The Walking Dead Issue 184, Eugene Tinkers Review: Good Overall but Weak Cliffhanger.

Just as I predicted in last month’s issue of The Walking Dead, in this one Eugene begins his plans to set up a train between the Commonwealth and Rick’s communities, hence the title “Eugene Tinkers.”
This was a very good issue overall, that primarily dealt with Rick and Dwight’s reaction to the Commonwealth, the aftermath of the Anthony Keith situation, and Eugene’s plan.
All of these plots were handled fairly well, especially when they intersected with Rick getting a sense of the Commonwealth through Michonne and her involvement in the case of Anthony Keith’s death.
This moment provided my favourite panel of this issue with Michonne wondering if she has sold her soul to keep peace in the Commonwealth.
Michonne states with fear, “I’m afraid I already have” and her face is covered entirely in darkness, which is a great use of symbolism in regards to her getting involved in the darker aspects of the new community.
She also seems to have got the soldiers who killed Keith off the hook for now so it will be interesting to see how the public react to this given the intense ending of the riot at the beginning of the issue.
Though the way Rick handled things in the aftermath of this did seem to bring a lot of people over to his side as evidenced by the two Commonwealth citizens who seem interested in moving to his community.
Pamela was obviously concerned about this because, in an earlier scene, she helped Rick clean up the mess of the riot just so she could look though.
Her son Sebastian, however, was not having it and continues to be a total jerk in any given situation.
Other interesting events of the issue include the trial Michonne speaks at, which shows how the Commonwealth’s court system works and the revelation that Princess and Mercer are in a relationship.
I honestly laughed when I saw this because I felt like her kissing him a few issues back was just a joke so it was kind of funny to see that Kirkman actually intended that to be the building blocks for their relationship.
That is not to say I think this is poorly done because I will have to wait to see how their relationship progresses and their characters grow before I know if the two work together or if this is a misfire.
Of course the big moment of the issue is Eugene’s plan to reconstruct a railroad between communities, which has huge world building implications for the series.
However, the issue was not all good because the cliffhanger is very weak.
Dwight basically confronts Rick about helping the Commonwealth through getting their own leader there.
Rick refuses and Dwight gets angry, then it is on to the letter hacks.
I felt like this cliffhanger was very weak because it is almost certainly a fake one, which will be immediately resolved at the beginning of the next issue.
If not, then this will only add more to the pointless Rick vs Dwight subplot, that is honestly making me really dislike Dwight, which is a shame because he was a real standout in the Whisperer War arc.
Overall though, “Eugene Tinkers” was a good issue that had plenty of interesting moments and set up plenty of interactions between Rick and the Commonwealth community.