Already the twenty-sixth volume of Walking Dead at Delcourt editions. One might feel a certain weariness reading this comic started in 2003, but it is not. In addition, The Call to Arms is certainly the best book that Robert Kirkman offers us for a little while!
If you turn over the volume you have in your hands, you will read: The Whisperers thought to sow terror. They will only reap the revenge of the community led by Rick, Michonne and the 
others. While they thought they had found some form of normality in this world gone mad since the zombie apocalypse, existence and the rescued humans are once again turning their lives into a maelstrom of violence and blood.
Things will change…
And it's no small thing to say. After a volume 25 that timidly advanced the plot, we find ourselves here in the presence of a very big step! Even if the zombies are almost completely set aside, it is the counterattack that is organized.
From the beginning of the volume, we know that at one time or another, it will explode and that the conflict will appear. The physical violence present in the previous volume gives way to psychological, vicious, pernicious violence. And especially puts the character of Negan back at the forefront of the story, after spending a few years at the bottom of his cell.
If we had to identify a main theme in this book, it would be that of revenge. Everyone is angry about the massacre in book 24, and everyone resents Rick. If only he had acted differently with the Whisperers, maybe they wouldn't be here. So our leader proposes a solution: raise an army! A combat unit capable of defending itself, just to refocus minds on a common goal. Even if not everything goes as planned, of course…
And with an overwhelmed Rick, it was enough for our dear Negan to take the powder of escampette! Even if for Rick keeping Negan alive was part of his manhood to prove that good always outweighs evil, in whatever way, it must be admitted that there, he made a big mistake. Because Negan hasn't forgotten anything, and he's not ready to move on.
Negan is BACK!
Rick has always posed as a leader, but a disorganized leader. He begins to realize his mistakes, which even pushes him to ask Negan for advice! The relationship between the two men has always been ambiguous. They are both poles apart in terms of method and conception of things, but their goal is common: to preserve the living. And Rick applies Negan's advice! We finally see a strategy emerging in Rick's ideas, but we must hope that it is not too late.
The big favorite of this volume remains Negan! One gets the impression that Lucille's former owner wishes to repent of his crimes. But even if he manages to fool the characters, he does not fool the reader, and we want to know what will happen once all these manipulations are finished! We believe it until the last page, Negan has changed, Negan is benevolent. And there, coup de théâtre! Everything we hoped for happens! Negan is BACK !!!
In conclusion, we close the book on a breathless cliffangher, but still saying that hope makes you live. Readers never tire of this saga, which still manages to surprise us, 13 years after its debut. We feel the beginning of a new arc, and where we thought the Whisperers would be a threat over time, with Negan, everything is reset!
We are eagerly awaiting volume 27, The War of the Whisperers, for March 7, 2017. There, we say that really, it's still far away!
