This Walking Dead article contains major spoilers.
For the past few months, Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard have been exploring the Commonwealth, the comic’s biggest postapocalyptic settlement yet. At first, this massive city-state seemed like a dream of the past, the rebirth of a society long gone in the wake of the outbreak that created the undead. But, like most settlements encountered by protagonist Rick Grimes and his friends in earlier stories, the Commonwealth was a lie with some very serious problems (although, this time on a socioeconomic level instead of, you know, murder).
Well, the fallout from recent events at the Commonwealth, which saw Rick become the figurehead for change at the settlement, marks a major turning point for the comic book. In The Walking Dead #192, Rick dies of multiple gunshot wounds, murdered by Sebastian, the cowardly son of the Commonwealth’s deposed former leader, Pamela Milton.
In a cruel touch by Kirkman, Rick dies, not surrounded by the people he cares about the most, but alone in his room, with no one to stop him from turning into a walker. To add to the pain of this major loss, it’s Rick’s son, Carl, who finds his undead father. Carl is forced to put down his father once and for all, putting a bullet in the old hero’s head.
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Further Reading: Everything We Know About The Walking Dead Season 10
The Walking Dead #192 marks the end of the comic’s fourth omnibus-sized compendium, which usually means the story is about to shift in a major way. Rick’s death is the biggest status quo change yet, though, as the comic has killed off the character it has followed in one form or another for 192 issues. How the comic and its characters move forward from this tragic turn of events will be the major question of issue #193, which is out on July 3 and begins a new arc. That story is simply titled “The Farm House.”
While Rick leaves some very big boots to fill, Kirkman and Adlard should have no trouble latching onto another central character, since the book has such a large ensemble cast. The most likely choice is, of course, Carl Grimes, whom we’ve also been following since the earliest days of the comic. Not only is he the logical heir apparent, but he’s grown up in the new world, under his father’s wing, and suffered major losses just like everyone else. The Walking Dead has really always been as much Carl’s story as Rick’s. Now, as the last Grimes standing, Carl could take the reins and take the book in a new direction. It could honestly use a refresh.
As for how this latest death will affect the TV series, that’s anyone’s guess. After all, the show technically “killed off” Rick last season in order to free up Andrew Lincoln to star in the upcoming Walking Dead movies. While it’s unknown where an injured Rick was flown off to after his climactic faceoff against the walker horde headed towards the communities, some theories point to the Commonwealth, which could be introduced in a movie before making its way to the show, if at all.
If that’s indeed the case, then Rick might face a similar fate to the comics, with one of these upcoming movies ending in his death. Of course, the TV universe won’t have Carl Grimes to pick up the pieces. This story sure is grim, isn’t it?
John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.