Bruce Allan Cooper (Comic Series)

"Not one more fucking step!"

- Bruce Cooper to Glenn.

Bruce Allan Cooper is a character first encountered in Issue 27 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead. He is a resident of Woodbury, Georgia and is one of The Governor right-hand men and one of his most trusted allies. He served as the secondary antagonist of Volume 7: The Calm Before and later the tertiary antagonist of Volume 8: Made To Suffer

Location Unknown
Little is known about Bruce's life before or as the outbreak began. His father owned a gas station and Bruce helped him work there. He also had a girlfriend named Shauna. It is likely that he lived in or near Woodbury before the outbreak.

Woodbury
Bruce was first chronologically introduced within the novel, Rise of the Governor. He was one of the first survivors that the Blake brothers and Nick encountered when passing through Woodbury. The trio had spotted him and two other men building a makeshift barricaded wall around the town, and though he showed caution by raising his shotgun at them, he allowed the three of them to enter the town, stating that in Woodbury, it was everyone for themselves.

When Rick Grimes' small group entered Woodbury, he was present when The Governor was explaining the arena fighting, and was ordered to close the door by him. Following The Governor's declaration of feeding strangers to the biters, Bruce held Michonne prisoner and cautiously watched her. Shortly after, he was ordered to pin Rick's head to a table, and witnessed the forced amputation of his hand. Michonne, in retaliation, jumped upon The Governor, but, was ripped away by Bruce, although she managed to tear part of his ear off with her teeth. Bruce awaited orders to kill her, but, was reprimanded by The Governor, who had other plans in store for her. Bruce later went to The Governor, who ordered him to restrain Michonne, rip off her pants, and tie her legs separately to opposite walls so he could rape her. The Governor dismissed Bruce, and commenced his raping. He waited outside for the rape to finish, and allowed The Governor out when he had. A while later, he opened the door a second time to allow The Governor inside for "round two" with Michonne. Afterwards, he, along with Gabe, accompanied The Governor to Rick's hospital bed, and pointed his gun at Rick. Later, he was present alongside The Governor and Gabe, as The Governor announced that their plan with Glenn had worked, and it was only a matter of time before the location of the prison would be revealed.

The next day, Bruce and The Governor visited Michonne's cell, where Bruce presented back her katana, and The Governor announced that she would be fighting Eugene in an arena battle. He later accompanied both Gabe and The Governor to the disastrous fight, and watched it. Following the unfortunate turn of events, Bruce was ordered to rein the biters and restrain Michonne, but, Gabe did the deed for him, tackling Michonne to the ground. Later, both Bruce and Gabe restrained Michonne, forcing her back into her cell. The Governor, in a rage, commanded them both to open her door so he could kill her, but, reluctantly left to think it over. Gabe revealed Michonne's escape to Bruce, and they both went to The Governor's apartment to confront him with the news. Upon receiving no answer, they busted the door down, revealing The Governor's mutilated body, a zombie child limping, and Michonne fleeing through the window, and out of the safe-zone.

Revenge
Upon discovering his body, the two were unsure over whether or not he was still alive, but before they could confirm anything, the zombie child leaped upon Bruce. Bruce pushed her back, aiming his pistol at her, but The Governor moaned, pleading them not to kill his zombified daughter. Upon realizing that The Governor seriously required medical help, Bruce ordered Gabe to lock the doors, before racing outside to find Bob Stookey, who had previous experience with medical work. He brought him back upstairs, but Bob vomited at the sight of The Governor's mutilated and disfigured body, but Bruce pressed on, forcing him to mend his wounds.

Bruce confronted The Governor while he was resting in his fish-tank room, informing him that Martinez was found dead and reanimated, and The Governor revealed that he was going to announce the news to the people of Woodbury. He used Martinez's reanimated head to persuade the people to have hostile thoughts toward the prison survivors.

Following the eruption of the National Guard base near Woodbury, Bruce and several Woodbury soldiers moved to investigate the local Wal-Mart, where the saboteurs had presumably ventured. Upon Glenn revealing himself, Bruce rose his gun, commanding him to halt. He then fired, the bullets noticeably deflecting off Glenn's riot gear armor. Maggie Greene's scream revealed the other hidden survivors' positions, but suddenly a rifle bullet fired by Andrea passed through Bruce's neck, inevitably mortally wounding him.

Killed By

 * Andrea (Caused)
 * Blood Loss

When Rick Grimes' survivors ventured to loot Woodbury's Wal-Mart in preparation for an attack, Bruce led a small group to confront them. He was later shot in the neck by Andrea and left for dead.


 * The Governor (Before Reanimation)

The Governor later discovered him, barely alive, choking on his own blood. He managed to give his boss information on the survivor's actions before Brian shot him in the head, preventing reanimation.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Bruce has killed:
 * Swede
 * Numerous counts of zombies and possibly unnamed people

Brian Blake
Bruce was very loyal to The Governor as a second-in-command and as extremely valuable muscle. Whatever orders or demands were given to him, Bruce followed without question. He helped, for example, The Governor with cutting Rick's right hand off. He was also responsible of forcing Bob to save The Governor's life. When Bruce died, The Governor seemed upset, admitting himself Bruce was one of his few true friends, and took it upon himself to shoot Bruce before he came back. His death added more vengeance on the Prison survivors.

Nick Parsons
Even though Nick found Bruce and Gabe threatening in the beginning, he came to trust them, and moved into Woodbury.

Gabe
Bruce and Gabe were The Governors right-hand men and were often seen together, they were also shown to be friends when Philip, Brian and Nick arrive at Woodbury, talking and joking while construing the walls around the town. They would at times battle each other in the Arena, mocking and messing around with each other to give the audience a good show. When Bruce was killed, Gabe was shown to have cared, as shown when The Governor decided to hold off his attack on the prison, Gabe argued that they needed revenge, specifically mentioning, Bruce.

Glenn
Although Bruce and Glenn were rarely seen together is assumed that they did not like each other, Glenn was horrified when Bruce assisted The Governor in the amputation of Rick's hand also at the Walmart Bruce remembered Glenn from before and called him a coward then proceeded to shoot him in the chest.

Michonne
Even though Bruce was on watch and heard everything that Brian Blake did to Michonne he seemed to feel sorry and care for her. He even tried to convince The Governor to get the information another way but after he refused Bruce's offer, Bruce never mentioned it again.

Sam
Bruce and Sam are only seen together once throughout the whole comic, and that is after the National Guard Station blew up. It is presumed that Bruce and Sam were friends, due to Sam's outburst after Andrea shot him, but it is possible he was just panicking after seeing people being killed in front of him.

Shauna
Bruce and Shauna were in a relationship.

Appearances
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 * content =

Novel Series

 * "Rise of the Governor"
 * "The Road to Woodbury"
 * "The Fall of the Governor"

Volume 5: The Best Defense

 * Issue 27
 * Issue 28
 * Issue 29
 * Issue 30

Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life

 * Issue 31
 * Issue 32
 * Issue 33

Volume 7: The Calm Before

 * Issue 38 (No Lines)
 * Issue 39

Volume 8: Made To Suffer

 * Issue 43 (Flashback)
 * }}

Trivia

 * Robert Kirkman answered the question whether naming characters the same name, Billy, Chris, Jim, Eugene, Eric, and Bruce was an oversight, "It's not oversight at all. It's completely unrealistic for a group of people to meet at random and never encounter the same names.
 * Bruce's middle name was revealed in The Fall of the Governor.