| This article is about the Comic Universe character. You may be looking for his TV Series counterpart. For other pages with the same name, see: Caesar |
| “ | You selfish piece of shit. You've got the--room--the supplies for everyone in Woodbury--the whole damn town! Everyone. Fencing off the streets--protecting the town--it doesn't work that well. Biters--they always--break through--we're constantly repairing fences. The prison is secure. My people deserve to be safe, too. (...) The Governor is--what he is. He sent me--but I'm not bringing him here. The others--women--children--not bad--good people. We'd be getting away from him, too. They wouldn't hurt you--your family would be fine.
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Caesar Ramón Martínez is an antagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in Skybound Entertainment's Comic Universe. He is a supporting antagonist in Image Comics' The Walking Dead and a supporting character in Thomas Dunne Books' The Walking Dead.
He is a fence guard and the head of security in Woodbury and one of the Governor's most trusted allies. Martinez helps Lilly attempt to take down the Governor. Later, after being welcomed back into the Governor's inner circle, he helps Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Dr. Stevens, and Alice escape Woodbury so he can find the location of the prison. He served as the secondary antagonist of Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life.
Overview[]
Martínez presents himself as a reluctant soldier in the Governor's army, not fully aware of the Governor's atrocities. For the sake of his community, Martínez chooses to ignore rumors about how vile the Governor really is. Outside of this, Martínez acts like a friendly and open person. Despite this façade, Martínez is, in fact, one of the Governor's most trusted men, as he was given the task of infiltrating Rick's group by helping them escape Woodbury, only so he can report the location of the Prison to the Governor. Moments from death, however, Martínez claims he was, in fact, working against the Governor. Despite agreeing to the mission, he asserts that the wasn't going to bring the Governor to the prison, but only the "good people" in Woodbury, to keep them safe from both the dead and the Governor. It is unknown if Martínez was being truthful, as he is murdered by Rick shortly after.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
Augusta, Georgia[]
Martínez was a man with natural leadership skills who loved his job as a gym teacher and a children's sports coach of football & basketball teams at Pope John Middle School. He divorced a young woman from Arkansas,[1] never had kids, and was estranged from his parents - making him a loner.
Post-Apocalypse[]
Augusta, Georgia[]
Martínez's school had been a "safe zone" once the outbreak began, and it was soon home to many children and parents lived in the town. He played basketball with the students before the "biters" overtook the school. Once the zombies overran the school, they killed most of the people inside, while the others (including Martínez) ran for safety; an action he would always regret.
Rise of the Governor[]
"Chaos Theory"[]
Sometime after the school was overtaken, Martínez stumbled upon Woodbury, He did not like the current forced leader Gene Gavin. When Brian Blake killed Gene, Martinez was right by his side helping him retake control of Woodbury. Once Brian became the leader of Woodbury, Martínez became very loyal to him, helping out as his second-in-command and going on search parties for supplies and finding new citizens.
The Road to Woodbury[]
Lilly Caul, Bob Stookey, Joshua Hamilton, Megan Lafferty and Scott Moon raid a Walmart. Megan is taken captive by an armed group led by Martínez. He makes peace with the group and invites them to come and live at their town, Woodbury. The group agrees and follow his truck back to the town. After talking to a few other guards along the way, he joins them in their car and tells them about the town and how he ended up there (having gone on a biter killing spree and passed out in a ditch, only to wake up behind the town's walls).
He leads several groups of people outside the town on supply runs and helps to construct and patrol the walls. One on occasion Dean Gorman and Johnny Pruitt get into a heated fight and Martínez immediately goes to break it up upon arriving at the scene, only to have the Governor temporarily stop him to watch it unfold. After the death of Josh Hamilton at the hands of Sam 'The Butcher', Martínez jumped into action and tackled Sam through the food center's front window and then proceeded to beat him to the ground.
Later he attends a small Christmas Eve party with Lilly Caul, Dr. Stevens and Alice Warren. The three bond and during this he admits to become wary of the Governor's actions even saying to Stevens that the Governor is "going to push this town off a cliff". He soon agrees and helps set up a plan with the three to take down the Governor and lets four of his most loyal men: Swede, Taggert, Stevie, and Broyles in on the plan. The plot involved a kidnapping during the arena fights, where the Governor would be loaded into a truck and brought out into the woods where they could execute him. However, the Governor catches on at the last second, causing a loud noise and two of the Governor's close men to follow. The Governor's men were also captured, and escaped their bonds in the middle of the drive into the woods. Eventually both groups are led into a Mexican stand-off in the back of the van, only broken by a horde of zombies attacking the van. After losing all of his men, both groups decide they need to work together, and need The Governor alive, much to Lilly's anger.
In the end, The Governor makes a compromise to end the bartering system, much to a humanitarian applause by Woodbury. After the announcement, The Governor makes Lilly and all of her surviving insurrectionists chop up dead bodies (probably as zombie food/bait) as punishment and an act of fair dominance, reminding them he could have killed them easily, even accepting Martínez back into his inner circle, while under her breath Lilly cursed The Governor.
