The Image Comics solicitations for May have revealed the first cover for Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead to come out post-“All-Out War,” and…well, it’s generating a lot of chatter among the book’s fans.Due in stores on May 14, the issue’s cover features…nobody recognizable.No Rick, no Carl, no Negan, no anybody.And with a solicitation text for the double-sized issue trumpeting “A New Beginning,” the implication seems clear: Kirkman wants fans to suspect that Rick (and possibly Carl and the rest of their group) die during “All-Out War” and that readers will be left to follow an entirely new group of survivors beginning with #127.It’s long been speculated that Rick would die during this story, particularly because of the odd relationship between Carl and Negan that would make Carl killing him seem like an obvious end to “All-Out War.”Since Kirkman got into the “kill somebody on a big number” thing with The Walking Dead #100, it wouldn’t be out of the question for a major arc ending in #126 to see Rick die in #125, with #126 being a mad suicide run for vengeance by Carl, Michonne and Andrea, taking out as many of the Saviors as they can and bringing the war to Negan personally.Still, in the event of Rick’s death, fans have always assumed that the title would default to Carl, not unlike Kirkman’s self-professed favorite comic, Savage Dragon, which sees the son of its title character taking over the book with tomorrow’s issue.
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