Book Review: The Walking Dead Vol. 31 by R. Kirkman et al.

The Walking Dead Vol. 31: The Rotten Core written by Robert Kirkman, penciled by Charlie Adlard, inked by Stefano Gaudiano, and gray tones by Cliff Rathburn

Rick takes the Governor of the Commonwealth on a tour of the various communities he's allied with. She is impressed and wants to open up trade and even unify. The Commonwealth has big goals--taking back the country and even the world from the zombies. The only problem is the highly stratified society of the Commonwealth. As the leader, the Governor rules with a small army of men in riot gear who look an awful lot like stormtroopers from Star Wars. When they get back to the Commonwealth, Rick is ready to make the alliance but others in his group see a big problem: the Commonwealth is more or less a police state. Some of Rick's people want peaceful integration; others want the next big war. Some of the citizens in the Commonwealth seem open to an overthrow, making things even more complicated.

The main problem of integrating the two communities is interesting. There's a bunch of soap opera side stories about people hooking up which are pretty uninteresting and seem like the creators needed to make a page count. Sticking with the main story would have been much better.

Slightly recommended.