Carl Grimes (Comic Series)

"We shouldn't say things like that anymore. "Good night." "Have a nice day." Things will never be "Good" or "Nice" again."

- Carl

Carl Grimes is the 8-year-old son of Rick and Lori Grimes and brother of Judith. He joined Shane, along with his mother, to travel to Atlanta, Georgia for the refugee camp. As time goes on, he slowly becomes hardened due to the severe loss of life around him.

Atlanta
His mother Lori, Shane, and Carl attempted to seek shelter at Atlanta after the Zombie outbreak, but were unable make it into the city. They camped on the outskirts of the city, where they were reunited with Carl's father, Rick. There at the camp, Carl was taught how to shoot despite being only seven. Later, he saved his mother from a zombie by killing it with his gun. He then saved his father's life by shooting Shane to prevent him from killing him.

Hershel's Farm
When the survivors began to relocate to another spot, Carl was shot by Otis, and brought to the Greene Farm, where they remained for some time till they were asked to leave by Hershel Greene after an argument with Carl's father, this forced them to hit the road once again until Dale and Andrea stumbled upon the prison while searching for supplies.

The Prison
At the prison, life for Carl began to settle down (the only the minor disturbance being a witness to his father Rick beating up Thomas Richards: an inmate that killed Hershel's daughters Rachel and Susie Greene.) It was at this time that Lori gave birth to Carl's half-sister Judith whose father is believed to have been Shane. After his father returned from trying to locate a downed chopper, and his father’s experiences at Woodbury Carl was forced to get used to his father without the use of his right arm. When his father Rick chases after Woodbury's Caesar Martinez who plans to alert Woodbury where the prison is, Carl asks Tyreese whether his father loves him, because he always is leaving him.

The Prison Assault
When Woodbury attacked the prison, Carl was one of the few to be there until the prison fell to The Governor and his men, and barely escaped with his father. Once they had reached relative safety from the violence taking place at the prison, Carl and his father then began to mourn the death of Lori, Judith, and the others lost in the assault.

Travel to D.C.
While wandering the area, and after an attack by two Zombies, Carl and Rick then took refuge in an abandoned house, and after a brief encounter with another three Zombies, Carl was led under the impression that he could defend himself from now on, and even blamed his father for his mother and sister's deaths. However afterwards he realized he needed his dad still and was scared without him. When on the move again, heading back to Hershel's farm, Carl was rescued by Michonne who had also survived the prison and informs the duo that she was tracking someone from the prison. After traveling further and then reuniting with Maggie and Glenn, Carl is reunited with Sophia and the surviving members of the prison that had left prior to the Governor's second attack. One morning Carl is woken by a shot and seeing the new arrivals Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, and Dr. Eugene Porter who bring hope that society has not crumbled, Carl along with the remaining survivors and the arrivals, proceed to take the long journey to Washington DC.

Along the journey, Rick decided to take a detour to his hometown in Kentucky, and brings Carl and Abraham along. It is during this trip that a band of road bandits attack and attempt to rape Carl. However Rick manages to break free by biting one of the bandits, and with the help of Abraham frees Carl. Later on Carl, Rick and Abraham discuss similar situations that they had been involved in, where they committed acts of in-human violence in order to protect, which prompts Carl to talk about shooting Shane in order to save his fathers life. After visiting their hometown, and reuniting with Morgan Jones and his zombified son Duane Jones, the four head to the police station in order to retrieve supplies, during this time Morgan constantly stares at Carl, remembering how Duane used to look, the end result of a freaked out Carl. On the return trip to the interstate junction, the four encounter a zombie herd (the largest Abraham has seen an estimated to be 2000 Zombies in size). Initially Rick tries to drive the car into the herd in order to escape, however when the car gets jammed over the mass of bodies, the survivors flee on foot in hopes of escaping. With Carl firing behind Abraham quickly grabs him and carries him on his back. After a failed attempt at distracting the herd, they return to the main group and flee by truck out of the area.

While only seven years old when the dead began to rise, Carl quickly became adapted to the new world, proving himself a good shot for his age, similar to his father. He is the playmate, and later "boyfriend" of Sophia and her only companion with Ben and Billy gone. He shows remorse after killing Ben, and cries quite regularly at night about it. His father talked to him about killing the cannibalistic hunters (though he believed he was talking to Abraham) and Carl tearfully admits to killing Ben.

Since Ben's murder, Carl has been very reluctant to talk about what he's done to his father. Eventually, Rick does confront his son as to why he killed Ben. To which Carl tearfully replies that he did it for the same reason Rick killed several people in the past, because it needed to be done and because none of the others would. Upon hearing his answer, Rick explains to him why he did a lot of bad things in his past. And tries to remind him that even good people do bad things.

