Characters / The Walking Dead Comic Woodbury

Characters from Woodbury in the comic series The Walking Dead:

Woodbury is a small town of survivors who constructed a barricade around their community using scrape metal and vehicles. Originally led by a group of brutal soldiers, they were overthrown by Philip Blake, who became known as the Governor. While appearing to be a benevolent leader, The Governor and his men are manipulative and murderous, keeping dissenters in the town in line through fear and lies.

Leadership

The Governor

The Governor aka Philip Blake aka Brian Blake

Debut: Issue 27

The Governor is the insane leader of Woodbury. He preys on any survivors unlucky enough to get near the town, taking all of their supplies before killing and feeding the lucky ones to zombies in the arena or to his undead daughter. The unlucky ones he tortures and/or rapes first.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Has a vaguely Hispanic complexion despite having the name Philip Blake.
  • Confirmed in the novels to be Mexican and Irish.
• Arch-Enemy: He seems to view Michonne as one. When she bites off his ear for amputating Rick's hand, he holds her captive and rapes her repeatedly. When she tortures him in retaliation for that, he plans an attack on her group. When he beheads Tyreese, she holds him at gunpoint and would have gladly given him a Boom, Headshot! if his men hadn't interfered.
• Asshole Victim: Michonne's Cold-Blooded Torture of him is undeniably brutal, but it's hard to feel much sympathy for the guy who spent days raping her after amputating Rick's right hand. In Volume 8, when Lori's shooter, a soldier named Lilly, realizes the fleeing woman was a mother trying to protect her child, she lashes out at the Governor and shoots him in the back of the head and kicks his body into the zombies nearby. He was such a despicable monster that he easily had it coming.
• Ax-Crazy: A very subtle case, but you can tell from the sheer enjoyment and glee he has out of targeting and making other people's lives hell that he has a very broken mind. A lot less subtle when he comes back in "Made to Suffer", though.
• Bad Boss: Not only is he a total Jerkass towards most of his subordinates, he also leads them into a slaughter at the prison with only a small chance of success or even survival.
• Battle Trophy: He likes to take things from any subdued enemies, like Rick's armor and Michonne's katana.
• Becoming the Mask: Has completely assumed his brother Philip's identity, especially his worst qualities, to the point that Brian Blake effectively no longer exists.
• Big Bad: From Volume 5 to Volume 8.
• Blatant Lies: Everything he tells his people about the group at the prison.
• Boom, Headshot!: By Lilly.
• Bread and Circuses: He keeps his community distracted from the obvious atrocities occuring by constantly staging gladiator fights and keeping them entertained.
• The Caligula: He's a homicidally deranged Sadist cum iron-fisted despot who uses his community to fight small-scale wars rooted in petty vendettas and who murders, rapes, subjugates, and otherwise dominates anybody unfortunate enough to fall under his sway.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He is violently tortured out of revenge by Michonne, whom he spent days raping.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Michonne chops off his right arm from below the elbow with her katana, long after he did the same thing to Rick.
  • Eye Scream: Michonne scoops out his left eye with a spoon that she had shoved somewhere else in his body previously.
  • Fingore: Michonne pulls his fingernails out one-by-one with a pair of pliers.
  • Groin Attack: Michonne nails his penis to a wooden board, and then severs what's left of it with her katana.
  • This Is a Drill: Michonne stabs him in the shoulder with a power drill.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He succeeds Thomas Richards as the main human threat to the protagonists. While Richards was a single man who killed on impulse and proved too weak in a straight fight, the Governor leads his own group and survives a tremendous amount of mental and physical damage.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: The attitude he seems to have.
• Death by Irony: After treating all of his soldiers like crap and manipulating them he finally is killed by one of his soldiers he pushed too far.
