Sweet Tooth #27 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Matt Kindt (art and colors), Carlos M. Mangual (letters) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The possible origin of the plague that is affecting the “current” Sweet Tooth universe is revealed.

Five things: 

1. An interesting and unique “origin”.  Sweet Tooth is an apocalypse story just like The Walking Dead, The Stand, Mad Max, I am Legend, The Road or countless other stories.  However, even though it explores the same survival themes as other apocalypse fiction, there has always been something obviously different about Sweet Tooth.  Usually in these types of works, the cause of the apocalypse is pretty obvious: nuclear war, disease, comet hitting the Earth, alien invasion, etc.  But, Sweet Tooth clearly has something else going on due to all of these kids who are animal hybrids.  I mean, maybe in the 50’s people would have believed that the evils of RADIATION would cause deer/human hybrids, but that wouldn’t fly as an explanation in 2011.  In Sweet Tooth, it’s never been clear what caused the kids to look this way and recently the search for the cause of the apocalypse has taken on greater importance than the survival.

2. Not sure I personally love the explanation.  This bullet point is going to have SPOILERS, so skip it if you don’t want to know what happens!  This issue’s story centers around actions that took place in northern Alaska over 100 years ago where they show a man of European descent living among the Native Americans.  He finds a cave that is full of all these caskets with each casket having the image of an animal on it.  Notably, the images are all of hybrid kids we’ve seen in the pages of Sweet Tooth (which was an Oh Crap! moment).  When he opens the casket, and sees a deer-boy skeleton, he supposedly disturbs the Deer God who then somehow returns to Earth as an deer-boy just like Gus (in the current comic).  I’m just not sure I love this “angry gods” revelation because it’s just too metaphysical for me personally.  I like my apocalypses to be about a cause I can understand (like nuclear war or disease) or to be left unsaid (zombies).  Some fans will eat this up, but I’m just not a fan of the metaphysical and spiritual finding their way into my comics.

3. Moody Matt Kindt art.  In some ways, I’m kinda surprised that Lemire chose this story arc to bring in the guest artist.  On one hand, it is set in a different time, so it isn’t as jarring to the eye as having another artist draw Gus and Jepperd.  But, this is also the origin of his entire story.  Oh well, to each their own…  Having said that, Kindt does a wonderful job.  I’ve always loved his soft water-colored look in OGNs like Three Story, Super Spy or The Tooth, and he doesn’t disappoint here.  There’s just something about his art that is able to convey sorrow so effectively.  Another way to think of this is, “What other guest artists could Lemire have tapped and gotten this effect?” and I really can’t think of many.  Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon probably could have done it pretty well, but I can think of a whole heap of “acclaimed” artists who wouldn’t have been able to get the tone that Kindt nails here.

Dean’s Top Picks

Best Of The Past Week: Wolverine and the X-Men #1 – This was a really strong week for Marvel as either Amazing Spider-Man #672 or Secret Avengers #18 could have been the pick here.  But, in the end, it was impossible to resist the great job that Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo did on this kick-off issue for a new era for the X-Men.  Anyone who reads WCBR knows that Bachalo is one of my favorite artists, so it’s not surprising that the lovely detailed and fun art was a high point of the issue.  Then you combine that with the fun story that Aaron weaves as Logan and Kitty have to get the new school approved by the New York State Board of Education and you have a really fun issue.  I know a lot of people associate Jason Aaron only with Scalped, but the dude is really funny in a dry and black sort of way.  He’s shown that humor on PunisherMax and Wolverine, but from the jabber online, I get the impression a lot of folks just expect grit from him.  And I loved the back matter that included a course catalog for the new mutant academy.  Trust me….this will be awesome.

Most Anticipated This Week: Uncanny X-Men #1 – It isn’t too imaginative given the pick above, but this should also be a harbinger of what’s to come.  Wolverine and the X-Men was fun, and…..it should be fun since it’s basically set at a high school.  Uncanny X-Men is the “Cyclops book”, so that means it is a serious “NO FUN” zone.  Hopefully Kieron Gillen is up the task of giving us a good story since he may not be able to resort to much humor.  A little concerned about the Carlos Pacheco art since I haven’t liked anything he’s done in a long time.  Still…..Uncanny is what got me started in comics, so it has to be the pick here.

Other Picks: American Vampire #20, Swamp Thing #3, Animal Man #3, Sweet Tooth #27, Giant-Size Elephantmen #1, Hack/Slash #9, Witch Doctor #4, Infinite Vacation #3, Amazing Spider-Man #673, Avengers Academy #21, Six Guns #1