Alpha (Comic Series)

"I've seen how you live. I've walked your streets. It's a joke. Life is blood and pain and sacrifice. You think you have accomplished so much, but I look around at what you've done... and I see children playing a game of make believe. You've built a shrine to a long dead world. We are animals who always pretended we are not. You work and toil towards restoring a life where you exercise so you can sit in a chair and let a box lie to you until all your thoughts are gone. My people? The Whisperers... our lives are true. We live the full lives we were always meant to. You strive to return to a life as slaves to our pretty desires... instead of recognizing the gift this world has to offer. The gift of freedom."

- Alpha to Rick Grimes

Alpha is a main character and an antagonist first encountered in Issue 132 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead. She is the leader of The Whisperers and mother of Lydia. She currently serves as the main antagonist of the series from Volume 22: A New Beginning to present.

Location Unknown
Nothing is known about Alpha's life before or as the outbreak began.

Personality
Alpha is shown to be a cunning, cruel and savage woman. She appears to take great pride in her leadership abilities and seems to enjoy the position of power that she maintains over her group. She appears to no longer possess any emotions of affection, as shown when she coldly tells her own daughter to call her "Alpha" instead of "mom", showing that she has completely shed the life she once had before the apocalypse and has accepted the person she now is. Alpha's savageness is very evident and she is shown to be a completely remorseless, coldblooded murderer, who seems to kill not just for survival, but just as a message towards her enemies. She appears to be highly intelligent as well. She does, however, seems to be cracking under her tough façade, doing her best to be as cold as she can. Based on what she said to another Whisperer, she may have fought for her place as leader several times before.

A New Beginning
After Dante attacks the Whisperers who killed Doug and the other Hilltop guard, he goes to check to see how they had attacked him. Later, Alpha comes up behind him and aims her shotgun at him.

Whispers Into Screams
Alpha holds Dante at gunpoint, explaining that these are the Whisperers' lands, and his people will learn to fear them.

Alpha is then seen at the gates of the Hilltop. She introduces herself along with her army to Maggie. Alpha removes her mask and shows her face, claiming to mean no harm. She claims to only want her daughter, Lydia. In exchange, she will give back Ken and Dante, who are unharmed.

The trade proceeds, with Ken and Dante returning to the Hilltop and Lydia goes back with the Whisperers. Lydia thanks her mother for saving her, but she replies that Lydia should call her Alpha like everybody else. Alpha, Lydia, and the Whisperers depart into the forest.

Alpha is then seen marching in the woods, with her daughter beside her and the entire Whisperer army. Alpha says that Lydia should stay in the center because she doesn't have a skin suit and they'll have to craft another one, to which Lydia replies she tried to tend to her suit as best as she could. Seemingly unknown to her, she's being followed by Carl.

Life and Death
When the boy stops to rest, Alpha approaches him, asking why he followed them. Carl responds he wanted to make sure Lydia is safe, and makes it clear that it was his decision to do so, and the Hilltop has nothing to do with it. After a brief conversation, Carl is allowed to travel with them to their camp. While travelling to their camp, Alpha tells Carl that they don't have camps and instead live how they were intended to live (Without shelter, instead huddling together for warmth). They then arrive to a large group of people, disguised in the same costumes with camp fires, livestock and other necessities.

Soon, Alpha approaches Carl, and, after noticing the latter's aggression, reminds him that he's still a captive. She announces that there is no other way, and that she must learn more about Carl's people.

Later on, Alpha manages to sneak inside Alexandria-Safe Zone to learn more about the communities.. She meets Earl Sutton who was asking about her work (machetes and spears she is showing off at her tent). He asks her how long ago she joined the communities, to which she responds that she joined them very recently.

Alpha manages to get back to the Whisperers' camp, where Rick Grimes is already there to save his son. She then approaches and says that she isn't impressed upon seeing Rick after all of the things she had heard about him. Rick tells him that he does not appreciate being held captive and that he would like to leave with Carl. Alpha says that she wishes he was never held captive. Alpha is holding a blood-stained machete.

Alpha says that she encountered some trouble on the road home and that it was unavoidable. Rick asks her what she has done and if she has hurt Andrea or Michonne before being punched by a Whisperer. Rick says that he will remember this as he wipes blood from his mouth. Alpha tells one of her people to go clean the machete and then tells Rick that he is in no position to threaten her and needs to be broken of the habit of threats. She tells Rick that the two of them will be going for a walk as Rick shouts that he will not leave Carl. Alpha threatens to kill Carl if Rick does not comply, forcing him to cooperate.

