James F. Harrold 2008-08-25

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Part four leaves the reader feeling like things are going to be alright for our band of survivors. Volume five really changes the direction of the book, and departs from the soap opera of the previous volume. It still focuses on the human element like previous volumes, but it inserts some much needed sense of urgency. The zombies aren't as much of a threat since the survivors have learned how to deal with them. However, there are other threats out there, and our heroes find it. When I finished volume five, I rushed out and bought the next volume: because it ended with a good cliffhanger.

In my opinion, this is the best volume so far. The art is of the same quality as previous volumes, and the story is much more compelling. The new antagonist is exactly what I would expect you would find if the world went to hell. He is a crazy vicious man who does what anyone would do if they had been denied power there whole life. He is the kinda of person who was probably a loser in the real world, but thrives on the misery of others.

Steven A. Brunswick 2008-01-19

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Amazingly, this series is not about zombies. It is about the end of the world and how the remaining humans struggle to survive in this distopia. Not since "Lord of the Flies" have we seen or read about the baser nature of humanity, once modern technology and institutions are removed.
If you are a fan of "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica", you will love "The Walking Dead". Start with "Volume 1" and enjoy!

adead_poet@hotmail.com 2007-11-25

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Volume five brings in new enemies--human enemies. Again, great story and the artwork is wonderful.

Robert P. Beveridge 2007-11-01

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead: The Best Defense (Image, 2006)

A lot of names get tossed around when you start talking about the best graphic novel series going today. I'm guilty of it myself; I know I've used that particular phrase at least twice (unfortunately, on two different series). When one sins, one might as well compound the sin mercilessly, I guess; The Walking Dead has, for the moment, supplanted both 100 Bullets and Bleach in my estimation as the best graphic novel series going today.

Zombie literature (and, of course, filmmaking) is by now such a vast subgenre of horror that one is capable of subdividing it into subgenres of its own; there's "genre" zombie work, which simply revels in the gore, and "literary" zombie work, which is more concerned with the surviving humans and their interaction, where the zombies are, most of the time, nothing more than a backdrop. That's the paradigm Romero gave us with his Night/Dawn/Day movies, and it seems to be the approach most of the better writers in the genre take. Kirkman has been down with it since day one; the zombies are here, but they're window dressing a good deal of the time, a corporeal version of, say, The Andromeda Strain. The actual story to be found here focuses on the small band of survivors who came together in the first few books, found their way to a solid and easily-defensible prison, and have mutated into something like a large extended family. Kirkman, in The Best Defense, explores the forming of that family bond deeper, while using a subplot to introduce a menace far more dangerous, and terrifying, than the zombies. (The crux of this subplot is one of the better sequences of graphic storytelling I've seen; it's shamelessly manipulative, but it's so brash that you end up not caring. When you realize how Kirkman sucker-punched you, there's nothing you can do but smile.)

As you may be able to surmise form that paragraph, there's not a great deal of action in this volume. It is, in fact, much quieter than the books that came before it. This is not to take anything away from the book's readability, or the quiet power that suffuses it. Kirkman is excellent at what he does, and it's books like this, where the nonstop action takes a break and focuses entirely on the characters, that shows you just how excellent he is.

If you're not reading The Walking Dead, you should be. ****

HJ Louw 2007-06-27

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In a world filled with Zombies, how would the survivors cope with the daily terrors and psychological horrors of their existence? Robert Kirkman answers this question with "The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense" in which we meet a psychopathic villain called the Governor who has been so twisted by the current state of the world that he tortures people for fun, feeds all newbies in his community to the Dead for sport, keeps his Zombie daughter as a pet, stages gladiatorial battles to amuse townsfolk, and keeps a collection of gruesome trophies in fishtanks right in his living room. Of course, Rick Grimes is smack in the middle of it all as he goes toe to toe with this maniac, which just goes to show that the Zombies are merely catalysts for greater evils that lurk in human hearts, which the survivors should truly fear above all else. I enjoyed Kirkman's dialogue and pacing, as always, but was a bit upset about what happens to Michonne in this book (the Governor gets a hold of her, I won't go into details), but that's life among the Zombies for ya. Back at the prison the story also heats up as Carol proposes something outlandish to Rick's wife concerning marriage, while orphan twins have to be dealt with alongside ex-cons and the constant threat of Zombie-intrusion. Excellent characterization and snappy banter make this volume a must read!