Walking Dead: Comic vs Show (Part 4)

Spoilers for both the TV show if you're not caught up to season 4.8, and if you haven't read up to the comics. I won't spoil ANYTHING that happens after the point we're at.

Here's part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Carol in the comic is younger, she's 24 when the series starts. Her husband Ed was never in the comics, only mentioned, although he was abusive as well, he committed suicide within a few days of the apocalypse starting therefore he was never seen.

When the group first meet Tyreese before they get to Hershel's farm, she instantly grows attraction for him. Within their relationship she becomes more self-confident though unfortunately Tyreese cheats on her with Michonne, leading to Carol to commit suicide by walker just before the prison assault. Weirdly enough, both versions of Carol never participate in the prison assault and have never met the Governor.

Show does Carol better.

Hershel is a bit younger, late 50s to early 60s as opposed to TV-Hershel who is late 60s or early 70s. He also had seven children, Maggie, Billy, Lacey, Arnold, Susie, Rachel, and Shawn.

Comic-Hershel also kept walkers in the barn but was way less secretive about it. Two of his daughters were mutilated in the prison by the serial killer I mentioned earlier, sending him into a depression.

During the final prison assault, the rest of his family was killed, save for Maggie, so he had no reason to live seeing that Maggie was taken care of by Glenn. TV-Hershel lived about 20 minutes longer than Comic-Hershel did. Comic-Governor shot him in the head after the decapitation.

Show does Hershel better.

Jim. This bud was way back in season 1. He was the guy who went kinda crazy digging graves for everyone. Unexpected character to write about? That's what I thought.

Anyways, he's basically the same personality wise except he doesn't dig graves in the comics. But he IS bitten and it takes a while, like the TV series, and is also left by a tree to reanimate. The TV series did him better because it was weird and interesting to have him dig graves for everyone... like he was having visions.

Show and comic Jim are equal.

Michonne was adapted and portrayed very well. I was totally expecting her to not be the same but they nailed her, I was impressed. The only thing that's different is that she's more... loose... as I mentioned earlier in Tyreese's entry and Carol's up above she had Tyreese cheat on Carol with her. Bad bad bad.

Comic-Michonne is very capable with guns but prefers her swords, unlike TV-Michonne, who is a terrible shot.

Michonne (and her pets) approach the prison after Rick and Friends have been living there for a few weeks. Because she's quiet, tough, short with people and black (hey, racism is a thing), they don't trust her until she saves Otis' life. Remember Otis? The fat guy who TV-Shane killed? Yup.

Coincidentally, Michonne was introducted in Issue 19 of the comics, as well as episode 19 of the TV series.

Michonne is done a little better in comics (so far).


Interesting in getting the comics? Here's the cheapest legal way to get everything and get caught up to where it's at (118 issues at the time of publishing).

Compendium 1 consists of Issues 1-48.
Compendium 2 consists of Issues 49-96.
Book 9 consists of Issues 97-108.
Volume 19 consists of Issues 109-114.

I personally don't like the volumes very much because they're too small. I like more meat (pages) in my comics. Volumes have roughly 133 pages, books are 336, compendiums are 1,100.

I have both Compendiums and have been debating whether to get Book 9 or wait until Compendium 3. I'm leaning more towards the Compendium because as you may have noticed, the Compendiums are 31 bucks (at time of writing) and books are 23 bucks so you get WAY more bang for your buck getting the compendiums.

Conclusion:

This is the last comparison I will do until season finale, which will be March 30th, 2014. Great characters and story will be coming up, trust me, infact, one of my favorites will appear February 16th. I'm not saying whether the character is good or bad, just a favorite.

My other two favorites likely won't appear until season 5 or maybe even 6. One of them is black, one has a Biblical name and a beard. Assuming, of course, that they adapt them specifically.