Negan Meets Lucille In Latest Addition To The Walking Dead Villain’s Backstory

Spoilers for Here’s Negan Part 8 follow.

Image Comics released their Image+ preview magazine on Wednesday and, with it, the eighth installment of the Here’s Negan saga.

To date, we’ve learned a lot about The Walking Dead‘s most iconic villain.

Here is what we’ve learned in Parts 1 through 7:

• Prior to the apocalypse, Negan was a high school gym teacher who wanted to be respected by students for being “the cool teacher.” To earn such a title, he cursed at and bullied some of the kids, all the while ruthlessly beating them in ping pong which was disguised as coaching.
• Negan was married but having an affair. His wife, however, was aware of the affair. Upon learning his wife had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, he opted out of the affair and did everything he could to take care of her and make up for lost time before she died.
• When Negan’s wife died, the world ended. As she lay lifelessly in the hospital bed, Negan saw chaos out of the hospital’s windows and people urged him to abandon his wife and evacuate. He stayed by her side until she reanimated.
• Negan’s wife’s name was Lucille.
• After his wife’s death, Negan encountered his first zombies in the hospital hallways, where a 13-year-old boy told him to aim for their heads. Negan showed a lot of remorse after taking out two of the undead, calling himself “a murderer.”
• Later, Negan and the young boy tried to make their way to the young boys house and got to know each other along the way, until a zombie snuck up on the boy and tackled him.

Part 8 was not quite as eventful as some of the earlier issues but Negan’s conscience seems to be dissipating.

In Part 8, Negan encounters a group of men on the road who demand he hand over his gas can. Negan refuses and insults the men which somehow turns into the forming of a group.

One man is carrying a baseball bat — Lucille, pre-barbed wire.

After what is described as a day of mowing down zombies with guns, Negan and the group sit around a camp fire. Negan is holding the baseball bat closely to himself at this point but compliments guns and the way they make him feel.

To end the issue, a horde of zombies approaches the camp.

As it turns out, the aquiring of Lucille appears to be sending Negan back a couple of steps morally. Not only is he ecstatic about using guns to kill but he is also suppressing his true sadness over losing his wife. When traveling with the 13-year-old boy, Negan was unintentionally transparent in his grieving but with this new group, he appears to be wiped of any remorse and grief.

With only four issues left — 16-pages — Negan’s backstory has almost been revealed in its entirety.

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Here’s Negan is available now at your local comic shop. The Walking Dead issue #161 will publish on December and the TV adaptation airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.