. One of the biggest and baddest villains in The Walking Dead history was finally introduced and he is even more terrifying in the comics than he was in the show, and that's hard to believe but it's true! He's scary as fuck. So many things happened in this short volume, it was action packed and exciting!
SPOILERS BELOW
I was so excited when Glenn found the armor suits for him and Rick! Then the helicopter scenes happened and I was so excited as they were tracking down where the helicopter landed and it led them to Woodbury! Finally we meet The Governor who is so insane and creepy. He's one of my favorite villains of all time and it's so exciting to finally see him in this series. As soon as the group meets him they get into a physical fight and The Governor chops off Rick's hand, and Michonne bites his ear off!!!!!!!!! Like what!!!! I had heard that Rick loses his hand i the comics but I never knew how and I can't believe The Governor is the one who did it! That's crazy. Also, in the show Michonne takes out the Governor's eye, but in the comics it's his ear. I find that interesting. The Governor is so unbelievably cruel when he "rapes the dog shit out of Michonne" (those were his actual words). He's a villain who is so easy to hate. Also, why is Carol bat shit crazy in these comics??? She wants to marry Lori and Rick. She's like in love with both of them and she wants to marry both of them and raise Sophia and Carl together like what the fuck!? She's actually crazy. I don't know what to think of it to be honest.
This one is definitely the darkest and most intense volume yet and I absolutely loved it. On to volume 6 now. :) -
The last volume I kept thinking this is a little whiny, the characters did a lot of complaining and grieving, I thought to myself something needs to happen, something to jar the characters and drive the plot forward. It looks like we have a villain here in volume 5.
Our travelling band that has settled in a prison sees a helicopter, LIFE is out there! They then see said chopper crash and they want to learn where they are from and see if they are ok. When they see boatloads of footprints surrounding the chopper and no people Glenn, Rick, and Michonne decide to follow the tracks and stumble upon a nearby city. That's as far as I will say, because what they find in that city is crazy.
I remember hearing that The Walking Dead had one of the best villains in it, and to that I said, "wait, how does a zombie survival story have a villain? How can there be a villain? What would he look like? What would he do?" Well that I have met this Villain (If he is the same villain I heard about) AKA The Governor I can now see that he is ruthless and heartless and I'm sure I will hate him more in the future.
I'm constantly impressed by how the plot is pushed forward. Yes, the characters drive the story, they might not be as in depth and emotional as some people like, but their range of emotion is pretty powerful. Some people push their sadness and grief from losing friends and loved ones down, because they have to, because they need to move forward and get business done; whereas, others just break down, some harder then others. We've seen some people just snap and take it out on their friends or the zombies. It keeps me coming back to read more. Also as stated in my last review the art is getting better and easier to tell people apart, big plus!
I'm really digging The Walking Dead and can't wait to read the next volume. -
Whoooo-eee! These just keep getting more and more intense! I'm definitely glad that I haven't been reading these as they came out, because waiting in between episodes would be torture! I meant to take a break from these and read something else for a bit... but damn if it isn't hard to put them down! I need to know what happens.
This one is just as crazy as the last one... only now we have a few new faces to look at for a bit. They are ones that I hope to not see for very long. My hope is that they will be zombie-food before long. But as is usually the case when such a fate is well-deserved, the deserving will likely be spared for far too long.
There was some depraved stuff going on this volume. It's definitely dark and fucked up stuff... this ain't no "funny book", that's for sure.
I did notice some errors in this one, which struck me as odd. Transposed letters, mostly. "Exactly" being spelled "exaclty" and such. But still, this is great storytelling and it's easy to get caught up in it and not notice the little things.
If only they didn't keep ending on damn cliffhangers, I could probably sleep tonight! -
Where do I start?
First of all, let me say that I think this is the best volume so far of the series -- plot wise, dialogue wise,... It just seems leaner, tighter, more exciting yet more personal. Sure, it is a very serial type of series - very little variance in story from one adventur to the next - but this one feels a little stronger.
So why the lower rating? Well... SPOILERS follow....
I mentioned in a prior review on this series that I felt the author was a bit of a misogynist. This volume only reinforces that in the worst way. All of the female characters are whiny, lost characters who feel they are no one without a man. Then, in volume 4, Michonne came along. A strong, take-no-shit kind of woman. Finally, some variance in the female characters.
So what does Robert Kirkman do in this volume? He has her get raped - brutally and repeatedly.
Storywise, one can understand why this would happen in the situation that the survivors found themselves in. Yet, when every woman in the series so far is a bumbling, hopeless mess, it absolutely ruins any credibility for this author in my mind when he so absolutely strips away (literally and figuratively) all of the power from this woman. If it weren't also so absolutely cliche, it might even be more forgiveable.
At this point, I'm torn. I really want to find out what happens next in the narrative as the story did get so much leaner and tighter in this volume, but I'm not sure I can continue to support this author. -
i give this volume 3.5\5 it was really exciting and really dark so lets say the real evil starting from here
finally The Governor is showed and he is really making rick and michonne suffering already but sadly this is just the beginning , the first villain we see in the walking dead and he is really physco , crazy and sadist shit , some of us love some villains but this one all agree on hating him :(
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I like the story arc this thing is taking, but the human depravity stuff is killing me. It just feels like the author really wants to remind me over and over again how awful some people are in this new world. Some stuff makes sense, some stuff just feels over the top.
Imma keep readin em tho. -
THINGS JUST GOT HELLA
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Getting even grimmer. The story may have taken one turn too far for me..
