The Walking Dead: 9 Comic Book Moments The TV Show Totally Butchered

Not all TV shows are lucky enough to have over ten years of brilliantly written and highly regarded source material to pull characters and stories from. Yet, while the latest season of The Walking Dead relied almost exclusively on its comic book counterpart, AMC's flagship show has always been one to revamp, re-imagine, or sometimes just outright ignore the material it's based on. 

Which is probably for the best, because the TV series doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to translating the greatest moments from the page to the screen. While we've had some brilliant scenes successfully make the jump - both The Governor's "kill them all!" assault on the prison and Bob's manic cries of "tainted meat" come to mind - a good chunk of them have fallen completely flat.

In some cases it's completely baffling how they managed to mess it up. While sometimes changes in context or characters in the show can impact the power of an adapted comic scene, more often than not the programme manages to botch the landing even when it's a straight translation. Unfortunately for us viewers, it's meant that many of what should have been The Walking Dead's most iconic moments ended up as nothing more than butchered scenes that lacked the bite that made their comic counterparts so memorable. Needless to say, spoilers for both comics and TV series. 

In the comic books, The Scavengers were the first human threat that Rick's group encountered inside the Alexandria safe-zone. Showing up at their doorstep, the leader of the small group, Derek, barked to be let in while our heroes naturally refused. Ready to take Alexandria by force, Derek and The Scavengers take aim at Rick but are quickly thwarted as Andrea takes them all out from a nearby sniper tower. It's a cool moment, and it serves to show just how battle-hardened Rick and his group have become by this point.

While The Wolves in the show aren't a direct adaptation of the characters, they do adopt the same role as their comic book counterparts. However, while the TV show makes these villains a little more menacing (in this version they actually do breach the walls and manage to kill a few nameless Alexandrians), they're simply nowhere near as integral to the plot.

Because in the comics, it's the gun-fight with The Scavengers that draws the horde of zombies to Alexandria later on. This is different to the show where it's actually Rick's dumb plan that results in the walkers finding their way into the safe-zone, which only made the group look incapable of dealing with their new responsibilities as leaders of the town. 

As a result, the original version feels like more of a natural progression from story to story, and while alive The Scavengers weren't really a threat, their death brought about more carnage and destruction than they could have ever imagined.