Rick is now at the gun-point by Alpha as they walk. The duo pass an overgrown gas station and a freeway. Rick asks her that if she planned on killing him that she could have saved them both a lot of time. Alpha states that although she is willing to kill Rick, she has no desire to. Alpha tells Rick to stop talking and to keep his voice down. Rick then asks Alpha where she is taking him as Alpha points to a building ahead of them.

Alpha and Rick approach a four-story building with a small water tower on top. Alpha tells Rick that the building is clear and the two go all the way to the roof of the building. Alpha tells Rick to go to the edge and look. She tells Rick that she wants him to see that she will destroy everything he has built in this world, everyone he has loved in this world, and that this is not an empty threat. Rick then looks over the edge with Alpha to see a massive herd below.

After showing Rick the massive horde of Roamers, Alpha takes him off the building and takes him back to the Whisperers camp. Rick asks Alpha what she wants from him, she replies he has nothing to offer her. She proceeds to mock Ricks "fake" way of life and say how they are like children playing pretend. "You've built a shrine to world long dead," Alpha says how her people are the ones who live truly and live a life of freedom. Rick then questions her about her ideology about the Whisperers being free despite them referring to their leader as "Alpha" and having to sleep in the cold and wear dead human skin.

As Alpha and Rick returned to the Whisperers camp, Rick tells Carl that they can leave peacefully however Carl refuses to leave Lydia. He tells Rick that the Whisperers rape Lydia and Alpha allows it and he confronts Alpha about it. Alpha claims that Rape is a power of the natural world and making it excusable. Lydia breaks down telling what has happened to her and Alpha is disgusted by her show of emotion and strikes her in the face calling her weak. She preaches how in order to survive in the new world one needs to be strong and she too breaks down. Rick separates them and Alpha whispers to him that they can provide the safety to Lydia that she could not. She then disowns Lydia and tells her to go with Rick and Carl. Alpha informs Rick that she has marked a border that separates them and the whisperers. And that they are not to cross that border or her horde will cross into their side. Rick takes Carl and Lydia and they leave.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Alpha has killed.
 * Olivia
 * Josh
 * Carson
 * Tammy Rose
 * Luke
 * Erin
 * Ken
 * Amber
 * Larry
 * Oscar
 * Rosita Espinosa
 * Rosita's unborn baby
 * Ezekiel
 * At least 1 unnamed Whisperer
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people

Lydia
Alpha has a poor relationship with her daughter, Lydia. She forces her to refer to her by her name, rather than affectionately call her "mom". She also ignores Lydia's cries for help for the many incidences of rape she has faced with the other members of the Whisperers as she disregards it as trivial matters, believing it to be "a part of nature far older than that terrifying word". Lydia believes her mother refuses to protect her, and is neglected and abused by her both physically and emotionally. When Rick, Carl and Lydia all argue against this, however, Alpha shows, in a moment of weakness, that she deeply regrets what has happened to her daughter, but feels she cannot interfere without showing favoritism. To get around this and keep Lydia safe, Alpha secretly demands that Rick take her back to Alexandria, while openly disowning her, claiming that Lydia's attitude is a weakness.

Ken
Alpha kept Ken as a hostage. Despite the hostility between the two groups, Ken claims that he was well fed and wasn't hurt. Alpha's group even tended to his injured leg. However, she ended up killing him, as his zombified head was seen stuck on a stick after she decapitated him.

Dante
Alpha kept Dante as a hostage. Despite the hostility between the two groups, it is known that he was well fed and that he wasn't hurt.

Rick Grimes
Alpha and Rick have completely different views on how the world should operate, and she openly threatens to end Rick's goal for re-establishing any sort of civilization. Rick believes Alpha to be delusional in her cause, telling her that she makes people wear human skin and sleep out in the cold to answer to her authority. However, Alpha believes that there needs to be an authority figure to assert themselves, because if not, there would be chaos. Alpha considers Rick to be a slave to reforming society as to how it was, with no sense of freedom.

Appearances
{{Scroll
 * content =

Volume 22: A New Beginning

 * Issue 132

Volume 23: Whispers Into Screams

 * Issue 133
 * Issue 138

Volume 24: Life And Death

 * Issue 139
 * Issue 140
 * Issue 142
 * Issue 143
 * Issue 144

Volume 25: No Turning Back

 * Issue 148
 * }}

Trivia

 * Alpha is the third recurring antagonist in the Comic Series and the first to be a female.

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