The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart's Desire by Robert Kirkman

Book Details
The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart's Desire by Robert Kirkman
Paperback, 136 Pages
2009, Image Comics
ISBN: 9781582405308
Series: Book 4 of The Walking Dead

Synopsis
Life in the prison starts to get interesting for Rick Grimes and the rest of our survivors. Relationships heat up, fizzle out, and change entirely almost overnight. By the end of this volume, relationships between key characters are radically changed, setting the stage for future events in The Walking Dead.

Review
Oh, Robert Kirkman, you've shocked me once again. I'm always surprised by how many completely unforeseen and utterly shocking things can be crammed into these short volumes. The Heart's Desire, the fourth volume of The Walking Dead manages to kill off even more "since the beginning" characters. The group is attacked by more zombies, even within the supposed "safety" of the prison walls. We continue to see the living hurting each other in ways even the dead can't manage. The devastation continues at a frenzied pace.

Tyrese is beginning to make me wish he never found our band of survivors. He crosses the line of morality time and again, often leading to the death of others. Yet, on his moral high horse, he leads the charge in questioning Rick's morality and ability to lead the others. New arrival, Michonne, starts out an interesting character, but soon annoys me as well. And Alan, finally starting to come out of his "my wife is dead" funk, proves to be not much more help than he was while depressed.

All these character flaws sound like complaints, but they aren't. These characters get under your skin. Love them or hate them, you can't help but want to know what'll happen to them next. These graphic novels are completely addictive, each taking the group places you never see coming. The Heart's Desire focuses a lot on the coupling and uncoupling of certain character sets, but beyond that, this volume really drives home the actual point of the entire series - the world as we know it is over, and it's never coming back. The rules have changed and The Heart's Desire marks a clear turning point for the survivors who need to come to terms with the fact that they must kill or be killed by both the dead and the living.

Each volume of The Walking Dead manages to be even better than the last, which seems almost impossible. I eagerly look forward to reading the rest of this series.

Rating