In The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes being put into a coma, as tragic what it was, helped paved the way for a free world. It’s still being mapped out on the AMC television series, mind you, but in the comics, this tragedy was the catalyst for him to go seeking his family and to try to protect them during the zombie apocalypse. Still, you can’t help but feel for him for the pain and suffering he endured due to this separation, all because of an escaped convict who shot him.

Now, while many assume it’s just a random event that’s never addressed in the book again, Issue #5 actually saw someone get revenge on this shooter. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Rick himself but rather it was his sinister bestie, Shane.

In Issue #1, Rick and Shane opened the tale with Reggie, someone who escaped from Grant County Prison and engaged with them in a firefight on the road. In the melee, Reggie shot Shane’s hand so he couldn’t lay down cover fire, and then put a bullet through Rick’s chest. It’d then jump to Rick in the coma, with the city abandoned as everyone thought he’d never wake up.

In the interim, we never heard about Reggie again and it was assumed he got away before backup arrived. However, later on, as we’d learn in The Walking Dead: Assault mobile game and The Walking Dead: All Out War Miniatures Games, Reggie did mysteriously get infected and turn into a walker during this period. He’d eventually find his way to Rick’s camp outside Atlanta when the sheriff reunited with his family. In this issue, Rick, Lori, Carl, Shane, Dale and Co. reminisced about the past around a campfire outside an RV as they plotted a course for the future. However, when Andrea’s sister, Amy, got up to pee, she was ambushed, and lo and behold, Reggie was the zombie who bit her in the neck.

Shane and Rick would immediately open fire on the accompanying horde that suddenly appeared almost out of nowhere, but it’s Shane who actually blows Reggie’s brains out and not Rick. Ironically, due to the haste of the moment and all these decayed walkers not really having memorable faces, readers didn’t realize Shane robbed Rick of his revenge. They, themselves, didn’t know this was the culprit who shot Rick and left him comatose.

It’s a nice way to have the games retcon this attack, making it more meaningful especially as Andrea would have to kill Amy to ensure she didn’t turn too. Thus, Reggie was the first real villain of the story without anyone knowing the truth as we thought he was a random zombie looking for a meal.