Alpha (The Walking Dead)

"I've seen how you live. I've walked your streets. It's a joke. Life is blood and pain and sacrifice. You think you have accomplished so much, but I look around at what you've done... and I see children playing a game of make believe. You've built a shrine to a long dead world. We are animals who always pretended we are not. You work and toil towards restoring a life where you exercise so you can sit in a chair and let a box lie to you until all your thoughts are gone. My people? The Whisperers... our lives are true. We live the full lives we were always meant to. You strive to return to a life as slaves to our pretty desires... instead of recognizing the gift this world has to offer. The gift of freedom."

- Alpha's Ideology

Alpha is a fictional character and central antagonist in The Walking Dead comic series, the leader of the Whisperers, and the mother of Lydia. She makes her first appearance in Issue 132 holding Dante at gunpoint. She serves as the main antagonist from Volume 22: A New Beginning to Volume 26: Call to Arms.

History
Alpha personally captures Dante and Ken and take them to the Whisperers' camp. Despite the capture however, Dante says that Alpha and her group haven't harmed them in any way.

Alpha shows up later at the Hilltop Colony and demands her daughter back in exchange for Ken and Dante. Carl goes after them and gets captured. Rick, Andrea, Michonne and Dante search for Carl on horseback, but Rick gets captured by the Whisperers. Alpha is then seen holding Rick at gunpoint on top of a building showing him a massive herd.

While under her capture, Alpha talks with Rick: criticizing his way of life. She says that he is delusional, and that her way of life is the correct one in the new world. Carl confronts her: bringing up how she lets her daughter Lydia get raped. Alpha defends the rape of her daughter as a part of the natural order. After a fight with Lydia, Rick tells Alpha that he can keep her safe, and so Alpha banishes Lydia. Letting Rick go: she informs him that she marked the border between his group and the whisperers. The border she mentioned consists of nine heads of Rick's allies and friends, absolutely horrifying Rick.

Later on, Alpha meets Negan and allows him into The Whisperers, and she is impressed by his strength and survival skills. However, after Negan sees a female Whisperer about to be raped by two male Whisperers, Negan stops it and argues with Alpha, telling her that allowing rape within her group is vile, inhumane and uncivilised. Alpha is decapitated by Negan, who then takes her zombified her to Rick in order to prove to Rick that he wants to help the joint communities in defeating The Whisperers.

Issue Appearances
{{scroll
 * content =

Volume 22: A New Beginning

 * Issue 132

Volume 23: Whispers Into Screams

 * Issue 133
 * Issue 138

Volume 24: Life And Death

 * Issue 139
 * Issue 140
 * Issue 142
 * Issue 143
 * Issue 144

Volume 25: No Turning Back

 * Issue 148

Volume 26: Call To Arms

 * Issue 154
 * Issue 155
 * Issue 156

Volume 27: The Whisperer War

 * Issue 157 (Zombified)
 * }}

Television
Alpha will debut in season 9 of The Walking Dead, and will be portrayed by Samantha Morton.

Trivia

 * Alpha is the first antagonist to be the literal opposite of Rick: both are leaders of their community, both have children who don't see eye to eye with their parents (and both are in a relationship with each other); but whereas Rick is trying to build a society and bring humanity back, Alpha is trying to return humanity to its natural order and embrace a primal lifestyle.
 * Alpha is the first main female antagonist in the comics.
 * She is also the third major recurring antagonist in the comics, the first being The Governor and the second being Negan.
 * She is also the first major recurring antagonist to be killed by another major antagonist.
 * She is also the first major recurring antagonist to be zombified in the comics.
 * She also has the second longest lifespan of any of the three major antagonists.
 * Also, each of the three major antagonists has a different status: Alpha is undead, Negan is alive, and The Governor is dead.