Rate this book

The Walking Dead, Vol. 14: No Way Out (2011)

by Robert Kirkman(Favorite Author)

4.34 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1607063921 (ISBN13: 9781607063926)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Image Comics

review 1: This bleedin’ colony…Rick and co. are so cosy in their walled-in compound that the story has become about the various characters hooking up, like a post-zombie apocalypse Big Brother – argh, true horror! Thankfully Robert Kirkman stirs the pot a bit by throwing a massive zombie herd at them which manages to breach their walls and kill off a bunch of the survivors.There isn’t much to say about the first two-thirds of this volume – Rick gets some, other characters get laid, everyone spins their wheels – but the final third saves this volume from being a total waste. If you’re like me and find the paper-thin characters’ dying off hilarious, you’ll be chuckling quite a bit in this one!It says a lot about Kirkman’s shoddy character work that I didn’t care ... morewhile watching one after another die gruesomely and found the earnestness with which the other characters’ reacted to their deaths be funny rather than tragic. I know that makes me sound a little crazy but I just don’t buy half of these characters as even halfway real so it’s not like seeing people I care about dying. Oh, and the arm-chopping in this book felt more slapstick than anything else too – great comic timing, Charlie Adlard! That said, a character who’s been here from the start gets killed and I still laughed – maybe because of the double splash page over-announcing its importance and the way the character looked when they got it? Either way there’s no way the character lives after that injury and if they do I’ll be seriously annoyed – I didn’t like them much anyway! This volume raises a lot of questions about the zombies themselves.These zombies move slowly right - they’re not like the rage zombies from 28 Days Later, sprinting towards you? They shuffle forward in droves. So why, when it comes to running away from them, does Maggie say that she can’t do it? Why can’t Maggie outrun a bunch of shuffling, braindead corpses? They can’t run, you can – what’s the problem? Even a light jog seems sufficient to put distance between you and them, so you don’t tire yourself out too soon. Plot hole?And why does it take this long for Rick to realise that the survivors don’t have to cower before the ranks of the zombies, that they can raise an army and fight them back? It’s taken him 14 volumes to realise that he and others like him, with their wits about them and all the weaponry they could ask for, could perhaps stand up to unarmed, shuffling corpses who can’t think! Michonne was doing this by herself before she joined the group – how thick is everyone in this world?!Like the Kevin Costner movie of the same name, No Way Out is a really dull and repetitive volume in this increasingly stale series. The group finding this safe colony was by far the worst thing to happen to the story and we’re seemingly stuck with it for now. I really hope the series improves from here on out but until they have this sanctuary taken from them, I’m not sure how it will.
review 2: After all the drama of the previous book that took place as our stars settled into the walled/gated community outside of Washington, DC, Rick has fallen into his usual role as de facto leader of the survivors. All seems to be going good, but that quickly changes when a massive heard of walks starts to encircle the community. Poor Andrea has been trapped outside of the community, and everyone is worrying because she went to her assignment without supplies to last her more than a day. Her job is to serve as a lookout in the steeple of a nearby church. This can help her identify all sorts of problems (i.e. human, natural, or zombie) that might be approaching the community. In fact, it was just this plan that helped keep the community safe when a less-than-savory group tried to break in. The problem is that the no one in the community thinks it will be easy to break out and get her supplies.In any case, they do have to get out for a number of reasons:1. To help Andrea,2. To get out and gather more supplies from the surrounding area to keep everyone fed, and 3. To find a way to encourage the herd to move one.The question is going to be whether or not the wall surrounding the community is going to survive the constant press of the mindless walkers who know there is food on the inside. You can guess how that is going to turn out. The series continues to be interesting as the writer and illustrators seem to find a way to present new challenges for our cast of characters as well as new ways to look at the human condition under severe circumstances.Like so many of the previous volumes, I sat down and read this one in a single sitting. In a way, I am actually liking the books better than the show they are making out it. I will have to impatiently wait for the next one in the series. less

Download links for: The Walking Dead, Vol. 14: No Way Out

Advertising