'The Walking Dead' Comics To Release Negan’s Origin Story In 48 Pages

The Walking Dead comics will finally explore Negan’s backstory.Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard confirmed they will explore the villain’s beginnings in a total of 48 pages, according to a news release .

Unfortunately, they didn’t confirm when the Negan comics will be released, or how many issues the story will span. However, The Walking Dead fans can catch the first look at Negan’s origins in the debut May issue of Image+ , a new magazine from Image Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors .

Negan’s background in The Walking Dead comics is shrouded in mystery. Even Rick doesn’t understand why Negan is the way he is, but knows he’s a threat to humanity. Negan doesn’t talk about his past or anything personal. He also doesn’t have any emotional connection to people, though he does everything he can to protect his community.

Negan also has a strong sense of morality for someone who seems on the surface to be simply evil. There are things even he refuses to do and will not tolerate from his followers. For example, there’s a moment in the comics when Negan holds a female Alexandria resident named Holly as his prisoner. At this point, Alexandria and Negan’s Saviors are at war. He interrogates Holly until he gets the information he needs, then leaves and orders one of his followers to watch Holly.

The follower tries to rape Holly, but she fights him off. Negan eventually finds out and is furious, lecturing his follower about the importance of retaining their humanity. He makes his follower say “We do not rape” before killing him in front of Holly. Still, Negan eventually kills her, because he deems it essential in order to control Alexandria.

Negan is a complicated villain, and hopefully we’ll get to see his backstory play out in AMC’s The Walking Dead series as well. What do you think Negan was like pre-apocalypse? Let us know in the comments section below.