Now that Fear The Walking Dead Season 2 has begun on AMC, the team is starting to fill into familiar archetypes. Among them is Strand, the anti-hero with a past. Is Strand on Fear The Walking Dead in the comics?
He's not, to put it bluntly. Fear The Walking Dead features original characters. While The Walking Dead is based on Robert Kirkman's series of graphic novels, neither the specific plot of the spin-off nor its characters are based on the original source material. They only exist in the same universe. There isn't a prequel/spin-off comic series and no characters from The Walking Dead have been swiped from the stage and placed on the other side of the country for a high seas adventure.
That is a bummer, because if anyone on Fear sounds like a comic book character — it's Victor Strand. He is mysteriously rich and a bit of a genius. He has a very strong point of view about survival in the apocalypse. He goes by his last name. "It's my boat" even sounds like a comic book character's catchphrase. This guy could be Batman, for all we know. Interestingly enough, I think the most comparable character to Strand is Daryl Dixon — who is also not a comic book character. Though they come from vastly different backgrounds, both characters have an outsider quality that works well in this type of environment.
Of course, the spinoff series does of course have the freedom to take unused characters from The Walking Dead graphic novels or video games — but isn't it kind of freeing that they don't have to? I try to approach this series the same way I am approaching the upcoming film Rogue One. Not every Star Wars character has to be somebody's parent and not every Fear The Walking Dead character has to be based on someone from Kirkman's series. It actually makes characters like Strand and Madison even more dangerous. With no comic book backstory to go by, we never know what they're going to do next.
Images: Richard Foreman, Jr/AMC; Giphy
