You just can’t have Negan in The Walking Dead without his signature Lucille. The barbed-wire baseball bat is iconic in the comics, and Robert Kirkman has finally revealed who was the first person to get their skulls bashed in by Negan.
Before we reveal Negan’s first victim in Part 14 of Image+ ’s backstory (via ComicBook.com), let’s recap what we already know about the guy. The first person Negan saw turn into a walker was his wife, Lucille. She died in the hospital from her illness, with Negan at her bedside. He wasn’t the one to put her walker form down. There was a boy in the hospital who did it for him; that unnamed boy died shortly after they left the hospital.
Pre-zombie apocalypse, Negan was an asshole. He worked as a salesman and a school coach. He would relentlessly tease the boys he coached to “toughen them up.” He was also having an affair before he learned of Lucille’s illness. Once Lucille was sick, Negan immediately ended the affair and asked for his wife’s forgiveness. From that point on, he remained loyal to Lucille until the end.
Fast-forward to several months into the zombie apocalypse. Negan has lost many people, but gained followers, which include Dwight and his wife Sherry. Negan hasn’t lost faith in humanity just yet. He doesn’t go around killing people to frighten others into joining his cause. He’s still an asshole, but he’s still tries to do the right thing.
Well, in Part 14 of Negan’s backstory, we see why he decides his baseball bat Lucille should be used on people. Negan’s encounters a bad group of people during his travels. The leader of this group, a man, offers Negan a peace treaty. This man says Negan can rape all the women in his group if it pleases him.
"Whatever you guys were doing here, it stops now," Negan responds. "Or this is where we part ways.”
Despite being a terrible person, Negan does have his own twisted sense of morality. He has no tolerance for men who rape women, even if it’s one of his own followers. In The Walking Dead comics, one of Negan’s Saviors tries to rape Holly, a hostage from Alexandria. Negan walks in on the Savior before he could do so. Negan asks the Savior to recite the rules of the Sanctuary. Before man could finish his sentence, Negan kills him on the spot. He yells, “We don’t rape.”
This coming from a man who makes suggestive comments about his baseball bat. Yeah, Negan’s one sick man.
Anyway, Negan pulls out Lucille and bashes the man’s head to pieces in Part 14. Negan can’t stand men who hurt women. He won’t even have sex with his own wives unless they allow him to, which they probably do out of fear, so it’s not really consent.
It’s interesting to see Negan pre-Saviors. You see people question his decisions, but ultimately believe Negan is in the right. It’s probably why Rick kept Negan around instead of killing him after The Walking Dead ’s All Out War storyline. Negan has a vision of what the world can be; he just needs a little guidance from the right people.
