Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The Walking Dead

On the sudden/surprise ending of the title, Kirkman does have a few pages on it at the end of the book, so it was obviously something he was aware could make an impact. It gives covers for solicited issues too.

I don't know how many people thought the final issue/s would focus on Carl in the future. I never really read the letters pages. It was something that crossed my mind back when it looked as though Rick wasn't going to pull through one of the cliffhangers. Before Carl's injury. Carl surviving that only reinforced the thought. I don't score too many points, because the *reason* it crossed my mind was because it was the ending of Mad Max II. The end of film narration is from the grown up little boy who had appeared throughout the movie. It added some poignancy to the end of the film regarding the future of the cast.

Since then, I'd seen the book as Carl's story more than Rick's. Very recent events coupled with the thought it would last to #300 made me think that we'd be seeing Carl's story as it progressed, rather than as an Mad Max epilogue. That wasn't the case. I was pleased at the upbeat ending. It was tinged with some sadness as we saw just how much older everyone was. There were a couple of occasions where I thought it was going to go the other way. Carl being executed for his "crime" or being attacked by the rest of the captive zombies let loose by an enemy.

The Rick Grimes legacy was a little full on. There was an element of later generations already beginning to forget, but he was very much front and centre in the minds of the cast here. It's a little hard to think of Carl going on about his dad every day like this. I had thought that Carl would have been shown as becoming a bit of a hero in his own right. Caught up in just as many adventures as his old man. Where Rick had managed to establish a foothold that thrived, it would be Carl who managed to bind a country together or end the threat. Something else else he could do having lived so much and having learned from his father, including the mistakes. It seemed that civilisation returned slowly but steadily after the events we saw in recent issues.

But it was a good ending, and there's a little warm glow in seeing the characters living in a brighter future with even happier times ahead.