Tobar said:
I do find the token black guy situation on the show pretty hilarious. T-Dog made it all the way through three seasons and then was promptly replaced by the new black prisoner dude. Who was then promptly removed to make room for the new black guy with the family. (Who is supposed to be the guy they find on the side of the road with his family in the comics right?) It's as if they're not allowed to have more than one major black male character at a time. =P
Yeah, that is Tyreese, the guy they found on the side of the road early on in the comics along with his daughter and her boyfriend. He was such a strong supporting character in the comics, I was surprised they didn't introduce him earlier on. They're introducing him really close to his exit point in the comics, hope they keep him interesting and have him stick around a while. Daryl has kind of taken his place as Rick's right hand guy, but those two don't really have the relationship Rick and Tyreese had. Ah, that is another example of how good the writing and story telling is in the comics! How Tyreese sees Rick becoming this darker ends justify the means character and totally calls him out on it after watching him murder Dexter. That kind of character depth is totally absent from the tv show. I feel like the tv show is really watered down appeal to a wider audience.
Actually, I've always felt it kind of disappointing that you have this comic series that had a few really strong and useful African American characters, and the tv series sunk to the level of having the useless token black character in the background doing pretty much nothing. It is nice to see Tyreese and Michonne on the show now, I hope they get to play the roles they deserve.