*Spoilers will follow*
Everything has built up to this. The moment that the people of the Hilltop were confronted with the creepy people that wear the masks made out of dead people, also commonly known as the Whisperers. (I still feel my name works better) But did all the build up pay off in the end? I would like to think that it did and while everything seems calm and sorted for now I sense big repercussions due to their unexpected meeting. Also where the hell is Michonne at? We haven't seen her since the end of the All out War story arc. While I was hoping that she was going to end up being one of the people captured by the whisperers or that she had gone crazy because of everything that happened with Neegan that she was going to also be wearing a walker face. But unfortunately that wasn't to be, I sense big things when she comes back and I look forward to it but for now lets focus on the present.
We pick up seconds after the previous issue with Gregory having poisoned Maggie (badly) hoping that she would die and that he could then go back to being the leader of the Hilltop. Being the twisted sort of person that I am I was hoping that we might see Maggie die because then Jesus would have to take up the reigns and Sophia might have more of a reason for being there maybe. Sophia wasn't here this issue apart from a moment of shock at the end when she realised that Carl was gone, well thats what I was guessing was the reason that she was in shock. Im not a big fan of Sophia, my love for Sophia in the comics is about as much as it was when she was in the show so if she turns up dead in a barn then I really would feel sad. But what I'm hoping is that from seeing the cover for issue 140 with a really angry Maggie that maybe Sophia will be the same and she will want to help get him back and knock some sense into him. Sophia feels like a expendable character at the moment which I would like to see change but I've got a feeling that we will just be looking at the death of Sophia in the coming issues. But now that I think about it I feel the biggest shock for Sophia is to see Carls hat on his bed because he doesn't go anywhere without the hat so for him not to have it would mean somethings wrong.
I feel like this is the last that we will see of the hilltop until issue 140 so the place that leave everything leaves me wondering if when we go back there that we will be looking at Hilltop beginning to crack. Just as it did when Gregory was in power at the hilltop everything feels like it is starting to go full circle. I also wonder if the poison is going to do something to her mentally and maybe it will start to make Maggie become mentally unstable. I am very excited for whats coming to do with the Hilltop as I feel that we are going to be reaching a new arc for all the communities as one starts to find peace (Alexandria) another starts to break. When Gregory shouts that they can't lock him in the cell and that he will die in there I really do believe that Maggie in the state she is and the mental state that she is in right now would be happy to just leave him there to die.
But as Maggie was beginning to try and get her strength back another member of the Hilltop comes running to her and Jesus to tell them to come outside quickly. Are be honest I did not expect there to be a small army of crazy people with masks on standing outside the Hilltop. It suddenly made me realise that they are much more of a threat then I had first thought they were, also that there are a lot lot more of them then I thought that there would be. I was expecting it to just be a small group like Ricks group was before they made it to Alexandria but we were looking at a small army. But the benefit of that was we got to see it over a two page spread which looked amazing. The meeting of two groups, a new battle on the cards maybe? But what we do know is that its going to affect Carl quite a bit.
Carl and Lydias relationship has been something at the forefront for the last few issues ever since he was in the cell next to Lydia and they started to bond. For a while I was so sure that Lydia was there to spy on the people of the Hilltop and find an easy angle to take them over and wouldn't making friends while your there make it easier. So when Carl gave her his hat I was thinking no don't do that, your now just playing into his hands and before you know it your all be being killed while you slept in your beds. But for the most part right now that doesn't seem to be the case at all, but Kirkman is good at just pulling out the twists so this isn't the last meeting between the two groups.
It was also good to see the aftermath of Lydia and Carl having sex from last issue because Carl lost his virginity to a girl that he really likes and it feels like he's becoming a man. Carl is defiantly a different kid to the one from issue 1 and its great to watch him grow up over the course of the comics, the boy becoming a man if you would like to call it that. But as much as I'm still distrustful of Lydia mostly because I don't know where her loyalties lie if the Hilltop were to come and get him for example if the Whisperers took Carl in. Would Lydia stand by her group or would she try and help them take him back and would she then stay with her group or not. As much as I want to like Lydia I really can't get a grasp on her mental state or where her loyalties lie.
