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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It had its flaws but overall it still made for great, dramatic reading, February 18, 2006
This review is from: The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire (Paperback)
So far, I've loved and obsessed over Kirkman's The Walking Dead series and the previous three collected volumes have not disappointed me at any level. This fourth voulme collects issues 19 through 24 and is appropriately titled The Heart's Desire. We pick up from the cliffhanger that ended the third volume (Safety Behind Bars) as Dexter gives Rick and his group a choice that bodes nothing but death either way he chooses: stay and be shot or leave and take their chances with the zombies outside the fences.
The book starts things off with a bang as Rick realizes that Dexter's success in getting guns of his own has let loose a bigger set of problems as zombies from a locked wing of the prison was accidentally let out. What happens next as Rick's group and Dexter's group fight to stay alive shows a new side to Rick that surprised me alot. It puts a new wrinkle on Rick's rule of "you kill, you die" and will have long-reaching ramifications deeper in the story. It is also in this heart-pounding sequence that a new face is added to the mix in the form of a female survivor whose mode of survival, to say the very least, is interesting.
The rest of the book really deals less with the zombies but the emotional consequences of many of the characters' actions from the very start of the series all the way to point of this volume. I can fully understand the disappoint many fans have with the direction the series took with all the drama and sopa opera kind of twists nd turns of the heart, but I think people fail to realize that Kirkman is writing about the human condition rather than just about zombies. Sure I got abit impatient with all the emotional crisis and the meltdowns by almost everyone involved, but I can also understand why they've been acting the way they have. I think if Kirkman had written abit more of zombies and death in this part of the series people wouldn't be complaining much.
Kirkman himself has already admitted that zombies wasn't what the story was all about, but just a part of it. With the group in relatively safety within the secured fences of the prison and some sort of artificial normalcy starting to come back to the group he needed a way to continue the conflicts that make for good drama. What else but let the pent-up emotional baggage everyone has been carrying since issue 1 to finally come to boil. Part of me didn't fully enjoy this new arc in the series, but not enough to be disappointed with the end result. Hell, even all the drama Kirkman still came up with one of the best fight scenes in the series a la Carpenter's They Live and South Park's "Cripple Fight" episode.
The Heart's Desire is not as great as the previous three collected volumes in the series, but it still told a great story though with abit more drama than most fans of the book were willing to take. I myself enjoyed the book enough that it wasn't a waste and I was abit surprised and shocked at the observation Rick finally made and shared with everyone at the end of the volume. I know that after all the emotional trials and tribulations everyone in the series went through in The Heart's Desire and how the arc ended there's nothing left but up for the series.
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23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Days of Our Walking Dead Lives, December 13, 2005
This review is from: The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire (Paperback)
Life has become routine within the prison complex that Rick Grimes and company call home. Crops are being planted, new clothes made, and so on. Of course, in the world of "The Walking Dead," routine is anything but. Now that the zombies are (mostly) at bay, relational tensions are boiling over. A fresh arrival brings her own wackiness to the already dysfunctional mix, and you never know who will end up dead (or at least pissed off and alienated).
I'm a little underwhelmed by this, the fourth collection of the ongoing comic book series. One of the AICN comic pundits expressed dismay that "The Walking Dead" was becoming a soap opera. I guess I have to agree with that. Frankly, I wonder how far this story arc can go? I further echo the AICN writer's sentiment that something needs to happen soon. Now's probably the time to bring in some government action, or pull a "Land of the Dead" move and evolve the zombies' behavior. Whatever occurs, I think I've seen enough of Rick freaking out and yelling his head off every couple of pages. And overall, things are getting a bit too depressing. I don't expect everything to come up roses, but there's a bit too much hate and discontent going on. Maybe they should've picked a Club Med to hole up in.
One story angle that bugged me was the inclusion of yet another bad-arse woman with a katana. "Y: The Last Man" pulled that stunt as well, joining the ranks of "Sin City" and the "Kill Bill" movies. Enough with the Japanese-inspired ninja women already! Why can't a mysterious female stranger show up wielding a Chinese Tai Chi sword, or an English Morning Star? I'm glad the tough-gal zombie fighter in "Shaun of the Dead" had the originality to use a golf club as her weapon of choice.
At any rate, despite my complaints I still recommend "The Walking Dead." Maybe this arc is the calm before the storm. I'm hoping it's a setup for the greatness I've come to expect from Mr. Kirkman & company.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zombified, February 23, 2006
This review is from: The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire (Paperback)
I've watched and read an unreal amount of zombie movies, comic books and stories and Robert Kirkman has one-upped them all! An amazing tale of survival and chaos.
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