Race + The Walking Dead: Why Michonne Matters

“The Walking Dead’s” Michonne, as played by Danai Gurira (L) and portrayed in the original comic. (R)

By Guest Contributors Renee and Sparky

At the end of season two, The Walking Dead finally introduced Michonne, a character who fans have highly anticipated. Without doubt, Michonne is a favorite of fans of the original Walking Dead comic-book for her fearlessness, fierceness, and sheer strength of will.  Though she does have her moments of vulnerability, Michonne can always be counted on to have [our hero] Rick’s back and to be a staunch ally.

SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW AND COMIC ARE UNDER THE CUT

Given that the show has thus far erased Tyrese, one of the main characters in the comics, a black man and co-leader of the group, and replaced him with the ineffectual T-Dog, at this point, it’s absolutely imperative to have a strong character of color.  Keep in mind that up until now, the only woman of color in the TV series was Jacqui, and the team was more than happy to leave her to die at the CDC when it exploded, while Dale stayed behind to guilt Andrea, a white woman, into leaving.  Everyone ran out of that building without giving Jacqui a second thought, and no one has thought about her since.

Though Glenn, an Asian-American man, has been there from the beginning, he is treated far more like [zombie] bait than an actual member of the team, and this continues in the comics until issue 100. If Michonne’s character is done properly, that would make her the only fleshed-out and active character of color in the series, moving it from white people sitting on a porch looking concerned, to something that barely resembles the population demographics of the area where the show is set.

In the comics, Michonne arrived at the prison where the group was staying, dragging two walkers behind her. This indicated that Michonne had found a way to survive on her own, even as Rick, the leader of the group, had been losing people along the way.  So much for safety in numbers, eh? Michonne is also an educated woman who worked as a lawyer before the zombie apocalypse. Though she is clearly suffering from PTSD and is intensely private, Michonne reveals her disability to help Rick in a time of self-doubt. This must have cost her, and yet she did it to help another. What makes Michonne so fascinating is that she is a multi-layered character with a history that is slowly revealed. She is passionate and strong when she needs to be but is not afraid to make herself vulnerable, even though what she has lived through is nothing short of absolute horror.

But while we’re looking forward to the introduction of Michonne, we are worried about the changes showrunners will make to her in comparison to the comics. Especially after we have seen the shifts they have made in the previous seasons of The Walking Dead, when it comes to marginalized characters.

Page 1 of 3 | Next page