• Ear Ache: He gets most of his ear bitten off by Michonne when they first meet.
• Evil Counterpart: To Rick. The Governor is what Rick would be if he allowed the world as it is now to drive him to madness, a power-crazed control freak who hurts others simply for its own sake. Robert Kirkman has even said that he considers them two sides of the same coin. This sticks around even after he’s dead, as whenever Rick strays a bit too close to becoming a Villain Protagonist, such as when he massacres The Hunters, his left eye will be drawn blacked out in a parallel to The Governor’s lost eye.
• Eyepatch of Power: After the Eye Scream mentioned above.
• Faux Affably Evil: Slips into this mode sometimes, mainly around his men. More often than not he's just a straight-up Jerkass. Rick lampshades later when he knocks out Jesus that he is wary of calm and smiling people because it reminds him of the Governor.
• For the Evulz: There's really no reason for the Governor to do the horrific things he does. He just likes having power and wants more of it.
  Glenn: "Why are you doing all this?"
  Governor: "The same reason anybody does anything: to get something I want."
• Greed: Pretty much his M.O, he freely admits all his actions are to just have things because he wants it. There was no reason to kill any the survivors of the downed helicopter nor mutilate Rick and rape Michonne when he could've easily worked with them in building a fortified community. He just did it because he had the power and he wanted more.
• The Generalissimo: While he's not the leader of a third-world nation per se, his Eyepatch of Power and his Glorious Leader persona certainly fit the bill.
• Glorious Leader: He acts as a dictator in his community and has brainwashed most of his citizens into adoring him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set him off.
• Handicapped Badass: Still causes a lot of trouble even after Michonne cuts off his arm and scoops out his eye. Justified as he spent some time relearning how to shoot on zombies and even then he points out he isn't as good as before.
• Hate Sink: The Governor is pretty much a personification of every single evil and cruel quality that a human being can have. It's even written on his character small intro. This is subverted in the novels, as it’s shown his backstory and shows just like any other person in the apocalypse, lost so many people and slowly became a shell of his former self.
• He-Man Woman Hater: And it's really, really creepy.
• Hero Killer: Rick and his group are terrified of him, for good reason. He personally kills Tyreese, Alice, and Hershel and causes the deaths of Axel, Patricia, Billy, Lori and Judith all over a very short period of time.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Governor is way more dangerous and evil than the walkers, as he has done way more damage to Rick's group and the walkers are just mindless carnivores who have literally zero moral agency. The Governor is a sexual predator, torturer, murderer, despot, and child murderer who has no remorse for his actions whatsoever.
• I Have Many Names: Philip, and the Governor. His real name is Brian.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Indulges in this in the worst possible way to Michonne.
• I Love the Dead: French kisses his daughter's zombie. Not every character that can fit incest, pedophilia AND necrophilia into one panel...
• I'm a Humanitarian: Offhandedly admits to trying human flesh to the zombified Penny while wondering aloud how she can eat that stuff.
• It's All About Me: Woodbury is perhaps one of the last real safe havens for the living in all of Georgia, and all he uses it and its denizens for is to sate his own perverse desires, whims, and impulses.
• Jerkass: Even without his murderous and psychotic traits, he's still a grade-A asshole. Dude punches Gabe in the face for no reason at all and scolds his own men for feeling bad about killing kids.
• Karmic Death: Lilly, one of his own soldiers, kills him when she discovers he made her shoot a baby, then kicks him to the oncoming zombies.
• Kick the Dog: As he walks.
  • Amputates Rick's right hand for shits and giggles.
  • Rapes Michonne at least twice, even gloating about it postmortem.
  • Brutally decapitates Tyreese right in front of Rick and his group.
  • Calls Alice a bitch before shooting her in the head.
  • Personally executes Hershel as he grieves over Billy's dead body.