The Fall of the Governor - Part One[]
Martínez takes a group consisting of Lilly Caul, Gus Strunk, David Stern, Barbara Stern and Austin Ballard out on a supply run to a Piggly Wiggly store. On the way back they spot a helicopter crashing and go to investigate. The group rescues a woman and takes her and the dead pilot back with them to Woodbury.
The Best Defense[]
Martínez is seen when Rick, Glenn and Michonne first arrived at Woodbury. He, Wes and several other guards cleaned out the area around the fences of biters to let them in. After they had been weapon checked, Martínez offered to take them to see the Governor before he showed up to give the group a tour himself.
This Sorrowful Life[]
Martínez is taken off of guard duty by another guard who tells him that the Governor wants to see him about something.
Later while on a trip to see Dr. Stevens, he saw that the Governor had sliced Rick's hand off, and realized that the Governor was a monster. He then devised a plan to help Rick and party escape. He and Glenn took down two guards and he even knocked Gabe unconscious to help them escape. After Steven's death he was saddened at the loss of his friend's death and comforted Alice on the way to the prison.
He explains his sad backstory and job as a gym teacher to the group as they walk. They fight their way back to the Prison which had become temporarily overrun and Martínez helps clear it of biters. However, it is later revealed he did all this under the Governor's orders, to infiltrate the prison - find its location, strengths and weaknesses - then leave and report back to him. Rick catches on to this and goes after Martínez (who had escaped almost an hour earlier) alone in the RV and runs it over him, crippling him. Rick then goes on to strangle him to death whilst he confirms he was sent by the Governor, however just wants to bring some families back with him. Rick leaves him to turn in the field.
Made To Suffer[]
In a flashback, the Governor manipulates his audience into going to war with Rick's group. He uses Martínez's severed head as 'evidence' that Rick's group are monsters who need to be put down. He tells the town that they murdered Martínez and left his head outside Woodbury's gates.
The Fall of the Governor - Part Two[]
"The Fall"[]
After returning from the failed prison assault, Lilly puts down the Governor's collection of zombified heads, amongst them Martinez.
Death[]
- Killed By
- Rick Grimes (Alive)
After obtaining the Prison's location, Martínez attempts to run back to Woodbury. As he is running through a field, he is run over, and crippled, by Rick in Dale's RV.
Martínez admits to being sent by the Governor, but, says that he planned only to bring the good citizens back to the prison, and not the Governor or his men. Rick, however, strangles him to death, saying that Martínez doesn't know what people are capable of. He then leaves him to turn in the field.
- Lilly Caul (Zombified)
After returning from the failed prison attacks, Bob shows Lilly the Governor's apartment where she puts down the Governor's zombified head collection, among them Martínez.
Killed Victims[]
This list shows the victims Caesar has killed:
- Numerous counts of zombies and possibly unnamed people
Relationships[]
For a more in-depth look at Caesar's relationships, read here: Caesar Martínez (Comic Universe)/Relationships
Allies[]
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Enemies[]
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Appearances[]
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| Issues | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book One | |||||||||||||
| Book Two | |||||||||||||
| Book Three | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | 👁 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||
| Book Four | ✔ | ||||||||||||
| Book Five | |||||||||||||
| Book Six | |||||||||||||
| Book Seven | |||||||||||||
| Book Eight | |||||||||||||
| Book Nine | |||||||||||||
| Book Ten | |||||||||||||
| Book Eleven | |||||||||||||
| Book Twelve | |||||||||||||
| Book Thirteen | |||||||||||||
| Book Fourteen | |||||||||||||
| Book Fifteen | |||||||||||||
| Book Sixteen |
| ✔ | Appears | ✔ | Voice is heard |
| 👁 | Appears with no lines | ✔ | Appears in a flashback |
| ✔ | Appears as a walker | 🖼 | Appears in a photograph/video |
| ✔ | Appears as a corpse | ✔ | Appears in a hallucination/dream |
Trivia[]
- Robert Kirkman has stated that Martínez was meant to be homosexual, but this plot line was not pursued further.
- Kirkman also mentioned he was planning to overwrite Martínez's story, which would've included not killing him. This was due to him being the first Hispanic character in the comics, which could've received condemnation from fans.
- He was mistakenly called "Rodríguez" on two separate occasions in Woodbury, first by Glenn and then by Stevens[2]. This is similar to a typo encountered in Issue 93, where Jesus was willing to take the group to Kenneth, who in fact was Gregory.
- Martinez' middle name was revealed in The Fall of the Governor.
- In the deluxe version of Issue 36, Kirkman states that, in his eyes, Martínez was sincere about wanting to only bring the good people in Woodbury back to the prison. However, he also states that Martínez might have been overpowered by those loyal to the Governor and forced to give up the location of the prison, which would give the survivors even less time to prepare their defenses.
- In Issue 58, Rick mentions Martínez when telling Abraham Ford about the horrible things he has done to protect those he loves.
References[]
- ↑ The Road to Woodbury
- ↑ Issue 32, page 3 and 12