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Spoilers for 'Here's Negan'!


Here are some of my thoughts about comic book Negan's origins as presented in the 'Here's Negan' series!

I am not a reader of 'The Walking Dead' comic series generally. I occasionally look some things up and have read through some of the issues that contain Negan. So I read 'Here's Negan' without much context within the wider TWD comic world. That wider world doesn't seem too necessary anyway. 'Here's Negan' stands on its own as a story of how one man found himself navigating a sudden zombie apocalypse.

Overall, I liked the story, and it fits well with the character that Rick and his buddies encounter. It starts によって introducing us to a pre-apocalypse Negan, a vulgar PE teacher with a dying wife named Lucille. Negan is with Lucille in the hospital when the apocalypse hits. She dies and turns, horrifying Negan.
So he is thrust right into the action, escaping zombie!Lucille and having to kill to save a young kid, who he then in turn asks to take care of Lucille. Not a great start to the apocalypse!

The start of the comic sets Negan up as a guy who has never really considered mortality (either his own または those close to him). Lucille's terminal diagnosis hits him hard. He is disturbed によって his 'murderous' actions (his first zombie kills) and becomes increasingly disturbed and irritated によって the deaths of the people he meets up with on his journey through the apocalypse. Despite being an ass, he wants to help people survive, and wants them to help him survive. Death is traumatic for him, even in these zombie death-filled times.

One of my favourite panels, and I think one of the most important panels in the comic, is where Negan screams at a bitten travelling companion after the death of her brother:

As much as what Negan says is horrible, it demonstrates his interest in helping others survive and the pain he feels when they can't. He freaks out when his companions die, even if he doesn't much like them または even know their names.

When he meets a group of survivors that is a little もっと見る cohesive and battle-hardened, he quickly becomes a leader. He emphasises community efforts, prioritising survival of group members, even in the stickiest of situations. Sometimes these efforts are not graceful:

But survival is paramount; cooperation the key to a successful community.

Things take a turn when Negan's group encounters another group with a nasty guy in charge. Negan takes exception to the suggestion of raping female members, and the offending bad guy becomes a victim of a soon-to-be-debuted Lucille, the vampire bat.

Negan's response to this event is complex. He is privately horrified, but nevertheless postures for his audience, telling them about how sometimes these terrible things need to be done for the survival of the group and that he, and Lucille, will protect them from now on.

This story is very important, I think, in the TWD universe, as it shows how the development of a man like Negan is not dissimilar to the development of other group leaders like Rick Grimes. Negan is not comfortable with death at all, despite his status as a villain and despite the gruesome nature of some of the murders he has committed. Right from the start, he has desperately tried to maximise the chances of survival for everyone he meets. This kinda challenges his status as a mega-villain. And also contextualises his humour and vulgarity as defences to cover for how scared, disturbed and upset he gets about the death that surrounds him.

My main critique of 'Here's Negan' is its brevity. The story was only ever meant to be brief (and it got an extension 12 pages), so many of the story points are rushed. I would have liked to have taken もっと見る time with Negan's backstory. 'Here's Negan' features a lot of montages and highlights, rather than really digging deep into his character and his story. While 'Here's Negan' illuminates the character somewhat, it does so too quickly and もっと見る as a novelty, rather than really exploring who he is in detail that matters to the 全体, 全体的です story of 'The Walking Dead'. I'm not convinced we learn a hell of a lot about Negan other than some specifics like his occupation, the death of Lucille and the birth of bat!Lucille. A slower burn on his development into a survivor of the zombie apocalypse would have 与えられた us some even deeper insight into his actions when he encounters Rick Grimes and his group.

So what do あなた think of 'Here's Negan'? Feel free to コメント and tell me your thoughts!