Since Negan was introduced in The Walking Dead comic book series, he became a fan favorite due to his brutal nature and villainous charm. While Negan’s story has come to a surprisingly peaceful conclusion with the final issue of the series, there is still room for one more story to be told–one that would elevate Negan’s saga no matter the outcome.
Negan made his explosive first appearance in The Walking Dead #100 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn. In the issue, Negan’s gang ambush Rick and his crew, hold them at gunpoint, and force them to line up on their knees side by side. Then, Negan finally reveals himself, carrying with him an energy of sinister glee along with his even more sinister weapon of choice: a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire he named Lucille. In an effort to assert his dominance as well as punish Rick for being responsible for the deaths of some of his men in the past, Negan randomly selects someone from Rick’s team to kill in front of the rest by way of the children’s game Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. After the dreadfully nail-biting sequence, Negan finally lands on his target: Glenn. Moments later, Negan brutally bashes Glenn’s head in with Lucille, and was all too happy to do so.
In The Walking Dead #193 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn, the series comes to a striking conclusion, one that takes place after a twenty-five year time jump into the future. In this future, the Walkers are no longer a problem in the world and are treated as nothing more than morbid entertainment. Negan is still alive.
Negan’s future lies in isolation as he lives far away from society. He makes a brief appearance in this final issue laying flowers on his late wife’s grave after refusing to see Carl earlier in the issue, presumably due to the lingering shame he feels for his past crimes. However, while his debut was villainously violent, Negan was successful in redeeming himself throughout the series, though it seems he may have one final test of atonement, one linking back to his very first on- murder. Hershel is a man who grew up without a father, and because of that absence mixed with his mother’s over protection, he became a spoiled, privileged person who is angry at the world. Hershel deserves the chance to confront the man who stole his father from him, and Negan needs to be faced with the consequences of his worst crime.
This conflict would be an interesting last test for Negan as it would prove whether or not he left his life of brutality behind him. If Hershel came for him in a violent manner, Negan would either fight back and kill the young man just as he did his father, or he would accept the consequences. Either way, Hershel confronting his father’s killer would bring Negan’s narrative journey full circle, making it a story The Walking Dead needs to tell.