Rick urges Carl to never lose sight of that and if killing becomes too easy, that's when good people become bad ones. Carl then cries and cries, saying that killing Ben still haunts him. He cries night after night and how he missed Ben. He feels tremendous guilt, but strongly believed he had to do it because Ben was dangerous. Carl also admits he planned on keeping it a secret from his father, but after hearing him talk at the bonfire, he just couldn't. He then assures his father that he does love him, even after all the bad things he's done to keep the group alive. He loves his father because he's done so much for them. Both cry in each others arms, with Rick apologizing to his son.

Alexandria Safe-Zone
Carl, along with his father and the rest of their group, successfully traveled and made it to the Alexandria Safe-Zone. While Carl was at first shown to be very happy to find others and have real food, he's shown to be having problems adjusting to the community. As in the beginning he and a boy named Mikey have a fight over his gun. When he refuses to let Mikey see his gun, Mikey pushes him down to which Carl returns the gesture. Rick makes him understand its not good to fight with the other kids, to which Carl tries to apologize. But Mikey refuses and pushes his hand away, leaving Carl hurt. Later on at night Carl believes he won't make many friends with the kids that live in the Safe-Zone.

During a small daytime-Halloween meant for the kids, Carl quickly wanted to stop trick-or-treating. He tells Rick, he hates being in the Safe-Zone because it all felt pretend. And while Rick tries to let his son know he can enjoy himself and be a kid, Carl shows worry about leaving. He goes on saying he didn't want to let down his guard and that he was afraid of being weak and dying.

Alexandria Safe-Zone Chaos
After Zombies invade the community, Douglas begins haphazardly shooting zombies. As he is overtaken by a group, he fires his gun and accidentally shoots Carl in the head, destroying his right eye and taking out a chunk of his face. Rick takes him to Doctor Cloyd and asks her to save his life.

Alexandria Safe-Zone Aftermath
Later, in Issue 84, Denise is able to patch Carl up, but he hasn't woken up yet. Rick comes to talk to him about the manageable threat of zombies, and asks him to wake up. In Issue 85, Carl is still in a coma. Suddenly, he starts to cough, but it is unknown if he is waking up or reanimating.

In Issue 86 Denise informs Rick that the cough didn't necessarily mean anything, and that Carl isn't out of the woods yet. She says when he wakes up, it is ultimately unknown what condition he will be in. In the following issue, he finally wakes up and immediately asks "Where's Mom?". Rick then begins to stress over explaining to Carl again what ordeals have taken place. After explaining the death of his mother and sister, Carl shows little sadness and this continues to worry Rick. Denise explains that it is okay to take Carl home after a couple of days of recovery, and the two begin to settle in once more. It is unknown exactly how badly his memory has been affected.

Hilltop Colony
Carl, along with, Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Andrea, are brought to the Hilltop Colony by Paul. There, they are shown around and introduced to Gregory. Another resident of the colony, Ethan, returns from a failed mission where all of his companions were killed except for himself and a woman named Crystal. Ethan then tells Gregory he has a message for him and stabs him. Rick tackles Ethan to the ground and in the struggle cuts his throat, while the rest of the residents stare at him, shocked.

Battle Against The Saviors
As Carl returned to the Safe-Zone from the Hilltop with his father, Andrea, Glenn and Michonne, they were ambushed by a small group of Saviors. Carl watches as Andrea and Michonne slaughtered the Saviors leaving only one lone survivor. After Rick sends the Savior to deliver a message to Negan, Carl tells his father that he agrees with the fact that the Saviors deserved what they got and that he is remembering more of the past everyday. The next morning, Carl walks in on his father and Andrea in bed together. Rick tries to explain to Carl the awkwardness of the situation to which Carl claims he already knows about sex. The conversation is cut short by the sound of gun shots. Rick tells Carl to stay inside the house as he goes to battle the Saviors. Carl later attended Abraham's funeral after his untimely death at the hands of the Saviors. Rick later decides to get help from the Hilltop and assembles a group consisting of Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, Michonne, Heath and Carl himself to travel to the Hilltop.

The group follows the same route that Paul had showed them to the Hilltop, however they are unable to make it there in one night and they decide to stop for the night. During the night, Negan and the Saviors show up and ambush the group. Negan demands half of everything the Safe-Zone owns, and has to punish them for killing so many Saviors. Carl watches with the rest of the group as Negan smashes Glenn's head to bits using his baseball bat whom he calls 'Lucille'. Negan tells them the Saviors will be back for their first offering in one week and leaves the survivors with Glenn's body. Maggie then punches Rick repeatedly calling him a coward, and Carl pulls out his gun on Maggie and claims he will put it away if Maggie stops hitting his father. However Sophia attacks Carl for pulling out a gun on Maggie. The group then wraps Glenn's corpse in a blanket and they continue on to the Hilltop.

