"Sweet Tooth" Comic Review: Childhood Faith and Man's Demons

Publisher: Vertigo (DC)

First Issue: September 2, 2009

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Netflix's next comic book adaptation comes in the form of “Sweet Tooth,” a series set to debut June 4, 2021 on the streaming service. After seeing the initial promo images (not the trailer), I looked into the comic series (which debuted in 2009) to find that it was only 40 issues long, so I took a page out of the pretentious reader's bible and binged through the book before the series debuted. Luckily, it was not a difficult read, which is something I am really starting to discover I can apply to many non-Marvel/DC series as I branch out more and more from my mainstream comic comfort zone. At its core, “Sweet Tooth” is a reflection on mankind's toxic relationship with the world and the need for getting back to the roots of a simple life. On the surface, “Sweet Tooth” is about the journey of a young animal-hybrid boy named Gus, as his innocent upbringing is challenged by the realities of a post-apocalyptic planet and he discovers his purpose in such a world.

There were two things that really stood out to me right off the bat when starting Issue #1: the art style and the dialogue. Lemire's art on the series (who did the art for all but one story arc) is one step up from rough sketching, maintaining a harsh line work more akin to newspaper comic strips like Doonesbury than a mainstream book. The coloring for the panels had a sense of being painted in watercolor with a washed out feel to the colors and the way different color hues would flow in shaded areas. For someone who is used to a more heavily processed art style with inky blacks and stark coloring, it felt like a cheap knockoff comic at first. As I continued reading, though, it was the right choice to have such a “light” art style for a story centered around a child. The dialogue has a slight sense of uneducated, backwoods farm people for a lot of characters, albeit a number of them are animal-human hybrids. It was a bit difficult to read with my mind adjusting everything to encapsulate a more proper English. It very much fit Gus's character, as well as a few others, but considering the religious topics addressed in the story, I could not help but feel as though it was mocking the country bumpkin Bible thumpers. It was not a bother, just an odd thing to read at times as I had to slow down to make sure I got the words as they were written.

Lemire does a good job at establishing the type of world we are navigating, demonstrating humanity's shift and differing opinions towards the hybrids after a sickness eliminates most of the population. He does this by dedicating almost entire issues to the backstories of side characters, which offers us glimpses of the world during the transition from pre- to post-illness. The plot was well divided into a few arcs, with each moving Gus's journey from his cabin in the woods through the post-apocalyptic world to Alaska, where he ultimately discovers his origins. The bulk of his journey includes being accompanied by Tommy Jepperd (the Big Man) who initially saves Gus from being killed by anti-hybrid hunters, as they navigate three primary antagonists: a manipulative asshole with a great safehold, a hybrid-focused cult, and a militia group intent on killing all hybrids. The pair of characters takes a very complicated road towards understanding each others' nature and slightly adopting aspects of each other to survive. I can not say that the story does this relationship better than other similarly structured father-child/adopted child stories (The Road, Last of Us, hell, even Zombieland), but it does it well. This relationship serves as the balance of the story and helps keep it from straddling to far out of focus of the characters.

While the characters' development, specifically Gus, Jepperd and the other hybrids, is what the story is ultimately hoping to build, the plot is propelled forward by a mystery. The mystery of the illnesses origin and how Gus, who appears to have been born differently of other hybrids, is what pulls the characters on their journeys. There is an explicitly religious idea that surrounds the hybrids and turns out to be a bit more than just conjecture. As non-religious as I am, the spiritual journeys become a further way of leaning into the idea of getting back to humanity's roots and holding onto a childhood innocence, thus allowing for more open-minded perspectives of the world. It was a necessary part of the story, even though it ended in a somewhat disappointing revelation. For a story that wants you to focus on characterizations and emotions over the mystery, it creates one that leaves you wanting an unexpected conclusion.

Nevertheless, it was a good story that had a lot of balance between characters. From the redemption-seeking man warped by violence to the scientist who opened his mind to faith to the innocent child learning to accept his place in the world, . Something I really liked is how none of the storytelling felt wasted and, in the end, served a greater purpose to the story. For example, there is an arc that is set in the early 1900's that I thought was such an unnecessary addition, but the way it wrapped back around into the conclusion was pretty satisfying. Lemire isn't overly gratuitous with violence, but does not shy away from using images of blood and death when the story calls for it. I also appreciated that it had a clear conclusion to the story and was not left with requiring too much interpretation, with the final, double-sized issue showing the future of our characters. Well, those that were left at least.

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RATING: 🦌🦌🦌.5 / 5