As easy as the groups meeting went and it felt like the Whisperers might not be as aggressive as they first looked in previous issues, Lydia gave an insight into a different side of the Whisperers. What Lydia said I feel helps you understand her a lot more because sure Lydia is weird but she has a very good reason for that. When she says that they don't rape her because thats just a word made up by us to make us believe that we aren't animals. It made me start to like her as a character more because I felt the same feelings as Carl of anger at the people that did this to her and sadness because I really did get the feeling that doesn't want to go back. But that life is the only thing that she's ever known and its hard to then leave that and go into a more normal society if you can call the Hilltop normal. But you felt like the experience that she had with Carl was the first time that she had someone that actually cared for her as a human being rather then a piece of meat. It was a sweet moment for the characters watching teenagers growing up.
Also it was great that it wasn't Sophia because they have as the comic has gone on become much more like brother and sister. So seeing them to getting together would have just been weird and a bit wrong really. Plus I feel that Lydia and Carl have much more in common and they have seen just how dark this world can be and they feel connected. I could see them being together in this crazy world that they live in because they have seen the worst parts and given each other some of the best parts also. So for Lydia to them be dragged away from that its easy to imagine that she wouldn't want to leave and go back to Hell if you want to call it that. Hilltop is heaven and Whisperers are hell.
So when the meeting of the two groups happened I was expecting there to be much more of a confrontation then we actually got, it was a lot more civil then I had imagined it would be. Especially after everything that we have seen and what Lydia said about them I imagined them to be there running at the walls trying to tear peoples faces off. But something that did happen was that we met the leader of their group who also happens to be Lydia's mother Alpha. Now Alpha could mean many different things that she was given that name by her group because by all accounts the Whispers see themselves as animals rather then human beings so Alpha female of the pack as it were. It could mean that she's from a military background and it was a code name given to her when she was in the military and she continued to use that when the world went to hell. Or theres the third option which is must more appealing right now which is that she is just crazy and that keeping them as far away from the Hilltop is a very good thing.
I didn't really know what to expect when that mask came off but when it was this normal looking woman much like Lydia it just made me much more curious about what made them into the people they are. Its also interesting in the way that Alpha talks because she talks very robotic is the way that I saw it everything is closed, which really makes me sure that she might have come from a military background and something down the line has made her like this. Im sure that we will start to get more an explanation for the reasoning behind the way that she is because from just the few short frames I've instantly become intrigued with her. Kirkman has this brilliant way of pulling you in and intriguing you with characters and I don't feel that it would be right to call the Whisperers villains as of yet.
The reasoning for that is because of the two members of Jesus's crew that were taken and presumed dead turned up with the Whisperers alive and well. So they can't be all bad right? Also if you notice the one that had injured his leg actually has his leg in a splint so they helped him and saved him. So their not out to harm anyone and want to just be left alone as much as the Hilltop crew want to also. But at the same time this brings praise to Kirkman's writing because as much as I want believe that their not out to cause harm what Dante tells Maggie. That they shouldn't cross them because what they could hear it sounded like there was thousands of them. Now this could just be because they were delirious and he just heard more voices then their actually were or it could be that they live among a heard of walkers. I mean it would make sense that they would live amongst them seeing as they wear their faces and skin. But it could easily just be simple answer crazy rapists that wear peoples skin. I don't wanna believe that because I feel it would be more twisted if the fact that where they first met the whispers was in a heard of Walkers was actually where they lived.
Now this issue ended with Carl leaving the Hilltop to either go be with Lydia or try and save her by himself for the Whisperers. But obviously all this could then have repercussions for the rest of the group and I felt this was probably one of the best ending to the comics for a while because it feels like a new arc is starting. The peace is now over and we are now entering what could be another time of turmoil and lets not say war just yet but blood will be spilled between the two groups I can guarantee that. We are looking at big things to come and the fact that this issue was called confrontation meant big things. Big things didn't necessarily happen in this issue but I think that the first confrontation between the two groups means friction and tension which means worse things to come. Watch this space because this isn't the end and the biggest question still out of everything that I've spoke about is WHERE IS MICHONNE! But look out because bloodshed is coming and I seriously cannot wait to see more.
No comments:
Post a Comment