After saying a tearful goodbye to Sophia, Carl returns with Rick and the others to Alexandria. After hearing what happened when the Saviors attacked, Carl agrees with Andrea that they should fight back to show Negan and the Saviors that they "aren't to be fucked with." He is visibly angry with Rick's decision to let Dwight go back to Negan and the other Saviors. When Negan and the saviors come to collect supplies from the safe zone, Carl threatens Negan, saying he'll soon realize how dangerous they all are. As Negan and his saviors leave, Carl hides under some mattresses in one of their trucks, ambushing the saviors as they open the door and killing several, before being brutally beaten by Dwight, and then taken hostage by Negan.

However, while Negan is usually cold and dispassionate, the harsh demeanor of Carl leaves an impression on him, as Negan, while claiming he's still going to punish Carl, starts to mentor him into the ways of The Saviors, acting curious and concerned about his past and bluntly claiming that, in his eyes, Carl is going to become a serial killer.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Carl has killed:
 * Shane
 * Ben
 * Numerous unnamed Saviors.
 * Numerous counts of zombies.

Rick Grimes
Rick and Carl have both seen their bad and good moments. Carl has noted he needs his father, when Rick isn't available. After the assault on the Prison, Carl told him (while he was in coma) how bad he is at protecting their friends, saying that he's the biggest reason why most of their original group members are dead. This aside, Rick continues to do everything he can to keep Carl safe. However, all the experiences Carl has been through have hardened him to the point where he doubts his fathers leadership, to the point where, in Issue 104, Carl sneaks to the Saviours hideout with Abraham Ford's rifle.

Lori Grimes
Carl mostly stayed by his mother's side. The two shared a close bond, as he often looked to her for reassurance about the world they were living in (but more specifically, about Rick) and also gave her reassurance as well. Though, he gets quite frustrated whenever she set limitations for what he could and could not do.

Judith
Carl liked his new sister, and was a bit jealous of her, because she would never know anything about life before zombie-apocalypse. Carl has said many times he misses his mother and sister.

Sophia
Being his childhood 'girlfriend', these two seem to like each other. Carl was shown to be a little uneasy when Sophia claimed Maggie was her real mother, but she later tells Carl that it makes her feel better. Nevertheless, their bond has grown stronger over the issues as seen when Carl comforts Sophia after Glenn's death and was almost on the verge of tears when hugging her goodbye as Sophia and Maggie decided to stay in Hilltop.

Andrea
Andrea babysat Carl and they are shown to be friendly. Carl seems happy about Rick and Andrea's relationship, even asking Andrea to move in with them.

Morgan Jones
Morgan was happy when he finally met Rick's son. At first, Carl was very concerned about him, but started to warm up to him later. Morgan was the only one who saw Carl killing Ben. Before Morgan's death, Morgan finally revealed this to him and told him more about what he thought of him, noting how brave he is.

Shane
Carl had always been wary of Shane. Despite the man being generally nice to him, he was very uncomfortable watching his interactions with Lori.

Negan
Carl bitterly hates Negan, and this is provoked by him killing Glenn, and reaches a point in with Carl risks his life to get revenge, when he sneaks into Negan's truck in order to kill him. It appears though, that Negan likes and admires Carl because of how hardened he is. It is shown that he may even have some higher opinion of the child, such as respect, as he is shown to be sincerely concerned and apologetic after making fun of his exposed gunshot injury. Carl returns Negan's admiration for him by accompanying him throughout the Savior's base without even trying to run or take action, also questioning the leader of his wives actually being his. Negan may very well be catering Carl to become a protege of some sort, as he is shown to be more impressed by the boy rather than angered by his violence against his men.

Appearances
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Trivia

 * Carl, alongside Ben and Clementine, are the only children known to have killed a living person.
 * Creator Robert Kirkman's father is named Carl.
 * Carl was the first person to kill a living person (Shane) in the Comic Series.
 * Carl is one of the many amputees in The Walking Dead. For other victims, see Amputated Victims.
 * Carl is also the first child to be amputated.
 * Carl Grimes managed to have his eyeball and a piece of his head shot off by Douglas Monroe.
 * The only other survivor of an eye amputation is The Governor, who lost his left while Carl lost his right.
 * Carl is the only child who has driven a car in the Comic Series.
 * Carl and Andrea are the only people to survive a gunshot to the head.
 * Carl's birth month is April.
 * Carl is one of the four surviving members from the original Atlanta group, the others being Rick, Andrea, and Sophia.
 * Both Sophia and Carl have defended their loved ones; Carl has defended Rick, in Issue 6 and at other times, and Sophia protected Maggie when Carl pointed a gun at her, by biting his arm, in Issue 101.
 * Carl has the second most amount of appearances in the Comic Series; the first being his father.