  • Exclaims "what the fuck is your problem?!" and brushes it off as no big deal when two of his own men feel extreme remorse about killing Billy Greene and Judith Grimes, both of whom were kids.
• Made of Iron: The guy suffered multiple injuries and amputations (all in a short span) that could had killed a normal man easily but he survived all of them.
• Manipulative Bastard: Manipulates the people of Woodbury to believing that Rick's group is dangerous and crazy.
• Mask of Sanity: He can appear calm and reasonable to his people when he wants to. 'Tis but an act, however. He stops pretending to be anything remotely resembling 'reasonable' with Rick, Glenn, and Michonne all of ten minutes after meeting them.
• Narcissist: This can literally be his name as the governor has killed many innocent people and didn't even care that there were children in the prison as he even told his soldiers to kill them too, this gets him killed by Lily.
• Parental Incest: He french-kisses his zombified niece at one point. As Michonne speculates, it's also highly likely he's taken it farther than that.
• Pet the Dog: His kind treatment of Bob.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His behavior shows signs of this, having some similarities between a power-hungry schoolyard bully that employs violence both for the sake of it and to keep others in line. His final assault on the prison is fuelled both by a childish delusion of a grandiose final battle between him and Rick as well as a desire for petty revenge.
• The Quisling: In the non-canon Alien Ending, The Governor betrays his own species to be a machine for the zombie-virus-spreading aliens.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He raped Michonne For the Evulz at least twice.
• Revenge Before Reason: It's heavily implied his assault on the prison was less for pragmatic reasons and more petty revenge for his torture at the hands of Michonne. As expected, it gets him and his entire group killed.
• Sadist: Just ask Rick or Michonne. Cruelty is second nature to him, even though it would be much more pragmatic to not torture and dominate other people in the apocalyptic setting.
• Secret Identity: While this never comes up in the comics, the novels reveal that he's actually Philip Blake's older brother Brian, who assumed Philip's identity after his death during a psychotic breakdown.
• Sex Slave:
  • He keeps Michonne tied up in a garage and rapes her repeatedly.
  • Michonne later accuses him of keeping his zombified niece for this purpose as well. It's never confirmed or denied, but the fact that he went as far as to take out her teeth so he could kiss her does not bode well.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Not to the truly ridiculous levels of characters like Negan, but he's very profane. Especially when he's angry.
• Surrounded by Idiots: His opinion during his assault on the prison, none of his men can shoot decently and he has to remind Gabe they aren't shooting with the tank because they don't know how as it took months just to learn how to drive it and only use it to distract walkers and scare people.
• The Sociopath: Sadistic, manipulative, arrogant, and has next to no empathy.
• Stupid Evil: He tries to finish off the assault on the prison by running over the fences with his tank, not noticing or not caring that this will leave it open for the zombies and make it useless for Woodbury even if he could kill everyone inside.
• Villainous Breakdown: When his final assault on the prison is going poorly, he stops caring and ask the tank driver to ram the fence. He also drops any pretense that they are fighting monsters as he yells at his men for feeling bad over shooting at children and women.
• Villainous Friendship: With Bruce. The only time he actually seems upset about something is when Bruce gets shot and killed by Andrea.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Very few people in Woodbury know the full truth about The Governor.
• Wham Line: "Well stranger, we feed them strangers."
• Would Hit a Girl: He rapes Michonne and kills Alice.
• Would Hurt a Child: He leads an assault on the prison knowing full-well children were still living there, which results in the deaths of the teenaged Billy Greene and Lori Grimes' infant daughter Judith.
• You Monster!: Is on the receiving end of this with a Precision F-Strike by Lilly after ordering her to kill a baby.

