Springhaven is a location first encountered in Issue 161 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead. It is a small, seemingly abandoned neighborhood where Negan resides and buries his wife, Lucille.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
Nothing is known about this neighborhood prior to or as the outbreak began.
Post-Apocalypse[]
The Whisperer War[]
After defeating the second Whisperer wave, the militia set up camp in the neighborhood to stay the night. Negan mourns his baseball bat, Lucille, while Connie's arm is amputated from a bite wound. In the morning, Negan buries Lucille outside a house while the militia pack up and head back towards Alexandria. He apologizes to his wife for naming a bat after her and hopes burying her representation somewhat puts her to rest. Negan plans on returning to the neighborhood after his exile to remain close to her grave.
Lines We Cross[]
Negan returns to the neighborhood with Dante closely following him to keep track of his location. He immediately kneels by Lucille's grave and cries. Even though she's just splinters of wood, she's all he has left. Later, after setting up the home he wants to live in, Negan starts going out each day to find supplies and flowers for Lucille's grave. One day he talks to himself whilst digging up a sunflower. A couple of roamers approach and, instead of killing them, he pushes them to the ground and runs off.
He places the sunflower at his wife's makeshift grave. He says that this is his way of honoring her and that he is always thinking about her. He admits that sometimes he wishes he had died and she had lived, as she probably wouldn’t have ended up alone like he has. He fights back tears and returns to his house to realize that he's running out of food. Later, he shoots and kills a dog before eating it. He feels remorse for this and states that it didn't even taste good. He comes across a crashed truck filled with canned food, only to discover they have expired after getting diarreha.
After a day of scavenging he spots a barn nearby and investigates. Inside, he finds a baseball bat but leaves without it. That night he lies awake thinking about it. The next day at Lucille's grave, he explains that he knows she is dead and that despite naming his baseball bat after her, he cannot replace her but he can replace the bat. He returns to the barn and takes the bat. He comes across some barbed wire on the way home and as he is wrapping it around the bat, Maggie Greene and Dante sneak up behind him.
Maggie tells Dante to wait outside before asking Negan if he knows who she is. Negan says he does, and Maggie replies that he knows why she is there. Negan explains he understands that she was angry Rick locked him up instead of killing him and now he is able to roam free. He apologizes for killing Glenn and tells her he won't fight back. Unsatisfied with this answer, Maggie yells that she knows he is trying to get sympathy from her, but she won't fall for it after what he did. Negan tells her it is no act and he has had years to think about his actions. He believed at the time killing Glenn was what he needed to do. It wasn't until Rick showed him the way that he realized what he had done. He says that if Glenn was her Lucille then he feels her pain. Maggie asks if he remembers his wife's face and voice, and Negan smiles as he says he does. Maggie tells him every time she tries to picture Glenn, all she can see is him screaming her name with his skull bashed in and his eye hanging out. And with that, she sees Negan smiling.
Negan tells Maggie to kill him as he deserves it. Maggie looks at the bat, and Negan says although it would be painful, he'd understand how satisfying it would be for her. Maggie laments and says she won't kill him, but Negan grabs her wrist and holds the gun to his head. He says he can't live alone like this and starts reminding her about Glenn and his death, begging her to pull the trigger. Maggie refuses to give him what he wants, saying he must live with what he has done as she leaves the house. Outside, Dante asks if she killed him. Maggie says he wasn't worth it and shoots the couple of roamers from the other day before turning and kissing a shocked Dante. Later that night, Negan puts on his jacket and burns the new baseball bat in a fire with a smile on his face as he walks away.
Negan Lives[]
Negan threatens someone, who are revealed to just be flowers he picking for his wife's grave. He apologizes to her and expresses his loneliness and fear of dying. He enters his house and discovers a stranger inside. She apologizes for breaking in and asks him to spare some food, which he agrees to. The stranger introduces herself as Lucy, which surprises Negan due to the similarity of her name and his wife Lucille's.
Negan and Lucy share a meal of rabbit and discuss how the apocalypse forces them to constantly adjust to new situations. Lucy moves closer to Negan and asks if he lives alone, which he confirms is true. She questions him about nearby communities; he tells her there are some places close by, but he doesn't trade with them because they dislike him. Lucy compliments his appearance, causing Negan to jump up. He asks where the rest of her group is, refusing to believe she's on her own. He suspiciously comments that she looks too well-kept to be a lone survivor in the wilderness, and that a woman half his age wouldn't fall for him so easily. Lucy tells him he's smarter than he looks.
Derick and Barry jump out of the woods, the latter attempts to strangle Negan with a rope. Lucy pleads for his life because she likes him, but Derick urges Barry to finish the job. Negan insults them, saying they're too weak to kill him even though he's hardly fighting back. Derick gives Negan a shovel and makes him dig up Lucille's grave, which they plan to bury him in. He begs them not to force him to continue, but he ends up complying after Derick threatens to kill Lucy. Derick asks him who's buried in the grave, saying they must be special if he'd rather die than dig them up. Negan tells him that it's his baseball bat, which is representative of his deceased wife. Derick laughs and says his story is the "stupidest shit [he's] ever heard".
Out of nowhere, roamers attack, killing Barry. Derick shoots some of them, but gets bitten. Negan uses the shovel to kill the walker biting him, as he wants to kill Derick himself. He stabs and kills him in the chest with the shovel, attempting to cut him in half. A scared Lucy asks if Negan plans to kill her, but he instead invites her to join him on his newfound quest to find and lay his wife's bones to rest, telling her, "Don't you want to see what happens next?"
Rest In Peace[]
Carl Grimes and Lydia visit this neighborhood to drop supplies off for Negan who, Carl believes, still resides there because the supplies get used each drop-off. Carl knocks on the door to Negan's house, which after twenty-five years has been well kept, with a new gate, clean pathway and professionally crafted tombstone sporting Lucille's name. However there is no answer. Later, it is shown that Negan does indeed live there, but has been living a hermit life of avoiding people.
Inhabitants[]
Formerly[]
- Michonne Hawthorne
- Paul Monroe
- Magna
- Yumiko
- Connie
- Kelly
- Laura
- Dwight
- Many unnamed members of the Militia
Deaths[]
Appearances[]
Comic Series[]
Volume 27: The Whisperer War[]
Volume 29: Lines We Cross[]
Volume 32: Rest In Peace[]
Trivia[]
- The tree Lucille is buried under is not seen outside of Negan's home until Issue 193. However it appears in Negan Lives which is too short of a timespan for the tree to have fully grown from first seeing the house to the time the special takes place.