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We are still in prison... again... and we finally make the acquaintance of The Governor...
From that point onwards it gets really violent and brutal. We have definitely entered the world of the very, very mature reader. Wow. Good though, if you can stomach the violence. Practically makes me quake in my fluffy socks in anxiousness and fright regarding volume 6... -
Despite the graphic and hard to read scenes, I'm enjoying this comic series so far. The Governor is much darker in the comics and his treatment of Rick, Michonne and Glenn had me disturbingly shocked.
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Enter the Governor and his reign of terror. This one is so dark
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Brutal and gruesome. Loved it.
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Negan cuts off Ricks hand, nuff said.
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The Walking Dead continues to be an exercise in how much darkness the audience can endure with Robert Kirkman getting increasingly darker with each succeeding volume.
Besides the very graphic nature of the series already featuring an ample number of decaying zombie corpses feasting on human flesh before being shot/hacked at in the head, we’ve had execution-style murders, multiple suicide attempts, amputation and decapitation, child murder, and now: repeated gang rape! … Where will Kirkman go next? Well, there’s a relatively unscathed pregnant woman in the cast – given Kirkman’s penchant for sadism, particularly toward women, I’ve got a bad feeling about what’ll happen to both mother and baby!
Anyway, in this volume, the gang continue to clear out the prison when Glenn and Rick see a helicopter go down. They set off with Michonne to look for survivors and possible news on the outside world but discover they’re too late and another group has taken them away – but who and why? The trio soon discover a nearby fortified town of survivors and meet their leader, the cruel ‘n’ crazy Governor.
I’m glad the series finally has a plot and a villain because the soap-opera nature of the survivors’ stories in the increasingly boring prison was getting really old fast. That the group now have enemies in the better-armed redneck survivalists is only a good thing and has definitely given the series a shot in the arm.
And while the series has been grim as hell so far, the Governor single-handedly takes the series down to even darker territory. Ruling over his small town of hillbilly morons by providing them entertainment in the form of gladiatorial fights between “normal” people with chained zombies on the fringes of the arena, and with dozens of decapitated heads in boxes in his house in lieu of a TV, Rick and co. have stumbled into a nightmare where they find out what it would be like if Jeffrey Dahmer were leader of a town.
Despite more gruesome amputations/decapitations and the aforementioned horror of one of the characters being gang-raped, Kirkman’s crafted a morbidly fascinating volume that raises the stakes of the series and gives the group’s story an edge it didn’t have before. Will Rick and co. make it back to their loved ones or will they perish at the brutal hands of the Governor? I don’t know but I’m definitely going to read the next volume to find out – I guess slowly introducing progressively darker elements does inure audiences to the terrible places you take them. -
The group sees a helicopter crash and Glenn, Rick and Michonne go out to investigate it and run into Woodsbury people... oh, and Carol ask Lori a really really ridiculous question that I had to read again to make sure that really just happened.
Well, one thing is for sure: The Governor is even crazier and grosser in the graphic novels than in the TV show.
Seriously this series is not for the light hearted. Especially this volume. This is a graphic, GRAPHIC novel for adults, and adults with strongish stomachs. The Governor has his way with Michonne and it was something that I lightly skimmed over to proceed to the next part of the story.
I mean, in an apocalypse of any kind, that kind of thing would happen. BUT I am happy that they didn't draw it out or anything. But the words said were enough for me to not want to read it. That isn't something I want glorified in the slightest!
Moving on...
Remember how I complained about how poorly written the girl's were in the last book? They got a little, tiny bit better; but they still need a lot of work. We aren't helpless! Andrea is the only one that actually has a backbone and is helpful. Carol has lost her sense of everything reasonable, and Lori just... complains as usual.
BUT I AM EXCITED WE FINALLY GET TO SEE WOODBURY!
I needed to see some human conflict outside of the group.
I am holding out hope the girls get better and that The Governor meets his end sooner than later! -
First read: February 23rd 2016
Re-read: May 25th 2019
this issue of the comic book series was brutal and crazy! so much is starting to happen and of course i get left on a cliffhanger!
The governor is very different from the television show don't get me wrong both the comic and tv counter part are both maladaptive and cunning, However i think the comic book governor comes out as the more brutal one it makes me sick in what he did to Rick and Michonne.
I'm so so happy that they changed Carol for the television series because the comic book carol is so much weaker and has started to completely go down hill.
Theres only one issue that i have with the comic book so far is there is a lack of strong female characters don't get me wrong theres Andrea and Michonne but i feel there could be more female characters taking charge and doing more to make themselves stand out. Lori and Carol are weak they know nothing on how to survive they've had it to easy with not getting involved more. I haven't really seen anything from Maggie yet either apart from her love making scenes with Glenn -
The abundance of bad decisions and the fucking governor!
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Being a huge fan of the show, I wanted to see how the original writing started and how the show writers followed and deviated from the comics. My dislikes were that the comics are much more crude, crass, and unnecessarily violent. I did like the change in relationships and how people worked together differently, and the comics have a different creepiness feel than you get watching it on TV. Overall, I prefer the show, and probably will not finish out the comic book series.
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I'm getting really tired with the male apologist reasoning that you can show a woman getting violently, brutally raped as long as you let her "get her revenge" at the end. You are still depicting violence as entertainment. And yes, zombie comics are full of violence but the rape depicted in this book is at a whole other level.
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NEED. NEXT. VOLUME. NOW.