Lieutenants

Bruce

Bruce Cooper

Debut: Issue 27

Bruce is The Governor's right hand man. He is shot in the neck by Andrea, and The Governor shoots his body's head to spare him from coming back as a zombie.

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• Bald of Evil: He is completely bald and a loyal ally of the Governor.
• Character Death: Andrea shoots him straight through the neck. He lingers for a while until the Governor finds him, and then dies and is put down.
• The Dragon: To the Governor.
• Mercy Kill: The Governor shoots him in the head after he dies to prevent him from reanimating.
• Scary Black Man: He's very intimidating and aggresive.
• Undying Loyalty: Follows the Governor's orders without question.
• Villainous Friendship: With The Governor.

Gabe

Gabe

Debut: Issue 27

Gabe is one of The Governor's most loyal soldiers. Killed by Andrea during the attack on the prison.

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• Boom, Headshot!: By Andrea.
• The Brute: His role before he ends up becoming The Dragon.
• The Dragon: Replaces Bruce after his death.
• Failed a Spot Check: Oh yes he blew Michonne's brains off.
• Fat Bastard: Is very fat and one of the Governor's soldiers.
• Number Two for Brains: In The Governor's opinion, but he actually seems smarter than given credit for.

Martinez

Caesar Martinez

Debut: Issue 27

Caesar is the head of security for Woodbury and a friend of Dr. Stevens. He helps Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Stevens, and Alice escape Woodbury and make it back to the prison. Which he soon leaves, attempting to run back to Woodbury either to bring The Governor's forces to attack or lead the good citizens back. He is killed by Rick to prevent this.

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• A Death In The Lime Light: He gets to explain his backstory and show off his skill at killing walkers shortly before dying
• And Then Martinez Was A Zombie: His zombified self is found by the Governor's men and decapitated. The Governor later uses his zombie head as 'proof' that the Prison group is a threat to Woodbury.
• Ambiguously Evil: Claims to be against The Governor and only intending to bring good Woodbury citizens back to the prison. Whether he was telling the truth or just trying to get Rick to spare him, we'll never know.
• Badass Teacher: He was a gym teacher before the apocalypse.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Is almost always seen wearing his bandana.
• The Big Guy: Subverted. It seems that he's going to grow into this role but he dies before really stepping into this role.
• Car Fu: Ends up on the receiving end.
• Decapitation Presentation: Deliberately invoked - the Governor tells his people that Rick's group killed and decapitated Martinez and left his severed head at the entrance to Woodbury - an elaborate lie to motivate the citizens into attacking the prison.
• Fake Defector: What he really is. Him joining Rick's group was all part of the Governor's plan, though he ends up getting killed by Rick before he can report information back to Woodbury.
• False Friend: Was working for the Governor all along.
• Heel–Face Turn: He turns against Woodbury and joins Rick's group.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: How Rick claims to have killed him when talking to Abraham. This is odd considering we see Rick strangle him without beating him at all.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Wears sleveless shirts.
• Ineffectual Loner: He apparently was this before arriving at Woodbury.

Woodbury Militia

Lilly

Lilly

Debut: Issue 43

Lilly is a citizen of Woodbury who is forced to take part in the assault on the prison. She kills The Governor after he made her shoot Lori and Judy.

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• Brain Bleach: Has this reaction when she realizes she killed a baby.
• The Dog Bites Back: Killing The Governor.
• Heel–Face Turn: It may have been too late, but at least she put The Governor down.
• My God, What Have I Done?: "YOU MADE ME KILL A FUCKING BABY!"
• Punch-Clock Villain: She doesn't hold any personal animosity towards the prison survivors and is merely trying to defend her home, which she believes to be under attack by them. When she realizes that the fleeing woman she shot was a mother trying to protect her baby she flies into a rage and blows the Governor's brains out.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In just one issue she manages to kill Lori, Judith and even the Governor himself during the end of the battle for the prison.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: On purpose, anyway. When she discovers Judith's carcass after the Governor ordered her to shoot Lori, she goes apeshit and blows the Governor's brains out for making her kill a baby.

Woodbury Arena Gladiators

Harold

Harold

Debut: Issue 28

A fighter in the Woodbury arena who meets Rick in the hospital room after Rick loses his hand. He is killed by Eugene, another fighter who is upset that Harold knocked his teeth out during their last match.—-

• Blood Knight: He seems to enjoy fighting just for the sake of fighting. When his last opponent confronts him about knocking all of his teeth out he initially thinks the guy is just mad that he lost and wants a rematch.
• Crowbar Combatant: His weapon of choice in the arena.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He is the first Woodbury resident to die and gets just once scene before it happens.

Eugene

Eugene

Debut: Issue 28

A fighter in the Woodbury arena who fought against Harold and later on, Michonne. Ultimately, he ends up losing both fights and dies after Michonne decapitates him.

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• Bald of Evil: He is violent and ruthless even for a post-apocolyptic gladiator. He's also completely bald.
• Death by Disfigurement: Gets his teeth knocked out in his debut issue and dies soon after.
• Groin Attack: Suffers one inflicted by Michonne before being finished off during his last fight in the Woodbury arena.
• Off with His Head!: How Michonne kills him during their arena match.
• Would Hit a Girl: He shows no hesitation when Michonne becomes his opponent in the arena and may have even been in on the Governor's plan of beating her up to put on a show for the citizens of Woodbury. Needless to say, things didn't work for out for him.

