At San Diego Comic Con, there were a lot of news bombs dropped in terms of movies, television, and books.  AMC released an amazingly well put together trailer for season 4 of the Walking Dead.  Season 3 and show runner Glenn Mazarra took an amazing step forward in realizing what the Walking Dead had the potential to be, but after differences between book creator, Robert Kirkman and Glenn Mazarra, the show let Mazarra go.

Scott Gimple took the reins, who is credited for some of the show’s strongest episodes such as Sophie’s status after the barn and Rick’s memorable reencounter with the psychologically damaged Morgan.  This has already created potential for making season 4 the strongest season yet.  And as a book reader, I have quite the idea of what this season will be centered on.

This article is NOT meant TV-only fans, it is meant for comic book readers who have finished the prison arc.

If you do not want to be spoiled, LEAVE NOW before I ruin the show for you.  Once again, this article/discussion is only for book readers and those who want to be spoiled.

Previously, on the Walking Dead…and where I am in the Books

So last time on the Walking Dead, Lori and Andrea were the most recent main characters to kick the bucket, the Governor is MIA, and Rick has taken in dozens of people in their prison.  Nothing can go wrong in safety in numbers right?

In the book, I’ve only completed the first two compendiums, which translates to about two thousands pages of comics.  To put things into context, the end of the prison arc was the end of the first compendium.  I won’t disclose where I am because it could spoil those who haven’t caught up to me, but let’s just say it has to do with Jesus [LOL YES].

The Actual Trailer

Sharon Van Etten made this trailer give me chills.  Though I do think they show a bit too much in this trailer, it’s still completely overshadowed by how well done the trailer is and how excited it has gotten me so far.  So let’s break down what we’re hinted at and what it means to us comic book readers.

The Prison is now a Thriving Community

As you can tell from the trailer, the prison has become quite the community.  Pigs are seen, there are farms out there, there is even a teaching school for kids and knives.  With a large volume of people arriving at the prison, it has now become quite functional as an operating community.  There can be farming teams, zombie clearing teams, and with the Ricktocracy now disassembled, a number of people are now in charge of deciding how the community grows and acts in response to certain things. Rick has stepped down from leader before, but with that have come problems in the past, are we going to see that happen again?

Someone Internal is Causing Problems

A large section of the prison arc in the book revolved around a serial killer who killed kids.  This role was given to an alleged tax fraud prison mate, though Rick and his gang have killed all the prison mates when entering.  This easily leads to the idea of someone from the Woodbury camp doing a similar thing, either killing people internally or letting walkers in like what was shown.  It’s hard to say who exactly it would be, knowing only D’Angelo’s character as one of the fewer new names to the list, but once a creepy guy is introduced, fingers will be pointed as the one who won’t be long for this world.

D’Angelo’s Arrival and What It Could Mean

The most interesting addition to the cast is D’Angelo who plays a character who didn’t make it as far as Dee is in the tv show.  His character is who I thought Milton technically replaced, but adding D’Angelo as this character was definitely unforeseen.  Even I can’t exactly predict the role he’ll play…

Tyrese’s Final Stand

The trailer pretty much told audiences that Tyrese is gonna die.  But to all the book readers, we gleefully know Tyrese’s most badass moment in the books is when he gets locked in a gym with dozens of walkers and is presumed dead.  When the gang tries to retake the gym, we find Tyrese alive on a pile of bodies asking them “what kept you?”.  Unfortunately we also know that it was the rage that caused Tyrese to go ham on a bunch of zombies after the death of his daughter in the books.  Not having a daughter in  the show possibly points out the death of his sister, which is probably why Tyrese looks so pouty in most of his screen time.  We look forward to the badass moment and all the memes to come from his crazy survival.

Rick and Tyrese’s Falling Out

Daryl has largely taken the role of Tyrese as Rick’s number two in the comics, but it looks like they’re keeping the fight between Tyrese and Rick over how to run the camp.  Though I would’ve like to see Daryl and Rick fight for the same reason, I think the fans of the tv show would completely side with Daryl if that happens.  The significance of this fight was to drive a wedge between the number 1 and 2.  It’s difficult to say if the fight in the tv show will be as significant, unless by then Tyrese has become the number 2, which by many fans will not be happy about.

Rick’s Hand

Leaked pictures have shown Rick having a bandage over his hand.  The book readers know that the Governor should’ve chopped his hand off ages ago, but Kirkman has stated that he doesn’t exactly want this to happen in the tv show.  However it looks like they’re gonna halfway satisfy fans by maybe removing a finger or two.  I’ve always been a fan of what losing his hand has done to Rick mentally in terms of questioning his role as leader.  Hopefully it does it again here.

Maggie and Glenn’s Unhopeful Relationship

Maggie and Glenn are the show’s beacon of hope in my opinion.  I absolutely adore their relationship in the tv show as much as I do in the comic book.  Though it’s not without its drawbacks.  We know Maggie has been suicidal towards the future [I don’t know what happens to her after compendium 2], and it looks like they’re trying to develop this aspect of it now.  A couple of deaths of her close family members [many of them in the books but not in the tv show], put her on this trail, so does that mean Beth and Hershal are on the chopping block? More divulged below.

The Governor’s Return and Cleaning the Slate

The conclusion of the prison arc is one of the biggest bloodbaths I’ve ever read.  Truly only comparable to George R.R. Martin’s Red Wedding, the return of the Governor marks what it really means to ‘clean the slate’.  Does this tv show have the balls to pull off their own Red Wedding with faith to the source material?  And more importantly, will we see the death of Judy?  Truthfully, other expendable characters are expendable, but can AMC even show the death of a baby?  Gawd, I would absolutely love them if they had the balls to.  It would be sad and tragic, but in the same way the country was united against the Freys, the country would unite against the Governor.  Poor David Morrissey.

Other than that, the next big thing is which number 2 are they going to off?  In the books, The Governor offs Tyrese because he’s Rick’s number two and probably one of the more beloved characters in the books.  Does the show have the gall to off Daryl to achieve the same level of hate?  Or will they cop out with doing in the newly developed head of Tyrese?

All that being said, season 4 will end in a bloodbath.  If it’s even close to the show I’ve come to respect, they will do the books justice and truly clean the slate, leaving Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie and Carl [since Andrea and Dale are already gone].  Will they though?  We’ll have to find out this year.