Just copy and pasted my thread I started about this issue in a different forum so we could start talking about it here as well.
For the most part I really enjoyed this issue. The first half of it was some of the best storytelling we have seen in a while in my opinion. At first I thought Sophia getting that upset about finding out her mom was having sex with a new guy was being taken a little too far. But then once it was said she was more upset over the fact that Maggie didn't even bother to say anything to her about it it made a lot more sense.
Cophia is definitely in the air. I imagine these two are going to really start developing a romance from this point forward. This is how Kirkman started off the Rick/Andrea thing where they started off as friends first. Only question is will Carl outright end things with Lydia or will she end up dying? I'm beginning to think that with the Commonwealth being as large as it is and a good amount of the Hilltop/Alexandria people likely moving there Lydia will be naturally phased out of the story because she will move to Ohio and meet new people.
Second half would have been pretty good as well if it wasn't for the Sebastian character. He is clearly one of those one dimensional characters that Kirkman occasionally brings into the series specifically for one particular reason and nothing else. He's just there to create some conflict right from the get go and make people readers wonder if everything is right with this new place. I imagine he will probably be killed within the next twenty issues or so (that may be the big issue 200 story is a murder plot happens in regards to him and some of the longstanding characters get caught up in it).
This Commonwealth place seems like it is on the up and up. They just need to do particular things in order to maintain order and giving people specific roles is a way to do that. No different than in the real world the police not allowing non police forces to do police work.
A couple things I did notice. Have we had a timeskip recently? It hasn't been that many issues since the Hilltop burned down and they have the mansion rebuilt already? Oh well. Maybe the thinking was that if everyone in the community was helping rebuild it it could have gotten rebuilt in a matter of weeks? I'll have to go back and look over the issues from the point where the place was burned down and see how much time has passed. Think it has been around three weeks or so but I'll check.
Also Stephanie looked black in this issue. As far as I remember she was shown as being white in the initial issue she was shown in. Was that a bit of a continuity flub or was there a specific reason why they gave her a much darker skin tone in this issue?