The Walking Dead: 10 Important Characters Who Aren’t In The Comics

2. Merle

Merle played an enormous part in the early stages of the show, being the first 'villain'-like figure to emerge. He wasn't a direct enemy, but he certainly caused a stir with his racist, abusive, and generally unpleasant nature to say the least. He was quickly chained to a rooftop but after being stuck there, he was forced to hack his hand off. This saw the start of a Merle revival as he began to turn himself around, and ended up dying in a blaze of glory. He was an anti-hero. Merle is also an example of a comic book character's story being told through a different on-screen character. Early in the comic books, Rick has his hand lopped off by The Governor, though show producers decided that would be too impractical for the lead of a huge TV series and therefore passed it onto Merle.