Sweet Tooth – The Return #1: Trapped in God’s Shadow

Confession time: I only read the first few issues of Sweet Tooth when if first launched on the now-defunct Vertigo imprint. It wasn’t that it wasn’t good; it was more an economical decision (so many comics, so few dollars!). When Sweet Tooth – The Return was announced– coupled with the recent announcement that the proposed show has moved from Hulu to Netflix and an 8-episode season has been ordered– I was intrigued. I was not let down.

The premise of this 6-issue mini-series is that the rural, post-apocalyptic of the original series is being tweaked and reworked into something familiar yet new. This first issue hits many of the broad strokes of the original series, although the ominous “300 Years Later” of the opening page does create suspicion of this not actually being Gus but a possible descendent. Time will tell but the reality is, given the structure of the narrative, I found the read to be incredibly enjoyable despite only knowing a very basic idea of what the original series was about. Creating a stand-alone sequel is no small feat but Lemire does so here with great grace.

There’s always something a little bit unnerving and spooky in Lemire’s writing. His descriptors always seem to paint the perfect picture but that picture is often of something slightly (or very much so) supernatural and eerie. When you couple that skillset with art also provided by Lemire here, that one-two punch combo is incredibly effective at setting an unsettling tone in the work. Add in the gorgeous color work of Villarubia and letters by one of my favorite letterers in Steve Wands (although sadly replacing another Comic Watch favorite letter in Pat Brosseau) and you’ve got the makings of an incredible new mini-series from a brilliant creative team.