Well it’s issue 50, and yet again Kirkman defies expectation.

Many a reader may have been expecting a 50th issue to be dealt with as an event. A universe shattering extravaganza, if you will.

But the Walking Dead isn’t about that. And this issue, in many ways, exemplifies what this series is.

It is an exploration of humanity in face of  slow, yet ever impending death. And it does so without cowtowing to genre conventions, or readership expectations.

And this issue is a great example of such an exploration.

Although the overall plot hasn’t moved very far foward, we are given  a great deal of character exploration on a secondary character which may be sowing the seeds for a major shift in the story direction. If Kirkman follows runs with what he’s started here, he could potentially take the readership into avenues never yet explored in zombie fiction.