Woodbury Medics

Alice

Alice

Debut: Issue 29

Alice was a college student studying interior design before the outbreak. She barely escaped her dorm room after it was set up as a safe haven. After arriving in Woodbury, she was made to become Dr. Stevens' assistant, and defected along with him to Rick's group at the prison. She is executed personally by The Governor during the attack on the prison.

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• Action Survivor: Despite having no training, she quickly becomes an excellent shot. During the Woodbury attack on the prison, she manages to kill several attackers before being kneecapped and killed.
• Boom, Headshot!: How the Governor kills her.
• Defiant to the End: Still continues shooting Woodbury soldiers even after getting wounded. The Governor has to finish her off with a shot to the head.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's quite snarky.
• Dressed to Heal: Wears a stereotypical doctor's outift for most of her screentime.
• Heel–Face Turn: Turns against the Governor and joins Rick's group.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She covers Rick and his family as they tried to flee the prison, killing several Woodbury soldiers even after getting wounded.
• Instant Expert: Went from an interior designer to a qualified medic in a matter of months. She just calls it paying attention.
• The Medic: Studies medicine under Dr. Stevens, and becomes the medic the prison community after joining them.
• Nice Girl: She's very compassionate and friendly.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Calls them "biters", and finds Rick's group practice of dividing them into "roamers" and "lurkers" silly.

• Sole Surviving Scientist: She's not a trained scientist, but she is the only person to make a dedicated, intelligent go at trying to study the walkers out of the hope of finding clues to prevent their reanimation.

Dr. Stevens

Doctor Stevens

Debut: Issue 28

Stevens is the doctor of Woodbury, who only reluctantly treats The Governor and his men because they keep the civilians safe. He attempts to escape the town alongside Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Alice, and Caesar, but is bitten by a zombie outside of the walls.

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• Dressed to Heal: Which makes sense, as he is the doctor for Woodbury.
• Face Death with Dignity: Calmly accepts his fate after being bitten.
• Heel–Face Turn: Turns against the Governor and escapes Woodbury with Rick's group.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: He gets bitten on his way out of town.
• Mauve Shirt: He doesn't last too long.
• Non-Action Guy: He's a skilled doctor, but not a fighter. Naturally, he ends up getting mauled by a zombie the minute he steps out of the safety of the town.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He only works for the Governor because Woodbury needs a doctor and him and Alice are the only ones in the settlement with extensive medical knowledge..
• Tempting Fate: He gets fatally bitten mere seconds after saying how easy their escape was.

Bob

Bob Stookey

Debut: Issue 29

A washed up old man who used to be an army medic. He has a fairly small role, but it ultimately leaves a massive impact that changes the comic forever.

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• Back-Alley Doctor: He is an alcoholic who had a passing medical lessons a while ago, Alice had to assist the Dr. Stevens because he didn't want and knew he was trash at it. He is used as a last resort when both medics are out and the Governor is maimed by Michonne, unfortunately for Rick's group he didn't have to do much since Michonne was careful about not killing him during the torture and miss the artery.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Appears very briefly in Issue 29, getting told to eat more food by the Governor. In Issue 43, he is called in to save the Governor after he was tortured by Michonne.
• Hidden Depths: This poor old man is a former Army Medic.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Quite possibly the most massive one in the entire series. When the Governor is mutilated by Michonne he is called in by Bruce and Gabe since he is the only one who has a chance of saving him. Despite his initial protests he is convinced to perform the surgery and manages to successfully tend to all of the Governor's wounds and prevents him from dying of blood loss or infection. This directly leads to the Governor regaining enough strength to storm the prison with his militia and wipe out half of the main cast.
• Non-Action Guy: Despite being in the army once Bob is just an alcoholic who spends his days wallowing in self pity and is one of the few Woodbury residents who doesn't take part in the attack on the prison.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He could very well be the poster boy for this trope. See above for details.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The last time we see him is when the Governor asks him to stay in Woodbury and watch over Penny while he and the other residents begin their attack on the prison. Given how that went, he might be one of the only residents left alive in the entire town.

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