Before I begin this is just a little warning, there are spoilers for The Walking Dead comic ahead and possibly the show if the series sticks to its source material in the coming weeks, which I strongly suggest. For those of you that haven’t read the comic, after the prison attack the group is shattered. Rick and Carl are roaming around trying to regroup, eventually they run into Michonne who joins them. Rick, Carl and Michonne are relieved to see Glenn and Maggie arrive on horseback. Before the attack Glenn, Maggie and Dale (he is alive for much longer in the comics, his eventual death was used for Bob) live on Hershel’s farm. As well as Sophia (she is still around too) who has been adopted by Glenn and Maggie as she has no biological family left and Andrea. They moved there before everything went down at the prison, therefore they have no knowledge of the attack, Rick has to inform Maggie of her father’s death, although Hershel dies at the prison in both his death in the show was not how it went down in the comic. In fact the Governor chops off Tyreese’s head not Hershel’s.

Abraham arrives at Hershel’s Farm with his group of three, a herd of Walkers rolls in from across the fields forcing the gang to load up what transport they have and move out. Apart from Terminus and the hospital that has featured recently, the course that the show has been taking is very similar to in the comics. The appearance of Farther Gabriel is the same as in the comics, his secret in the books is identical to the show. However in the comics Abraham did not form a splinter group to progress to Washington DC with Rick’s group staying behind, there was one large group in the comics. Although Abraham has a problem with Rick being the leader initially he eventually comes to accept that Grimes calls the shots and is content to be his trusted lieutenant.

The business with the hospital is holding the groups apart, hopefully when this plot is resolved Rick will decide to move forward to Washington DC  as will Abraham. Once there I hope the TV series follows the direction of the comic at this stage in the story. In the comic there are multiple communities in the DC area, Rick’s group joins a large sanctuary, a collection of houses protected by a fence, it has everything; food; rules; jobs for every member. It is perfect, unfortunately things don’t stay that way as they never do in The Walking Dead. A herd strikes, penetrating the sanctuary walls and killing off many members of the community within. Rick is forced to take over as leader.

It eventually becomes clear that this isn’t the only community in the vicinity, there is also a fortified hilltop community, these people are peaceful. Unfortunately the people who are extorting them aren’t. There is a group called The Saviours led by a psychotic maniac named Negan. When I say psychotic maniac I mean it, he may be worse than the Governor. It would be fascinating to see someone this crazy on-screen, AMC would have to get an actor with seriously threatening physical presence and a talent for injecting dread into his lines. Negan’s first act is killing Glenn, due to how beloved the character is by many it would of course be horrifying to see this in the TV series, particularly in the way that it happens. It would be brave to say the least to go there in the TV show.

What follows is a tense couple of issues in which Rick is forced to comply with Negan’s rules, he must give The Saviours half of everything; medicine; food, all the time plotting to fight back when the time is right. The next stage would be captivating to watch on-screen if AMC really went for it, Rick is taken to a large community called The Kingdom, a man rules there called King Ezekiel…he has a tiger. I don’t know how they would actually get a tiger on The Walking Dead, they may have to leave that part out. The rest of King Ezekiel’s character is awesome though and stands up without Shiva, it’s just that the presence of a tamed pet tiger is incredibly cool.

This is all building towards a huge event in the comic book’s history “All Out War”, I haven’t read up that section yet but I think we can all imagine what that entails, this event would require an enormous budget and a lot of hours of work but it would certainly pay off. Whether The Walking Dead sticks to this plot to the letter, borrows elements of it or disregards it completely it is undeniable that the series will deliver.