‘Walking Dead’ Season 4 Comic-to-TV Comparison: “Claimed”

AMC: Stopping to clear the road, Abraham eyes several oncoming walkers and prevents Tara from firing her weapon, instead opting for close-quarters combat to take them down with surprising efficiency. Abraham smirks at the last of them, remarking “don’t worry, I’m not leaving you out.”

THE COMICS: Similar moments of Abraham’s fighting skill and aversion to gunfire were put on display twice in the books, first during Abraham’s arrival, and again the following day. In the second instance, Abraham prevented Andrea from using her gun, instead opting for a pitchfork to take down the walkers, and even using a similar line on the lone survivor, “I didn’t forget you.”

AMC: In her efforts to cheer up the sulking Carl, Michonne reluctantly reveals that she once had a three-year old son, the same we saw in a dream weeks ago, named “Andre Anthony.” We don’t yet know exactly how Andre or Michonne’s boyfriend Mike died, though she at least specifies it happened after the initial zombie outbreak.

THE COMICS: As mentioned with the premiere, the Michonne of the comics was known to have two daughters from a previous marriage, though their names and ultimate fates have yet to be revealed. There however, Michonne was at least shown to have a similar bond with Carl, particularly after the prison’s fall.

AMC: While Carl and Michonne forage for supplies, Rick awakens to find several strangers ransacking the house for supplies, forcing him to hide under the bed, and stealthily sneak out of the home. Good fortune allows Rick to intercept Michonne and Carl before they return, abandoning the home to the vagrants, and at least one walker left inside.

THE COMICS: Nothing altogether specific about the home invaders correlate to any groups from the comics (their nature isn’t made clear, we hear them potentially torturing someone downstairs, though what that signifies is anyone’s guess), though worth noting is that Rick and Carl decided to leave the property of their own volition, having run out of supplies while Rick negotiated with a mysterious caller for the location of their group. As previously mentioned, the call turned out to be a delusion of Lori, for which Rick and Carl ultimately left the house behind (keeping the phone), before running into Michonne out on the road.

AMC: Following a few troubling signs within the home, Michonne walks through several children’s rooms to find the house’s former occupants peacefully dead inside a bedroom, including several young children on a bed, and a woman in a rocking chair with her brains blown out. Michonne hides the sight from Carl, though he quickly realizes something is amiss.

THE COMICS: This near-exact sight has been lifted from a different scene within the books, sometime after the prison’s fall. In that instance, Rick took Abraham and Carl to retrieve Morgan and any remaining supplies from his old police station, eventually encountering a wild herd of some 2000+ walkers. After losing control of their car, Rick and the others fled inside a nearby home, hoping to activate enough loud appliances to distract the walkers, and sneak out thereafter. It was Morgan who found the dead family upstairs, the patriarch of which had apparently poisoned his wife and children, taking a power drill to their temples, before blowing his own head off with a shotgun.

AMC: After Glenn regains consciousness and demands to stop the truck, Abraham formally introduces himself, Rosita Espinosa and Dr. Eugene Porter, explaining their collective need to stick together, as part of an ultimate mission to escort scientist Eugene to Washington, supposedly to put an end to the zombie apocalypse through classified means. The group supposedly lost contact with the D.C. brass on Eugene’s radio, while later exposition reveals that Rosita is in a relationship with Abraham.

THE COMICS: While the group’s objective is note for note from the comics, Abraham and his cohorts first encountered Glenn, Rick and the other survivors after their return to Hershel’s farm. There, Eugene explained for himself the circumstances of their mission, keeping the details similarly classified. It wasn’t long before the entire group agreed to take part in the mission, particularly after being reminded of the farm’s vulnerability to walkers.

AMC: In spite of Abraham’s pleas, Glenn insists on returning to the prison bus to look for Maggie, at least until Abraham insists he has no hope of finding her. Glenn throws a punch, before Abraham hot-headely retaliates by tackling him to the ground, beginning a brawl.

THE COMICS: Abraham most often clashed with Rick at first, though the pair never actually came to blows, and Abraham was later shown to have serious issues managing his anger, needing Rosita to quell his violent rage. That said, comic Glenn did once attack Abraham for suggesting that Maggie might be dead, though in that instance they’d only just retrieved her body from an attempted hanging, which she ultimately survived anyway. It wouldn’t be the last time Abraham was the first to propose moving on from a missing group member, either.

AMC: While Abraham and Glenn brawl on the road, Eugene sees several walkers emerging from the nearby brush, for which he takes it on himself to retrieve Abraham’s M-16 and fire wildly at the horde. In the process, Eugene accidentally sprays fire at the truck and damages the fuel lines beyond repair, while Abraham and the others help put down the remaining walkers.

THE COMICS: From their very arrival at the farm, both Eugene and Abraham strongly advocated against firing any unnecessary shots, given that they’d seen firsthand how gunfire could attract every walker within a certain radius, potentially combining with other groups to form a much more dangerous herd. That said, comic readers with knowledge of Eugene’s true motivations could well infer that AMC Eugene’s damaging shots at the truck may not have been as accidental as they appeared, especially given how quickly he suggested they follow Glenn’s group.

AMC: With the truck no longer operational, Rosita opts to follow Glenn and Tara for lack of a better option, to which Eugene suggests to Abraham they should at least travel back down the clearer path until they find another vehicle. Later, Eugene is seen to have a pleased smirk, while Tara questions Abraham if he really believes in the mission with his scientist companion.

THE COMICS: As mentioned above, Rick’s group all elected to follow Abraham’s group and their mission to Washington D.C., getting as far as the Capitol building, before settling into one of the neighboring areas after a shocking revelation. It remains to be seen if AMC’s incarnation would ever really move production outside of Georgia, or even suggest as much.

AMC: Out on the railroad tracks, Rick, Carl and Michonne find an abandoned shipping car with a similar sign and map promising “Sanctuary” up the tracks. Rick casually removes his hand’s bandage from the earlier fight with Tyreese, before the three agree to follow the tracks in search of the mysterious safe haven.

THE COMICS: A much bigger deal was made of Rick’s hand injury in the books, which he’d sustained in pummeling the prison inmate Thomas after learning him to be the culprit of several brutal murders. Upon ultimately removing the bandages, Rick found himself to have limited use of the hand, though any lasting damage was made moot when the Governor hacked it off. As for the “Sanctuary,” we don’t yet know which of several possible comic locations “Terminus” might represent, if not an original creation altogether.