Comic Info
Comic Name: Sweet Tooth
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Jeff Lemire
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2013
Sweet Tooth #35
Reprints Sweet Tooth #33-40 (July 2012-February 2013). The truth is revealed. Gus and the hybrids could be the future of Earth, and Abbot is not going to allow that to happen. Jepperd is taking a final stand with Becky, Jimmy, Gus, and Dr. Singh in Anchor Bay, Alaska and not everyone will survive. The fate of Gus and his kind hang in the balance and the “Big Man” might be his savior or destruction.
Written and illustrated by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth Volume 6: Wild Game is the final volume of the series. Following Sweet Tooth Volume 5: Unnatural Habitats, the critically acclaimed series wraps up with four stand-alone issues and the four issue “Wild Game”. The issues collected in this volume are also scheduled to be part of the Sweet Tooth: The Deluxe Edition—Book 3
I love series with a set, planned arc. It is often frustrating as a comic book reader to read superhero books and know that you’ll never know what happens to the characters that were “born” before you were and will “die” (or not) long after you are gone. With finite comic book series you get resolution, and Sweet Tooth is one of the best.
The series does a good job answering the questions readers have asked through the course of the story. It tells where Gus came from, and it also doesn’t shy away from the idea that this is a monumental shift in society from humans to hybrids. I have a hard time reading this in that it is an ending for “our” society but also positive for a new, promising world.
Sweet Tooth #39
The series sometimes felt derivative despite being enjoyable and fresh. It evoked a lot of Y: The Last Man and The Walking Dead with each issue. The series ends in a very similar way to Y: The Last Man, but it also has a very epic feel to it. I was reminded of the ending of Watership Down and Six Feet Under while reading the final issue…it was a good payoff to the readers instead of being a letdown.
Lemire’s style and art is also one of those things that grows on you. The ending gets pretty bloody and Lemire has both a simple and stylized look at the violence that leaves you sometimes shocked. I particularly like his work on the last issue showing the passing of time with flashbacks of how it came to be.
Sweet Tooth turned into a nice treat. Lemire has demonstrated some great writing and art and Sweet Tooth showed what he could do in a long-term writing situation. The series did a great job (though often at a rather slow pace) at progressing and developing the characters and plot. It was sad to see Sweet Tooth go, but to all good things an end. A spin-off/relaunch of the series Sweet Tooth: The Return was released in 2020.
Related Links:
Sweet Tooth 1: Out of the Deep Woods
Sweet Tooth 4: Endangered Species
