The Best Walking Dead Character Was Supposed To Be A Villain
Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman almost turned Abraham into a villain but changed his mind at the end.
One of the most fascinating things about The Walking Dead is watching how the show adapts the team-ups and storylines from the insanely popular Robert Kirkman comic. In some cases, characters like Rick Grimes are mostly similar, but other characters received some big changes from page to screen. For example, ScreenRant reports that in The Walking Dead Deluxe #56, Kirkman revealed he nearly made fan-favorite character Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) a villain: “I was genuinely considering making Abraham a bad guy.”
It’s likely difficult for most fans of The Walking Dead television show to imagine Abraham as a bad guy, but it was equally difficult for Robert Kirkman to do so as well. He described how the issue in question was setting Abraham up for a “heel turn” but that he wrote the character as very conflicted: “he’s a potential villain who maybe, doesn’t want to be.” Right up until the end, Kirkman planned on the character executing his heel turn, but the creator only decided at the last minute to pump the brakes on this particular character development.
Thematically, though, we have to admit that The Walking Dead might have been more interesting in those later seasons if Abraham had been more of a slow-burning, hidden foe for Rick to contend with. Rather than a truly twisted villain like The Governor, Abraham most likely would have ended up as another Shane-type figure who questions and defies Rick while presenting himself as a friend and ally. Then again, Abraham’s straightforward personality (which is a large part of why fans love him so much) might have precluded him from really being anything like a long-term foe with hidden intentions that he never reveals until the time is right.
How did The Walking Dead comic set up this potential heel turn for Abraham, though? In issue #56, Abraham was eager to shoot Maggie after her suicide attempt because he was worried about her turning into a zombie and the group didn’t yet know she was still alive. Rick prevents Abraham from killing her and Abraham later follows Rick with a rifle in hand, fully intending to kill everyone’s favorite former sheriff, and only decided at the last minute to instead shoot a zombie that started attacking Rick.
This is the cliffhanger that Kirkman was referring to: towards the end of this issue of The Walking Dead, nothing kept Abraham from killing Rick and removing his potential rival for control of the group. Instead, Abraham not only saves Rick’s life, but he becomes horrified at how much the world has transformed him into a merciless killer. Instead of returning to the group as a hardened monster, a broken Abraham collapses into Rosita’s arms and begs her to not let him kill again.
Ultimately, both The Walking Dead comic and show were much better, with Abraham as an ally instead of an enemy. And Kirkman should be praised for using the opportunity to give us a story of quiet redemption where a man realizes how close he is to the edge and willingly takes several large steps backward in order to become a better person. Plus, we’d have hated to see Abraham break bad in the days when his hair on the show was such an insane color because, quite frankly, it would be difficult to find enough Manic Panic once the neon orange color came out of his face from all the mustache-twirling villainy.
