It would be difficult for me to disagree more strongly.
Carl killing Shane was a shocking moment in the comics because it was a notice that Things Had Changed and that Rick had to come to terms with it in the same way his kid had. But in the comics, Shane was the most minor of minor characters; he got very few lines and his entire existence was in the service of having Carl shoot him. In the end, Shane was just mysteriously, irrationally, jealously nuts and no one really knew until they knew.
The TV show’s Shane was very different – a major character with a deep back-story and fairly complex motivations that, yes, included jealousy. More than just a placeholder for an eventual epiphany by Rick, the show’s Shane was a worthwhile philosophical and behavioral counterpoint to Rick’s way of doing things. When he eventually died, it served a far better purpose, and with more weight, than just showing Rick that humans were as dangerous as the undead.
And as for an “innocence lost” moment for Carl, I’ll take watching his mother being disemboweled in front of him and having to finish the job himself over shooting a barely-there foster father any day. Rick’s having to look into Carl’s eyes and know that he had mercy-killed his mother was better than the comic equivalent too. By a long shot.
Lori and the baby dying in one frame… eh, I’ll grant that that panel was a powerful way for Kirkman to show that no character was safe from an arbitrary and meaningless death. But again, I’ll take Lori’s meaningful and consequential death in the show over the “oh, I guess she’s dead now” shot in the comics.
I’d also point out that there is plenty of opportunity to kill off the newborn without straying from the comic’s timeline. Although I can’t imagine that they’ll waste the baby like that: we haven’t gotten the requisite scene where someone (probably Maggie) has to choose between smothering the baby to keep it quiet or taking the chance at alerting wandering zombies to her hiding place. That almost MUST happen.
But back to the subject at hand. There are only two scenes from the comic that I think are so very graphic that the alternative TV show scene was tame by comparison:
The scenes
Michonne being raped by the Governor and his cronies while Glenn had to listen. Maggie’s “fake rape” alternative was tension-filled, but it wasn’t nearly as brutal or shocking, and it took away the impetus for Michonne’s deep-set hatred for the Governor.
Dale’s legs being eaten by cannibals. I guess there is still time for this to happen to some other random character, but it obviously won’t be Dale. [though as an aside, I would not weep if they decided to forgo that little story, which I thought was pretty brain-dead]
Personally, I find the show’s characters to be far, far more interesting that Kirkman’s graphic novel creations. I liked TWD comic for quite a while, but after they left the prison it took a dramatic fall, in all senses of the term.
