There are so many things that Kirkman and his contributors have driven home with their examination of a post-zombie world, but perhaps the most important, the most nerve-wracking, the one that is driven home hard in this issue, is that you're never safe. You don't even get a second to really rest, and if you try and take one, you'll wind up regretting it. This is another one of those sudden zombie attack issues, just like the one in the first trade, but we had a little more warning this time with the ominous finale of issue eight. However, even though we knew the attack was coming, the suddenness and brutality of it is still shocking and horrific, and Kirkman has another twist in mind as well that just ripped my heart right out and has me, yet again, on the edge of my seat waiting for the next issue.
While zombie scares are important to this book, what really makes it shine is the human characters and how they interact, and Kirkman provides plenty of that in the opening of this issue. Having one of his characters point out that the kids won't even remember a world without zombies was a sobering moment, as well as pointing the way toward future stories, and seeing the characters all get to enjoy a moment of reconnecting and being human, not worried about the zombies outside, was nice. Kirkman makes these characters seem real, relatively normal, even gives a bit of playful humor to their dialogue, and makes us care about what's going to happen to them.
Which, of course, is when almost every writer would make bad things happen to them. Kirkman and Adlard do a terrific job of turning this brief bit of happiness into what is in retrospect a horrible lapse in judgment, letting their guard down in the midst of enemy territory. The sudden zombie attack is one thing, but the event that sort of wakes up the larger mass of the creatures is even more effective, a terrific bit of visual storytelling by Adlard and one of my favorite moments of the series after Tony Moore's departure.
This sudden burst of action really grabbed me and pulled me into the book even more, and is the best example of Kirkman and Adlard starting to gel in the same way that Kirkman and Moore did. The way the zombies suddenly come out of the woodwork, and everything goes from totally relaxed to totally surrounded, is a beautiful example of pacing. In addition, the way the news sort of trickles down, and the attack interrupts more normal moments or shatters a moment of peace, really gives the sense of how unsafe these characters are, and starts the reader wondering if they'll ever be safe enough to rest.
It is the final part of the issue, though, that really has me chomping at the bit to see what happens next. Kirkman explores a threat we really haven't seen that much of in the wake of the zombie invasion, and does it in the most brutal, heart-wrenching manner possible. It's just a sudden burst of violence that I did not see coming, and the reaction that it inevitably causes leads into one of the best cliffhangers the series has had. This issue makes irrevocable changes in several characters, and it's a great payoff for a series that has been as much about people dealing with zombies as it has been about the zombies themselves.
