Martinez

Origin

Before the madness, Martinez was a gym teacher. When the zombies appear, Martinez escapes to Woodbury and tries to be a mentor to the youth. He keeps their minds occupied with basketball. The zombies soon take over much of the town and Martinez helps to fortify Woodbury. Visions of the youth being ripped into constantly fill his mind.

Creation

Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Charlie Adlard.

Major Story Arcs

When Rick, Glenn, and Michonne stumble upon Woodbury, Martinez is the guard in charge. After killing some zombies, Martinez takes the trio’s weapons and arranges to have them meet the Governor. The Governor, however, takes the initiative and comes out himself to take the new arrivals off Martinez’s hands.

After a time, the Governor calls Martinez off the wall. He’d like Martinez to settle the town’s doctor down since the two are friends. Martinez then sees Rick again and is shocked that Rick’s right hand is missing. Rick loses his cool and blames Martinez since he handed him over to the Governor. Dr. Stevens breaks the two up and Martinez asks if the doctor is happy, attempting to calm any thoughts of rebellion.

Oddly enough, Martinez appears to be the one rebelling. He storms into Rick's hospital room later and tells him to get ready to escape. Enlisting Glenn's help, Martinez has prepared an escape route. Alice, Dr. Steven's assistant asks if she can tag along and the four move on to break Michonne out. Martinez catches Michonne's guard Gabe unaware and knocks the man out. After freeing Michonne, Martinez runs into Dr. Stevens, whom he talks into escaping with the group. Approaching an outer wall, Martinez fools a guard into thinking that he's being let off duty early. With the last Woodbury defense gone, the group climbs over the fence.

The group finds Rick's abandoned car and Martinez helps get it unstuck from the mud. Upon approaching the prison, the group sees it's overrun with zombies. Martinez puts in a good effort as the group fights their way back into the prison. Once the zombies have been cleared out, Martinez helps out by hauling the bodies to be burned. After this, however, he goes missing. Rick suspects the worst and hops in the RV to pursue. Sure enough, Rick finds Martinez running back to Woodbury. Martinez is run over by the RV. He protests to Rick that he is going to bring the good people of Woodbury back since the prison has so much room. Regardless of whether his motives are pure or not, Rick strangles him.

His body left where Rick hit it, the Governor's men find Martinez. Zombified, the men cut off his head to act as propaganda. The Governor lies to his people that Martinez was slaughtered by the people in the prison and left the body at Woodbury's door. This incites a mentality for revenge against Rick's group.