While it’s entirely possible that comic mastermind Robert Kirkman purposefully limited Lucille’s presence in the comic book so that he readers could keep that emotional distance intact, it’s been clear for a while that Angela Kang’s creative team wanted to allow Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan a more earnest attempt at redemption and compassion.
All without losing any of the elements that made him such a fascinating beast to watch in the first place.
(Even if part of that redemption involved him banging Alpha, and it’s now weirdly awesome to think about the connection between her and Lucille’s bald heads.)
One of the bigger challenges inherent in telling The Walking Dead’s ongoing tale, both on TV and in the comics, is convincingly turning Negan from a vulgar, despicable and unforgivable monster back into an actual human being.